There seems to be little debate these days about the state of our education system in the U.S.: it's broken, plain and simple. Why? Well, many parents want to blame teachers, and although they're not always wrong in doing so, many times placing blame on teachers is misguided. Having once stood in front of a classroom of teenagers myself, I can say that 99.9% of the time teachers are trying to look out for
every student's best interests in the classroom. And, to be honest, every state-certified teacher I've ever met is at least qualified to teach the roughly 70% of students who fall into the "average" range of aptitude (sorry Mr. and Mrs. Jones, but your kid most likely falls into that 70% and is not really
special).
But, nonetheless, our education system
is broken.
Case in point: Carlos Polanco, a Los Angeles teacher who ridiculed one of his students for his failed attempt to commit suicide allegedly told the student to "carve deeper next time,"
kept his job following the incident despite the fact that the LA School Board voted to fire him.
Really?
Seriously??? Yes. Seriously.In a nutshell, Mr. Polanco was able to keep his job because of beaurocratic policies that allow terminations to be overturned, among other things.
Unfortunately, situations like these are fairly commonplace, especially among unionized school districts — it can take several years and tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to terminate a teacher who is performing poorly in the classroom; in some instances even teachers who commit the most egregious acts are put on paid furlough indefinitely until a final decision is made regarding their termination.
Even more unfortunate is the fact that most teachers who are involved in misconduct, like Mr. Polanco, get to keep their jobs because it is both too costly and too time-consuming to make a strong enough case for termination against such a teacher.
My opinion is that teachers' unions wield far too much power for their own good, and will often come to the aid of their members who conduct themselves in a manner unbecoming of the classroom while rallying around the war cry of wrongful termination. Because let's face it: if they allow a teacher to be fired for making fun of a kid who tried to kill himself, then the next thing you know school districts will want to fire teachers because they suck at their jobs.
Can't have that, now can we?
(source:
LA Times via
Fark)
Labels: carlos polanco, education, guilt of the day, los angeles, misconduct
