Blame attacks on public education for teacher shortages, Percy Brown and Tim Slekar say
Percy Brown (left), the director of equity and student achievement at Middleton High School, and Tim Slekar, the dean of Edgewood College's School of Education.
Some Wisconsin school districts have reported problems filling teaching positions as the school year approaches.
It's not a mystery why, local education leaders Percy Brown and Tim Slekar said in an interview aired on WKOW-TV's "Capitol City Sunday."
Brown, the director of equity and student achievement at Middleton High School, and Slekar, the dean of Edgewood College's School of Education, pointed to what they called a sustained war on teachers and attacks on public education.
Education policies in both Republican and Democratic presidential administrations have contributed, Brown said.
"The accusations or the blame are being placed on teachers for failure in academic achievement when we look at comparisons to other developed countries," he said. "But I see that attack as not addressing the real issues that our educational institutions are actually dealing with. We really have to look at the focus on issues of race, class and mental health issues. To put the blame on teachers does not make the profession look very attractive."
Teacher shortages in Portage and La Crosse have been covered locally, while a Washington Post blog last week described similar problems in Indiana.
"What's going on?" Post education reporter Valerie Strauss wrote. "Pretty much the same thing as in Arizona, Kansas and other states where teachers are fleeing: a combination of under-resourced schools, the loss of job protections, unfair teacher evaluation methods, an increase in the amount of mandated standardized testing and the loss of professional autonomy."
That struck a chord with Slekar, who said the applicant pools for students at education schools like his have dropped by at least a third.
"That's an exit strategy to get your best teachers out of the profession," Slekar said. "At a time when we supposedly are saying we want our best people to be stepping up to become teachers, we are pushing those people away more and more and more."
Last week, the Wisconsin Budget Project reported on the
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