I don’t know why I’m still writing about this. I think it is kinda like rubbernecking when there is a car accident.

SFGate had an article today. Apparently there are “shockwaves” going through the community. Would those be like the shockwaves that go through the community when a public school teacher is arrested for molesting children? You can read a few of those stories here, here, here, here, here and here. There are a lot more cases out there, I’m just too busy to link them all.

Or would it be like the shockwaves that go through a school system when the school is found to be underperforming? What happens here, here or here?

If we are going to twist the facts of the case all over the place to grab a headline, we have to include some sort of scandal, don’t we?

 The article had no surprises when it came to the opinion of the teachers’ union:

The ruling was applauded by a director for the state’s largest teachers union.

“We’re happy,” said Lloyd Porter, who is on the California Teachers Association board of directors. “We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting.”

This is an argument they can’t even stand on. Not all teachers in our public school system are fully credentialed in the sense that you think “credentialed” might be. The credentials that exist manage to cover some loopholes. Authorization to be a substitute teacher comes from passing a test and having a college degree. Yet, even some who are “in the credential program” go ahead and teach while still in college. Do the children they are teaching have to go back and repeat a grade because their teachers weren’t fully credentialed? Does getting a waiver (because there is a shortage of credentialed teachers) make it all OK?

What about substitute teachers?

How about this from an Oakland Tribune article regarding parents suing over poor schools:

Last school year, more than 10,700 interns worked in California schools as teachers with provisional credentials, according to the state Department of Education.

Maybe we can apply that ruling to cases such as this and demand that all substitute teachers and interns are fully credentialed in the area they are called in to teach. What? Not enough qualified people? Ask the judge what we should do next.

 There are lousy schools. There are lousy teachers. There are lousy subs. There are lousy parents. There are lousy homeschoolers.

Parents still have the right to educate their children at home.

Incidentally, I got a call today from another reporter. I don’t think anything I said will see the light of day this time. I think he was looking for an alarmist view and I’m not it.

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