Public education's enemy number one Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, has prefiled a bill which would require teachers to be tested every five years.
HB 1476, is co-sponsored by five representatives, including Bryan Stevenson, R-Webb City.
The bill was one of three prefiled by Ms. Cunningham, head of the House Education Committee and an outspoken critic of public education.
HB 1477, inappropriately described as establishing a "teachers' bill of right. What it actually tries to do is control any money that goes to teacher organizations and lessen their influence in the state. The bill's 11 co-sponsors include Stevenson and Marilyn Ruestman, R-Joplin.
Ms. Ruestman and Stevenson also co-sponsored Ms. Cunningham's other pre-filed education bill, HB 1480, which strips the Missouri State High School Activities Association of its power and puts it under the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to be controlled by the State Board of Education.
Good!! It's about time we started making teachers more accountable.
ReplyDeletewow. testing teachers is a great idea. All other people have to be competent to do any other job, so why not make teachers show that they know what the are doing too? it's been so long that government employees have had job security based on nothing more than being government employees. Holding teachers accountable to the taxpayers who pay their salaries is a wonderful idea. I hope the bill passes. The governor will sign it if it does.
ReplyDeleteYou won't catch me arguing that teachers should not be tested before they are placed in the classroom...and that is already being done without Mrs. Cunningham's bill, which makes it sound as if there is some dire emergency is going on in Missouri education, Teachers not only have to pass national exams in order to be certified in the state, but they must also receive continuing education, just as is the practice in other professions. They are also required to be proficient in the subject matter which they are teaching. If Mrs. Cunningham's bill was directed at those who do not have proper certification or who have not passed such tests, I have no problem with it, but this is simply another way for her to continue her voucher-driven agenda by making it appear as if Missouri's school systems are filled with unqualified teachers. They exist, no doubt about it, but all this bill does add to the work qualified teachers are already doing, and add another layer of bureaucracy that would be required to keep track of these requirements.
ReplyDeleteI am for teacher testing, I am just as strongly against the voucher system.
ReplyDeleteMy son had a second grade teacher that everyone in the community referred to as "Old lady XXXXXX". They all knew she was sorry, she was a constant source of complaints to the school system. Parents had tried for years to get her moved on but she was "tenured". Now how lucky can you get. She finally croaked and education was much better as a result.
I have no problem with job security for everyone, however, this old plowhorse is one of many that should have been retired years and years back.
Now if we could just get legislators and parents held accountable...........
ReplyDeleteGo get 'em Jane.
ReplyDeleteHey anonymous 7:22am - Legislators are held accountable - they are called elections. If they don't get beat then the majority of their constituents have held them accountable and found them worthy of re-election!
The idea that legislators are held accountable is a hallmark of our system, but for all practical purposes, that noble concept is far from the truth. Incumbent legislators are protected by gerrymandered districts, parties that do not encourage primary races against incumbents, no matter how incompetent, the opposition party in either Republican or Democratic stronghold who rarely field a challenger to most incumbents, and an election system that relies on contributions, much of it from special interests and lobbyists. Very seldom are legislators held accountable
ReplyDeleteAnothere sounds good, but bad in practice solution.
ReplyDeleteAnother standardized test woohoo .. So teachers can go home from teaching the test and study from their own one size fits all test for teachers.
Anyone considered paying new teachers so we can attract more people into the field? When you consider the length of a teachers day and their pay rate the profession isn't as great as it sounds.
Jane is a one trick pony - unless she keeps beating this dead horse(vouchers by any other means), she wont get any lobbyist money to run again.
What happens to the "not good enough to get into private schools" kids left when the good kids are all gone and the money is gone as well. These are the kids that take the most resources to educate to begin with.
Vouchers are a republican scheme to undermine democratic support - it REALLY isnt about helping children.
If you want to drive all the teachers with 5 years or more of experience out of Missouri to other states that pay more and show some respect to their teachers, Ms. Cunningham's plan is the way to go.
ReplyDeleteIf not, then it's a stupid bill.
Legislators are held accountable to some degree. They take the position knowing that their every move is going to be criticized by the opposition and many times they are unseated although it is dificult. I know that Turner likes to ignore these facts and he certainly would know a lot about inept educators since is the model for what is wrong with public education.
ReplyDeleteTo add to the last comment, the idea or "tenured teachers" is the single most damaging thing to public education. Tenured teachers that quit teaching once they are protected by tenure damage more students in the classroom on a daily basis across this nation.
ReplyDeletetesting teachers is not the solution.teacher evaluations need to be performed regulary and correctly. we have too many principals letting mediocre teachers slide. administratiors need to set the tone for the school and hold all teachers to the
ReplyDeletehighest standard possible. if the bar is set high most teachers will respond. i know a lot of teachers and almost all place the students
education above all else.
Several of you probably don't watch Bill Moyer's Journal because you're either too prejudiced to realize that he includes people from both the left and the right in his interviews, but last night's show had an interview which really goes along with this.
ReplyDeleteBasically one of the quotes from the Benjamin Barber interview about consumerism really struck me as having something to say about the Cunningham thing.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12212007/transcript4.html
"BILL MOYERS: Help me understand that. Because so many people will say choice is joy.
BENJAMIN BARBER: And they are right. But the question is what kind of choice? You go to LA today, you can rent or buy 200 different kinds of automobile. And then, in those automobiles, you can sit, no matter which one you're in, for five hours not moving on the freeway system there. The one choice you don't have is genuine, efficient, cheap, accessible, public transportation. There's nothing as a consumer you can do to get it. Because the choice for public--
BILL MOYERS: Yeah.
BENJAMIN BARBER: --transportation is a social choice. A civic choice.
BILL MOYERS: I can't go out and buy a subway--
BENJAMIN BARBER: Exactly. You can't do that. And no choice that's available to you allows you to do that. So many of our choices today are trivial. We feel that we're expanding and enhancing our choice, but the big choices, a green environment, a safe city for our kids, good education, simply, are not available through private consumer choices. That's the problem with vouchers for schools. You know, we think that with vouchers we can all find a good school. But if education itself is going under, and is not supported as a social good, no amount of private choices is going to give any of our kids in public or private schools appropriate education."
Problem is that teachers continue to look for "protections" that you cannot get just anywhere. If the Missouri teachers still want collevtive bargaining I suggest that the state use tenure as a bargaining tool.....give them colevtive bargaining and get rid of tenure. It is why public education continues to be what it is today with Joplin at the forefront....a joke.
ReplyDeleteConsider the possibility of learning to spell.
ReplyDeleteSorry Randy, but I'm tired of all the lazy students and parents of students who refuse to take responsibility for their lack of scholastic success. This "Blame the Teacher" game is getting really old.
There are many lazy parents and students....problem is this isn't news. These types have always been there. Consider the possibliity of educating yourself. My spelling isn't in question. Anyone with any intellignece or power of deduction can distinguish "typos" from misspellings. Guess that leaves you behind. And yes, teachers are to blame. I also agree with an above comment that administrators need to crack down on teachers and stop tenuring average ones. This actually would be the reason Turner was fired from his last teaching job. Enjoy this retread Joplin!
ReplyDeleteA typo is the same thing as misspelling unless the reader has ESP. Enjoy your crutch.
ReplyDeleteAgain you are showing your lack of intelligence....I am just surpsised you are showing it to eveyone. Enjoy your ignorance! Seems that I have gotten under your skin!! hehe
ReplyDelete