For four of the five years that I taught in Northwestern Georgia, I taught at an alternative school. Every time I received a new student, it meant that the student had been expelled from a district public school. I had a student who built a bomb and discharged it on a principal’s lawn. I had a student who attempted to build a bomb, and it discharged on him. I had a student who was an accessory to a drive-by shooting. I had a student who was a victim of a shooting. I had a few students who were suspects and/or charged with murder.
It was a tough crowd, needless to say.
My job was very secure. No one wanted to replace me when I left to pursue my doctorate.
On one occasion, my students asked me if I would arrange it so that they could take archery.
Not a chance.
Some “opportunities” just should not happen. My highly impulsive, volatile, alternative school students with bows and arrows was one.
The National Governor’s Association (NGA) and a “corporate fellows program” is another.
And yet, NGA does indeed offer a “corporate fellows program.”
In this atmosphere of the corporate takeover of public education, such an allegiance ought not to be.
NGA is part owner of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
NGA is pushing an entire spectrum of reforms that benefits corporate America.