This is for every teacher who refuses to be blamed for the failure of our society to erase poverty and inequality, and refuses to accept assessments, tests and evaluations imposed by those who have contempt for real teaching and learning.
(I share this because it was a rough week, ego and pride wise and wanted to share and also to hear from others)
So a dear friend of mine asked me what my prized possession was and I gave the standard, my necklace, and cross because it was my mom's chain and my grandmother's cross. But I realized that something else was more prized than that. It comes from when I taught a sub-separate class. I had always worked in Title I schools, so the gifts and recognition was always a bit sparse especially as a special education teacher.
In the shower, I realized what my prized possession is, it's this wicker basket I have had for about 12 years. We had this parent who was a bit blunt and abrasive and that is putting it mildly. He was an older backwoods kind of person, probably in his 50's-60's with an elementary school child. I first met this child when I substituted for an after school program and I called on her and she was rocking back and forth and talking to herself and muttering, "Why is she looking at us?" "What does she want with us?" Etc. and I knew something was up.
Fast forward two years, and the decision is made to put her in my class and her father was absolutely resistant to it. He had observed another teacher who let her class run amuck and he did not want that for his daughter who held on to reality by a thin string. He fought and fought the placement to my class. The team assured him that she would do well. It was a rough transition with her wetting herself and never telling anyone, etc. Up until then (she was in 5th grade by now), she had never even taken the state test or anything. She always had a doctor's note to miss school for two week's. By the time she left my class, she was in the regular education English class with very little support and even managed to take the state test.
Her dad wrote an amazing letter praising me and the rest of the team for how well we supported her. I remember getting that basket for Christmas and everyone walking around talking about it. I had gone into the guidance office and saw the basket she had received and was oohing and aaahing over it and she said wait til you see your basket. My basket ended up being twice as big as everyone else's. Fast forward six years later and I get an e-mail inviting me to her graduation party and she was graduating with a regular diploma. Her dad sat at that table in his house and told all the people, the one thing that turned everything around and made all of the difference in the world was when the administration at the school I worked at wanted to put her in a specialized school and I stood up to them and refused to let them place her there and how much of an impression that had made on him.
That basket represents my love, my career, my passion, the love of a parent, teamwork, and everything else I can think of as a parent and a teacher. It represents when I got my voice as an advocate and when I learned what a difference I really make in people's lives and that by my small contribution, I am capable of changing the trajectory of a person's life. It reminds me of why I do what I do. So yeah, that's my prized possession. It means absolutely nothing to anyone else, but it means the world to me. Bio: Former classroom teacher with 20 years of experience working in substantially separate, inclusion, co-teaching, dual certified, General Ed, Special Ed and Gifted and Talented students. Currently Program Director for Educator Preparation Program Moderate Disabilities Teacher Candidates. Worked in Bureau of Indian Education, charter and public schools. Passionate about all aspects of building relationships and helping children reach their full potential.
He hates science. He hates schools. He hates teachers. And if students get in the way, he’ll hate them, too.
These are the qualities he thinks Pennsylvanians are looking for in their next governor.
The York Township Republican will challenge incumbent Democrat Tom Wolf on Nov. 6, 2018.
So who is this guy?
Wagner’s a college dropout who made a fortune starting a garbage hauling firm. He became a state senator four years ago after winning a write in campaign during a special election where only 17% of the electorate could be bothered to vote.
And ever since, he’s been consistent about one thing: he really, Really, REALLY hates teachers.
“We have 180,000 teachers in the state of Pennsylvania,” Wagner said in 2015. “If we laid off 10 percent of the teachers in the state of Pennsylvania, we’d never miss them.”
That’s a deficit we still haven’t recovered from. Even today, state schools are staffed at a 10-year low. Class sizes are at an all time high.
Yet Wagner wants to fire even more teachers!?
That’s not the policy of a man who wants to help improve life throughout the state for all. That’s not the policy of a man who wants to help kids learn.
It’s the policy of a man who has a personal grudge against educators.
And his other legislative objectives?
Wagner wants to further slash education funding. He wants to spend whatever is left inequitably. And he really wants to help his heroes Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos enact school vouchers so business people like him can continue to cash in on children from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia and all places between.
By contrast, in his four years in office, Gov. Wolf has pushed to increase education funding, pushed to spend it more fairly, and even cut the time it takes for students to take high stakes standardized tests.
The good news: voters throughout the Commonwealth have never had a clearer choice for governor.
The bad news: when has that ever stopped them from getting it wrong?
“We have created a special class in this state and the special class is the public sector union employee,” Wagner told Keystone Crossroads in a 2015 interview.
“Teachers are doing very well in this state,” he said. “People would be appalled if they knew what their teachers made, in certain areas.”
Unfortunately, Wagner has no idea, himself.
He keeps quoting a bogus salary figure that I’m not going to repeat. It’s not true statewide, it’s not an average, nor is it true in his home district.
In truth, the low end for teachers entering the field nationwide is around $30,000, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). So go to college, get a four – sometimes five – year degree including a rigorous internship of student teaching and you make a mere $10,000 above the most generous minimum wage!?
