A Forced Exodus

From Thursday's Washington Post: 

The Nevada State Education Association estimated that roughly 3,000 teaching jobs remained unfilled across the state’s 17 school districts as of early August. In a January report, the Illinois Association of Regional School Superintendents found that 88 percent of school districts statewide were having “problems with teacher shortages” — while 2,040 teacher openings were either empty or filled with a “less than qualified” hire. And in the Houston area, the largest five school districts are all reporting that between 200 and 1,000 teaching positions remain open.

For the GOP, this means one thing: mission accomplished.

Because for the last half-century, the Party of Lincoln has gone all-in on trying to dismantle public education in this country. The reason? An educated populace knows better than to vote for the GOP. 

Sure, that's simplifying things. But as Donald Trump professed to loving the poorly educated, so too has the GOP professed to loving those who lack a formal education. Time and time again we have seen Trump voters embrace wildly inaccurate conspiracy theories parroted on InfoWars, Newsmax, and Fox News. We've seen the GOP base refuse to acknowledge basic fundamental truths to instead give him to deep-seated hatred and racism. For them, it's much easier to blame an immigrant neighbor for seemingly taking their job than it is to discuss historical employment patterns and the impact of technology and globalization on rural communities. Right-wing conservative radio and media has sadly done a bang up job in weaponizing this lack of understanding to simplify down in to a hatred of "the other" which has come to mean anyone who isn't a straight, White, heterosexual male. If you aren't a critical thinker then you can't think critically about how and why the GOP has steadily abandoned poor, working Whites over the past half-century and beyond. It's much easier to blame someone else than take responsibility for your own economic situation, largely one that has been created by your own party's incessant need to provide tax cuts to the richest 1% at your expense. 

So the GOP went to war on public education. More specifically, they went to war on those teaching critical thinking. They were shook, as the kids say, by the student reaction to the war in Vietnam. Nearly 50 years later, they again were greatly perturbed by the Black Lives Matter movement, often engaging college students, especially those of color. The GOP saw the newest generation fully engaged on social injustices and it rocked them to their core. Combined with the New York Times making the 1619 Project accessible to the general population in August of 2019 and the reaction to the George Floyd murder in May of 2020 and the GOP had a full-blown crisis on its hands. The last thing they wanted was for not only college-aged students but college-aged students of color to become engaged in the political process. Because students of color just so happen to talk to White students and heaven forbid White college students develop an empathy for their non-White peers. 

Their latest obsession has been critical race theory, or CRT, an obscure law school topic taught largely in elite, prestigious universities. While the typical GOP voter cannot define it, what they perceive it to be is the shaming of White students to feel bad about their history. Combined with wannabe authoritarians like Ron DeSantis also targeting the inclusivity of modern teachers to openly accept LGBT students and it has been quite a difficult two years for teachers simply doing their jobs. Because of this GOP war on critical thinking, elementary school teachers now must tread a thin line with their inclusionary practices while middle and high school teachers must now make sure they aren't somehow offending their White students by teaching actual history. Combined with administrators often wanting to avoid controversy and thus siding with absurd conservative talking points and what you have is lifelong, dedicated teachers not knowing how to teach anymore combined with newer teachers being forced to abandon their idealism from the very start. 

Plus, it cannot be overstated how absolutely heroic our teachers were required to be during the pandemic. Teachers not only taught from home but they taught from home while having their own children also at home. They were asked to learn and adapt to new technologies that none of them from the most grizzled veteran to the greenest of greenhorns had any prior experience with and they were asked to do this as if they had been doing it all their lives. Teachers were on the front lines advocating for their students from making sure that the ventilation systems of schools was up to date to making sure English language learners and students with disabilities weren't being left behind to ensuring that low-income families had access to Wi-Fi so that their children could engage in the virtual learning that was expected of them. They did all this and more because they had to not because they wanted to. And now two years later when in-person learning has returned, they are now left wondering if everything they did was even worth it.

Sadly, teacher flight is nothing new. As someone who entered the profession in 2007, I heard the now-debunked statistic that half of all teachers leave the profession within 5 years. While research has now shown that number to be closer to 17%, it still speaks volumes that 1 out of 6 teachers reject their calling within half a decade. For myself, I made it 7 years but then ran into the brick wall that was an out-of-touch administration questioning my research-based teaching methods when they would rather I teach to test rather than teach to learn. With a pink slip on my permanent record, I asked myself if it was worth pursuing this profession that would continue to devalue me and my pedagogy or should I instead change careers and shift into more social justice work without the malevolent overseers that were school administrators. For me the choice was simple and while I admire my colleagues who are still in the profession, I completely understand a number of peers like myself who decided the hassle simply wasn't worth it.

Forcing out people like me is the GOP's goal. I taught CRT or as I liked to call it, history. I also taught a media awareness class that was axed after one year because my conservative administrator found it "too controversial" despite the fact I was told I would have complete autonomy in designing and implementing the course. That's how they get you. They kill your spirit and your drive and make you miserable. The DeSantis model is nothing new. Make teachers unhappy. Pay them poorly. Devalue them and their profession. And, as Florida has recently done, flood the profession with non-qualified teachers to make those who are qualified question their decision to pursue continuing education and professional development while their peers seemingly ease right in to the profession without the same background and commitment to education as already established teachers. Low pay plus low teaching autonomy plus miserable management is an equation that undeniably leads to disaster for any schools or school districts hoping to retain teachers long-term. By creating a constant influx of new teachers, student learning suffers, students become disenchanted with school and eventually either underperform or drop out entirely. No matter what happens, they don't end up on liberal college campuses protesting the latest nationwide injustice.

And that is exactly what the GOP wants.

They want dullards. They want those with easily mendable minds. They want those voters in rural diners who like Trump because he "talks tough." Educated folks know Trump is a conman, a phony, a fake, a fraud, a huckster, and a silver-spooned turd who is the most unqualified man ever to occupy the Oval Office. It's why Fox News is played on military bases. They need the next generation that is becoming more and more liberal to somehow give in to its deepest and darkest urges and become hateful and spiteful of this growing diversity. The only way that happens is if our public education system falters. If our most empathetic teachers leave the profession. If meaningful education gets censored. If we are punished rather than praised for celebrating our students' diversity. This is what the GOP hopes to do. To force out the good teachers. To make schools unbearable. And to ultimately end public education as we know it in this country.

For our teachers and for our children's sake, we cannot let them win.