Sadly, we’re used to seeing lots of good education bills
die, but here’s one post-mortem worth some attention.
Last week, the Minnesota legislature rejected a completely
sensible bill that would have required teacher preparation programs to place
their student teachers only with effective cooperating teachers, not just any
teacher who volunteers. The reasons
given by some of the legislators for defeating the bill are priceless:
Some focused on how the proposal would be punitive to current
teachers. Senator Kevin Dahle argued that, “So I can look at this as a teacher
learns a lot from these students coming out of college, with the latest and
greatest technology skills, they’ve improved my own lessons and so forth.”
“This is the kind of bill that is really punitive to
teachers. They are at risk of having their HR information shared on the
outside. It would be like asking anyone of us sharing our criminal history or
driving records when we’re testifying in the Senate. … We need to start getting
real about whether we’re talking about punishing teachers or encouraging better
teachers.” Senator Jim Carlson seems to have missed that all evaluation results
will remain confidential.
On the Senate floor, Senator Patricia Torres Ray argued: “I
can assure you that I heard from multiple school districts and superintendents
that [placing student teachers with ineffective cooperating teachers] is not a
practice that occurs today.” Torres Ray did everything in her power to stop
this initiative from passing as she denied the bill from getting a hearing.
