> <i>For Dallas schools, “it’s about the passion, not about the paper,” said Robert Abel, the district’s human capital management chief.</i><p>It's also about the paper (the Benjamins).<p>During Covid, I know and heard of teachers who decided they just weren't getting paid enough for the conditions.<p>Already underpaid, they were then told to do additional things, including teach before a class of germ-factory children <i>without being allowed to wear a mask</i> when mask advisories were otherwise in effect. Or to take additional workload to teach both in-person and remote. Or, in the case of college lecturers and professors, to record video lectures that the school could reuse without them (video streaming is even cheaper than an adjunct).<p>It'd make sense to pay and treat teachers like the enormously important educators and nurturers of children that they are.<p>You can still get passion, but people saying <i>someone else should do work out of passion</i>... always sound like they're exploiting.
We need a completely new system of culture in the US - nothing important gets taken care of, the most important roles for peoples well being and enrichment like schoolteachers or nurses are treated like garbage.<p>Ask any teacher or any nurse about what it’s like to do their jobs.
> And in Florida, military veterans without a bachelor’s degree can teach for up to five years using temporary certificates.<p>That seems so weird. Why would they have to stop after five years of teaching? Shouldn't they be better at it by that point?<p><a href="https://www.fldoe.org/veterans/" rel="nofollow">https://www.fldoe.org/veterans/</a><p>They're trying to strongly push them to finish their bachelors (which they must have started), but what an odd program.
This school year, is the first that my wife hasn't taught, since she became a teacher. I watched over the last two years, as the pandemic beat her down, until she had to move on. You can only get physically and mentally abused, while being underpaid, for so long, before it becomes too much of a sacrifice.
Teaching qualifications were BS to begin with. For most subjects, having a degree in a subject actually correlates terribly with someone's ability to teach it. These restrictions had more to do with liability and protecting jobs than anything else.
With inflation being what it is, civil service workers (including teachers) are going to be feeling a bit of a squeeze. We are already seeing it with bus drivers and teacher aides - there is no way for the public sector to keep up with private sector wages during high inflation (the tax levy can't grow fast enough).<p>What will be interesting is if having non-certified teachers <i>doesn't</i> impact education outcomes, which for K-5 gen ed classes seems at least a possibility. Then the core argument for teacher pay (that they have masters degrees) will go out the window.
Students also getting good at easing their own education requirements as well.<p>>The internet ruined homework which hurt test scores.<p>>When students did their homework in 2008, it improved test grades for 86% of them, but only helped 45% in 2017. Why? A majority of students are now copying internet answers. The benefit of homework requires doing it yourself!<p><a href="https://twitter.com/emollick/status/1553369439353069568" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/emollick/status/1553369439353069568</a>
Or you know they could just make job conditions and pay better? The single most important factor in children's education is an afterthought to the administrators and politicians.