For the Love of God Don't Turn Me Into A No Good Dirty Scab

Okay I think I need to come clean about one of the unspoken things that bugs me about the school stuff.

Like I said. I'm a substitute which means they call me when regular teachers can't or won't come in. Yes technically striking is illegal, all the same there have been a lot of times I've felt scabby. Teacher turnover is an issue and very often I will fill in for classes that lack permanent teachers. I've been on the end of that a couple of times as a kid and it was one... well two of the worse classroom experiences I've had in my life, which by the way culminated into one of the worse fights I had either but that's another story.

Furthermore I've heard horror stories where I can't fault a teacher for saying they got to go even if it hurts the kids.

In those situations I fault the powers that be. A general lack of support for the boots on the ground who in a lot of cases are too scared for their jobs to talk. Chris Christie is right with Kevin Cotter on my list.



And a lack of willingness to properly fund education, to pay for things that make the school environment better for both teachers and students.

What I worry about is all this school choice talk is really just code for the powers that be to lower teaching costs that need to be paid. Wages and training. And since I work as a sub in charter schools I feel somewhat personally guilty. Especially since charter school staffing companies use at will, i.e. nonunion staff for a lot of stuff. So while normal teachers and staff have a tool albeit an imperfect one to bring up a lot of stuff and figure out what to do if say a student hurts a teacher (it's not unheard of in high schools), a teacher wants more professional development, or there are issues with supplies or in the obvious example pay a lot of that doesn't exist for charters.

And as such I can't get on board the House's ideas about how charter schools would better serve Detroit schools than public ones when my experience has involved what feels a lot like playing blind monkey.

P.S. This by the way is way the idea that lowering certification standards to make up the talent that may not take jobs with lower wages or specifically deal with all the crap current DPS teachers have to deal with sticks in my craw spectacularly.