“I want every child in this country to head back to school in the fall knowing that education is America’s priority.” President Barak Obama
I don’t know about you but when I go to a doctor, an accountant, or a lawyer I want to go to the most experienced professional I can find. I want someone who has had the experiential base of knowledge that only time can provide.
But now I hear that a number of governors have decided that what education needs are the new, least experienced people in the classroom. We already know that the least trained, least experienced classroom teachers are teaching those with the highest need ““ economically poor, minority students with disastrous results. But now the governors of Ohio, Wisconsin, Nebraska and New Jersey want to get rid of tenure so that they can hire “newly minted “people coming into education. While it is true that these young people bring certain skills like the use of technology with them, good teaching comes with years of experience. Teachers frequently learn on the job what works and what doesn’t work in classrooms.
Could it be that “newly minted” educators get paid less than experienced educators and that these governors see a way to balance their budgets on the back of educators?