I started out as teacher in 1983 and left the profession in 1986. Republicans and conservatives have been attacking education and educators since the "Nation at Risk" report was released in 1983.[1] This report was cherrypicked for points to attack teachers, teacher unions and public education itself.
The report points out that starting teacher salaries averaged $17,000. Average, because my first teaching job in 1983 paid only $11,600!
The rise of publicly funded charter schools is a capitalist tool cloaked as an education improvement measure. For profit charter schools funnel money to wealthy people like JC Huizenga who founded National Heritage Academies. NHA now has more than 100 charter schools across nine states that serve more than 60,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. NHA, a for-profit company, was singled out in a report covered by the Washington Post on for-profit charter operators that use “creative workarounds” to dodge state laws against for-profit charters by setting up nonprofit organizations to launch schools and then extracting most of the money from them.[2]
Tax payer money going into profits for such endeavors should be banned- NO school should be making a profit. Studies have shown that nearly all of the public money given to charter schools under the umbrella of the NHA gets funneled back into the NHA itself, largely for “rent” and “management costs”.[3]
[1]
http://edreform.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/A_Nation_At_Risk_1983.pdf
[2]
[3]
