“Thank you, but I’d rather die behind the chemical sheds.” - Evey Hammond, V for Vendetta

This just in: John McCain thinks teachers are poopy heads.

This Friday, Undead Grampers again listed his plans for fixing the public school system.  Predictably, the list included such GOP tentpoles as school choice, school vouchers, and local control. He also chided B-Rock for sending his daughters to private school (never mind that the McCain kids also went to private school).  He then accused B-Rock of pandering to teachers’ unions:

“My opponent talks a great deal about hope and change, and education is as good a test as any of his seriousness.  If Sen. Obama continues to defer to the teachers unions instead of committing to real reform, then he should start looking for new slogans.”

Spoken like someone who’s never set foot in a public school for anything other than a campaign event.

You know why politicians should defer to the teachers unions?  Because, believe it or not, teachers know what the hell they’re doing.

We go to school for years to do our jobs.  We go through aggressive testing to do our jobs.  We have to have a license to do our jobs.  Once we have that license, we have to keep taking classes and seeking out professional development and present proof of that every few years in order to keep that license.  And that’s just to teach in public schools.

If only we required the same of our senators and presidential candidates.

The biggest problems with our educational system are politics and politicians.  Over the years we’ve allowed too many people - who aren’t trained teachers - to stick their fingers in and stir up public education.  This is why we have asinine controversies such as whether science classes should teach intelligent design or evolution.  This is why Arizona has the atrocity of English-only education, which does more to keep Spanish speaking children of immigrants from getting a quality education than it does to help them learn English.

Undead Grampers said that everyone should have the choice that he and B-Rock had for their children - to send them to private school - and he wants to provide vouchers for parents to do so.  The problem with giving parents federal money to send their kids to private school is that private schools are unregulated.  Private schools don’t have to submit to McCain’s beloved No Child Left Behind.  Private schools don’t have to participate in state standardized testing.

They can also pick and choose the students they want to educate, which means private schools can, quite legally, deny entry to special needs students and, theoretically, deny entry to any child for any reason.  Public schools have to educate any child who walks through the door.

Also, private schools don’t have to hire licensed teachers.  Meanwhile, it’s illegal for public schools to employ teachers who aren’t qualified.

So, when John McCain says he wants to give parents school vouchers, what he’s really saying - whether he’s aware of it or not - is that he want to give federal money to parents to support schools which are unregulated by No Child Left Behind, aren’t required to hire qualified teachers, and may practice discrimination.

When it comes to education policy and reform, we’re listening to everyone except the very professionals who are actively involved in education every day (and night and weekend and summer).  We don’t listen to teachers.

We CAN give kids a better public education.  Just get your damn politics out of my classroom and let me do the job I’m trained to do.

Score

Federally Supported Discrimination: 1 Geeks: 0

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