According to that data, Pennsylvania teachers make on average $63,063 per year. Of neighboring states, teachers in Maryland ($65,247) and New Jersey ($71,687) make more. Teachers in Ohio (59,063) and Delaware ($59,853) make less.
Highest and Lowest Teacher Salaries – Source: GoBankingRates
As everywhere else, many teachers struggle to make ends meet working multiple jobs while others are well compensated.
No matter how you slice it, nationwide teachers’ salaries are 14% less than those from professions that require similar levels of education, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
In other words, if prospective teachers want to make more money, all they have to do is switch majors.
That may be part of the reason for our national teachers shortage. Not only have states like ours laid off tens of thousands of educators, many don’t stay in the field if given the chance. Across the country , 46 percent of educators quit before reaching the five year mark. And it’s worse in urban districts, where 20 percent quit every single year!
So forcing sick teachers to come to school and spread the germs to children is fine with Wagner as long as it hurts his nemesis – those evil teachers.
He Wants to Cut Teachers Pensions
He also plans to end pensions for working educators, and even wants retired educators to give back 10% of the retirement they earned.
He’s right to want reform to the state pension system but disingenuous or misinformed about the cause.
Pennsylvania pension costs have increased primarily because our legislature made bad plans and bad investments that were upended by the crash of 2008. You don’t fix that by stiffing your employees. If you do that, no one will believe any promises the state makes and no one of any substance will want to work for the state.
He Wants To Pay Teachers Based on Student Test Scores
“There are teachers that will exceed expectations while teaching a classroom of 100 of the toughest-to-teach students. There are also teachers that would struggle to teach just one student at a time. I want the first teacher to make a small fortune, and I want the second teacher to find a new career that is better suited for him or her.”
So if you teach the best students, you should make the most money? And if you teach struggling students, you should be fired?
But It’s Not Just Teachers. He Hates Other Working People, Too
If there is a corner to cut, he wants to take it – especially if it screws a working person. As a state senator, Wagner even introduced a bill that would exempt school districts from paying laborers the “prevailing wage” on construction projects.
Cheaper labor, shoddier work. That’s surely a recipe for success in buildings housing school children!
He Wants to Disband Unions
Oh, but he’s not done.
The man who once compared the tactics of public employee unions – including those representing teachers – to those of Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin also wants to end tenure end tenure, seniority, and disband unions.
I’m sure reducing teaching to a career without benefits, workers rights or protections will do wonders for the educational quality students receive.
Teachers working conditions are students learning conditions. Putting children in a building that has fewer safety precautions because there’s no union to collectively bargain for them is a great way to cut costs. But parents aren’t thrilled about having their kids try to learn in a sweat shop filled with Trump brand Russian asbestos.
Charter schools, funding private and parochial schools with public tax dollars. He’s in for all of it.
So long as it hurts public schools and enriches private businesses without helping students learn at all.
Go ahead! Take scarce funding from public schools and divert it to programs with little to no accountability. Let private school operators fraudulently misrepresent enrollment data. Let them fail to provide safe and academically appropriate learning environments. Let them game the system in any and every way.
That’s what Wagner calls fiscal accountability.
It doesn’t matter that these schools don’t improve student achievement. Evaluations of voucher programs in Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Washington, D.C., have all found no statistically significant differences in the academic achievement of voucher students compared to public school students. And recent evaluations of programs in Ohio, Indiana, and Louisiana revealed that voucher students scored lower than their peers attending public school.
But who cares about facts? This is all ideology for Wagner.
Vouchers have a record of undermining student’s civil rights – especially students with disabilities. Private school students give up due process and other rights guaranteed in public schools. Private schools are allowed to discriminate by denying admission based on religion, sexual orientation, citizenship status, English language proficiency and disability. Private schools that enroll students with disabilities may decide not to provide the services or accommodations guaranteed to such students in public schools. Or they may charge parents extra for them. Moreover, there is nothing to stop them from segregating these kids from other children. And, finally, private schools often suspend or expel students without due process.
This may be Trump and Wagner’s ideal. But it is certainly not what Commonwealth voters want for their children.
He Wants to Get Rid of Many State Colleges
Wagner caused an uproar when he said the state’s 14 state colleges will not be around in four years. “So, for those of you who think your school’s going to be around four years from now, it isn’t going to be around,” Wagner said.
Fewer institutions of higher learning. Fewer opportunities to get a college degree. That sounds like the policy of a college dropout.
“They think the solution is more money,” he said of Wolf and the Democrats. “Every time you do that the money disappears and the problem is still there.”
It’s like taking a bath, Scott. You can’t just do it once and be clean for the rest of your life. You need to bathe every day. One-time funding windfalls don’t work. You need equitable and sustainable funding revenues.
But that’s either too complicated for Wagner or he just doesn’t care.
He supported Gov. Corbett’s plan to decimate Pennsylvania’s schools. And he doesn’t think the culling should be over.
When asked point blank about Corbett’s cuts in 2011, he said, “Yes, I believe that Governor Corbett needs to stick to his plan.”
