Texas teachers say they're pushed to the brink by law requiring them to spend dozens of hours unpaid

[TexasTowelie]

It was one thing to ask Texas teachers — during an ongoing teacher’s shortage — to make extra room in their busy home routines for online classroom teaching for months, then to monitor the latest in vaccine and mask mandates while waiting and adjusting yet again for a return to the classroom.

But now, as teachers attempt to restore all the learning lost by their students during the pandemic, the Texas Legislature has insisted those who teach grades K-3 need to jump another hurdle: they need to complete a 60-to-120 hour course on reading, known as Reading Academies, if they want to keep their jobs in 2023.

And they must do it on their own time, unpaid.

For many like 38-year-old Christina Guerra, a special education teacher in the Rio Grande Valley, the course requirement is the final straw and it is sending teachers like her and others out the door.

“I don't want to do it,” she said. “I refuse to, and if they fire me, they fire me.”

Read more: https://www.sacurrent.com/news/texas-teachers-say-theyre-pushed-to-the-brink-by-law-requiring-them-to-spend-dozens-of-hours-unpaid-in-training-28570621

[Sherman A1]

1. Sounds pretty grim

I see a whole lot of professional teachers changing careers.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Then change careers. The job market is tight enough, that most of them should be able to

perhaps find something. One thing to ask themselves, this is one thing, just wait until more and more and more keep being piled on. It'll happen, the legislature (some of them) seem to know how to manage people, seem to know the ins and out of medicine, seem to know all kinds of other crap that they deemed that they must pass a ignorant and poorly written bill and the ignorant governor will sign into law.

[tirebiter]

3. Union response?

Any?

[gab13by13]

4. Does Texas have unions?

Union will be the next word the GQP bans.

The course is probably taught by Betsy DeVos.

[Diamond_Dog]

5. I was wondering the same thing.

And why would a special education teacher be required to do this bullshit. They are already specially trained to help kids learn who have difficulty. Really bullshit requirement!

[sop]

6. Part of the GOP's nationwide crusade to abolish and privatize public education.

"Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran sketched out a few principles for Republicans to follow. Conservatives, he said, should no longer consider the primary purpose of school to be training students for employment; instead, they should see it as instilling moral values...'the war will be won in education'...the next step was to get so many families to flee public schools that no future administration would be able to undo the damage."

"Public education advocates see a deeper threat...It’s the Betsy DeVos playbook,' said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers: 'complete destabilization of public education so that parents will choose private schools.'"

"And the destabilization is hard to ignore....In the privatized alternatives Republicans have pushed, critics say that the rapid expansion of vouchers...has led to a proliferation of low-quality 'voucher schools': cheap enough that vouchers mostly cover tuition but so poorly regulated that...some schools hold classes in aging strip malls, falsify safety and health records, and employ teachers without college degrees. Florida has also long exempted private schools from the high-stakes, year-end testing that’s used as a cudgel against their public counterparts."

https://newrepublic.com/article/163817/desantis-republicans-end-public-education

[Chainfire]

7. Republicans want people with strong backs and weak minds.

They are easier to exploit.