Teachers On The Chopping Block
Alternate Headline: Raleigh’s Washington Monument Syndrome
There’s no way the state can be threatening to pinkslip up to 5,300 teachers (CMS impact, 400 to 500) and scores of other classroom personnel because of budget constraints. I know this because the state is spending $10 million (Gov. Bev originally wanted $39M) to buy a bunch of nifty computer gizmos – technically “hand-held diagnostic devices” – that purportedly give K-3 educators “immediate student-specific feedback regarding student skills mastery and allows teachers to immediately address areas of need for individual students.”
And there’s no way, right, that the state would blow through $10M on turbo-charged PDAs for teachers and then turn around and claim it’s so stone broke that the only option is to axe 5,300 teachers.
“We have reduced non-essential costs,” says state Superintendent June Atkinson. “Additional cuts will hit the classroom and hurt teachers and students.”
I mean that’s almost as crazy as saying a local school district would have to fire hundreds of teachers, close schools and hurt students because it’s strapped for cash, but still be able to find enough loot to pay $73K for a speechwriter to put words in a $300,000-a-year superintendent’s mouth. And that would never happen. Right?
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Short URL: https://pundithouse.com/?p=4335