He’s said repeatedly that we spend “enough money” on public schools, while stressing the need for frugality and fewer regulations.
He Wants to Play with How Schools Are Funded
He’s an advocate for legislation that would eliminate school property taxes and replace them with increased state sales and income taxes.
True we need a better funding mechanism than local property taxes. But you can bet Wagner’s plan is worse than the current system.
It would lock funding inequities among Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts into place.
He Thinks Global Warming is Caused by the Earth Getting Closer to the Sun
Wagner is an incredibly stupid man who thinks he’s rather intelligent.
But of all the dumb or evil things that come spewing out of his mouth, this one has to be my favorite.
When asked about global climate change, he didn’t simply deny that it was happening. He had an alternative theory to why it was taking place.
It’s not business and industry or fossil fuels that is causing global temperatures to rise. He actually said that it’s because the earth is getting closer to the sun every year. Another cause? Human bodies on the planet are giving off enough heat to raise the global temperature.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that a person who hates schools and teachers so much knows very little, himself.
These comments made him a national laughing stock.
His words were repeated on every late night comedy show across the country for giggles and guffaws.
The question is “Will the joke be on us come Election Day?”
It’s not “How dumb is Scott Wagner?”
It’s “Is Pennsylvania dumb enough to vote for him?”
NOTE: Special Thank you to Sue Goncarovs for the Wagner cartoon with which I began this piece. I love your work!
The dangers of playing American football are increasingly becoming common knowledge. Further scientific evidence emerges almost on a daily basis relative to a condition in former players known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or C.T.E. There are currently only two kinds of football fans. There are those football fans who know the danger and are interested in honest discussions about the potentially drastic change necessary to ensure the safety of future generations of football players. And there are those football fans who know the danger and choose to ignore the facts in favor of some rationalizing equivalent to “But I love it so much!” and/or double down, as did Donald Trump, claiming that new safety rules are “ruining the game.”
The National Football League is too busy trying to curb the first amendment rights of players to even begin an honest discussion about real and substantial safety reforms. It wasn’t always this way, but at this point, violence is an irreplaceable part of the appeal of professional football. The way players hit each other evolved over several decades and went completely unaddressed by the existing regulations of the time. There are now important rules penalizing teams when players lead with their helmets, for instance. But for literally hundreds of deceased former players, these rule changes are too little too late. The only definitive way to diagnose C.T.E. is through autopsy. The rate of C.T.E. found in the brain of former players via autopsy is extremely high. This does not mean that C.T.E. is a foregone conclusion for everyone who plays football. After all, many former players are alive and exhibiting no symptoms. But what it does mean is that football is quite literally destroying lives.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is equally too preoccupied profiting off the free labor of mostly non-white student-athletes to give serious concern for safety. Coaches receive millions while players receive early stages of C.T.E. Perhaps a revolt over the non-payment of college players could lead to the ultimate unraveling of N.C.A.A. football. College football is an unsustainable institution with inequity built into its very existence. It is difficult to estimate which is more insurmountable, the monetary value football represents to universities or the shear enjoyment and tradition enjoyed by more than a hundred million fans. In many parts of the country (and this is especially true in Oklahoma), the NFL is big, and college football is bigger.
College football is an unsustainable institution with inequity built into its very existence.
High school football has been at the very center of community life in rural parts of the U.S. for well over a half century. On any given fall Friday night in a major U.S. city, entertainment options range from cinemas, to performing arts, to live comedy. In rural America on a fall Friday night, high school football is literally the “only game in town.” The movement to end football must take this into highest consideration. Rural communities will need help from schools finding rallying points that do not include minors injuring each other on a regular basis. Weekends should not include sleepless Friday nights for parents of concussed teenagers. These communities must be about the business of making new traditions. Imagine taking all the hype surrounding high school football and giving it to a considerably less dangerous sport like fast pitch softball.
Youth football leagues have seen a steady decline in participation in the last several years over concerns about head injuries. The overwhelming majority of football players’ first team experience is in middle school or junior high, around 6th or 7th grade. At the same time, there also seems to be a growing disinterest in football among middle school students. It is not uncommon in August to see coaches cajoling perceived athletic boys to join the football team. Instead of understanding disinterest as a reflection on the sport itself, many middle school coaches prefer to respond with generalizations about the decline of discipline and toughness in American society. The pure intentions of the majority of middle school coaches are not to be doubted. For some, however, coaching may best serve to fuel their own obsession with the sport and ultimately not be about the players at all. This is perhaps more true at the high school level.
There seems to be a growing disinterest in football among middle school students.
The movement to end football has already begun. It has started at the bottom and is beginning to trickle up. The best way to end middle school football is to convince the next generation of teacher/coaches to allow the sport to quietly decline into irrelevance through lack of interest from students. The best way to end high school football is to raise an army of angry and vocal parents unwilling to risk the lives of their children. The best way to end college football is to starve high profile university programs of experienced high school players. And the best way to end professional football is to embark on a massive campaign to boycott the National Football League.
