comment: >
  
  You mean like investing in the future...
context: Know what's worse than teaching in a dysfunctional environment? Teaching in a dysfunctional environment without adequate training or experience. >
  
  Yup. It takes a lot of training to work with students of all backgrounds. I've had students living in the back of a car, kids whose only meals are the school breakfast and lunch, students who have been abused at home. I've had to make DHS calls with the principal, I've had to make calls to rehab facilities to have kids detox off drugs. The things I've seen are unbelievable. 
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  Yet, Desantis, Stitt, and these other governors seem to think teaching and education is easy, or that kids are easy to manage. Kids are human, with amazingly complex needs and great sapience to boot. They are smart, and they can pick up on the bullshit as well. They know this is not normal, but when bringing in any rando off the street is the standard that gets accepted, they just accept it as adults unwilling to care about them. >
  
  They don’t think that, their supporters in their faux populism and transactionalism do, a la the “I got through K-12, so I clearly know what it’s all about!” type pablum.
  And when you add in apathy, nay hostility, to critical thinking in general, no one should be surprised that this is treated as dogma among the “school choice/parental rights!” groups… >
  
  I was thinking about how many awful words there are always thrown about to people who value intellectual pursuits—nerd, geek, egghead, poindexter, etc.
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  For some reason, our culture really devalues intellectual pursuits and learning. They think it's a bad thing to love to learn and progress.
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  They seem to think things were better "Way back then", as if they way they did things was always so perfect, with no problems of any kind. Yet, their Arcadian time was still dystopian for a host of groups. That's the crazy part to me. How anyone could look back with great fondness, it's beyond me. >
  
  “Way back then” we didn’t have hierarchies…
  And given their thinly veiled prejudices/willingness to direct their hatred as needed (China Virus!) certainly not that part. >
  
  
  Since Florida opened teaching roles to veterans without a bachelor’s degree last August, the initiative has only netted the state 11 new teachers, according to the state’s education department, raising the question of whether lowering standards is an effective solution to the shortages. 
  Department of Education data shows 47 states have reported teacher shortages this school year with the problem being most acute in urban and rural areas. Meanwhile, desperate state legislatures are passing laws making it easier to become a public schoolteacher by lowering or eliminating certain qualifications.  
  The National Council On Teacher Quality told CNN that over the last two years, 23 states have lowered teacher qualification requirements for beginning teachers. That includes lowering or removing assessment tests designed to determine whether teachers have a firm grasp on the subject they will teach and creating emergency teaching certificates to expedite candidates into the classroom without a teaching degree. 
  Arizona, Florida and Oklahoma have created new pathways for people without a bachelor’s degree to teach in classrooms. 
  “Making it easier to become a teacher is an overly broad, short-term solution to staffing challenges that amounts to saying we just need ‘warm bodies’ in classrooms. It’s harmful to students and insulting to the teaching profession,” said Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington, DC, think tank that researches and evaluates teacher quality nationwide.
  
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  I anticipate if the right-wing education fascism continues in states like Florida and Oklahoma, kids will just drop out altogether at greater rates than ever. I wouldn't be surprised. Classes with no teacher in them? What is up with that?
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  Lowering the education standards at large not only leads to more unqualified people who tend to quit earlier than professionals, but it also sends the message to students that no adults really wants to be there for them. It shows kids that America doesn't care about education. In turn, the kids end up saying "Why should I?"
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  Of course lowering the education professional standards wouldn't lead to more teachers in school. It basically shows how education has not a scintilla of value in America.
  Welcome to idiocracy, America! >
  
  In Seminole County Florida, they are talking about moving to in-person virtual classes. That means that one teacher will telecast to another classroom where there is no teacher. Seriously. >
  
  I did this for 4 months last school year when a teacher left and my school didn't find a qualified long term sub or replacement teacher. It was a rotating bevy of teachers from our school covering that room every period, with me running lessons over Zoom to them fromy classroom. 
  No, they didn't pay me more. No, they didn't even thank me for it. 
  Yes, I left that place. >
  
  Sounds like my school. My school didn't have a 6th grade math teacher, a 6th grade English teacher quit on the first 3 days, no 8th grade science teacher, my 8th grade English teacher caught covid and had to be out for 2 months with long symptoms, one 7th grade math teacher was out at the end of the year after being diagnosed with cancer, and then our 6th grade geography teacher quit mid-year. 
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  I was having to teach math for two months, while I was still a SPED teacher. So, I had to do 35 IEPs and grade over 100 papers a week. Imagine the stress levels I had to feel every week doing that. >
  
  Why would anyone want to be a teacher? Low pay, constant demonization, threats of violence. Crazy parents. This is how public education dies. Replaced by private indoctrination. >
  
  That's what there is a teacher exodus happening right now. No one cared to value teachers whatsoever. Ever since I quit, I have found my stress levels go down significantly, and I don't have headaches like I used to. I actually have lost weight as well, and I'm in better shape than ever before. It's incredible. >
  
  Given the “Sooner” mentality of Oklahoma since its inception, I imagine it’s particularly trying to be a teacher there? >
  
  Oklahoma, Florida, and Texas are really trying to race to the bottom. I guess they’re jealous of Mississippi and New Mexico. >
  
  Damn who would have thought that the GQP plan to defund education, villainize teachers, keep schools open shooting ranges, and promote idiotic cultural BS over actual knowledge and education would lead to qualified teachers saying "f*** it, I'm out". Especially in a climate where jobs are plentiful >
  
  
  plan to defend education
  
  I think you mean defund. Republicans definitely don't care to defend education; only the private charter-school corporations. >
  
  Lol, yeah you right. I definitely meant "defund" >
  
  The only thing Republicans defend when it comes to education is the money going to corporations like ClassWallet and other private school megacorporations tied to the Koch Brothers. >
  
  Well that and their "right" to impose their values and ideals on others...no matter how unconstitutional that is they defend the shit out of it. >
  
  Just a slightly modified version of their “republic not a democracy!” banalities.
  Wonder why they are so afraid to say what they really mean, via “my vote should count more than yours!” >
  
  Eh, I think it's more that those that know what they mean are smart enough to not say it...and the rest are too stupid to realize that's what they are saying. These are the sort of people that would probably agree to almost ANY Progressive measure if you framed it in stupid "patriotic" terms. >
  
  That's what happens when society doesn't value education and sees public schools as just daycare. Why would anyone work in a role society actively seems to detest? It's not worth any amount of money really. If we don't care about education, then not surprisingly there won't be much educating going on. >
  
  Thomas Jefferson believed only educated citizens could make the American experiment in self-government succeed. He proposed a system of broad, free, public education for men and women alike that was radical in his day and his founding of the University of Virginia partially achieved his larger goals. >
  
  I study educational history, and everything I’ve ever seen indicated that Jefferson only supported the education of white males. Do you have a source for his support of women being educated?
  Here is a summary from a quick Google search. 
  His quotes surrounding education didn’t age well at all, but he’s a good example of how great ideas can be packaged poorly. >
  
  LMAO....  Nice try.  This is the usual ad hominem attack on Jefferson. >
  
  I’m not attacking Thomas Jefferson. He championed public education and we wouldn’t have it in the US without him. It’s okay to acknowledge that he was a product of his time and his progressive ideas had limits. 
  I really was asking for sources, because I don’t want to be walking around with incorrect information. When he equated educating the poor with raking through the garbage, it wasn’t the best way of getting his idea across in modern terms. That’s what I was referencing with the good idea not packaged well. >
  
  Higher pay.   Smaller classes.   Better classrooms.  What a concept.