Is There a Teacher Shortage? That Depends How You Frame It - Teaching Now - Education Week Teacher

Is There a Teacher Shortage? That Depends How You Frame It - Teaching Now - Education Week Teacher:

Is There a Teacher Shortage? That Depends How You Frame It

Across the country, states and districts have ramped up efforts this summer to recruit new teachers, as they work to avoid vacancies at the start of the new school year.

Data around the size of the teaching profession is only current up through 2011, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, but estimates suggest that by 2018, there will be more teachers than ever before.

In a new story for Education Week, I wrote about teacher shortages in spots across the nationand how districts and states are responding in some cases. The gist is that, while there are many instances of teacher shortages nationwide, the number of teachers per student has remained relatively constant.

Current estimates show that there are about 100,000 fewer public school teachers than there were in 2008, at the onset of the Great Recession. Since there are 14,000 public school districts, per the U.S. Census Bureau, that number works out to just about seven teachers per district. (Not that districts across the board lost seven teachers each, obviously. New York City, for instance,shed about 8,100 general education teachers between 2007 and 2012, although it gained about 2,500 special education teachers.) Teacher-prep enrollment numbers are also down over the past several years.

At the same time, though, a soon-to-be-record-high teaching population and teacher shortages are not mutually exclusive. So let's break down what the term "teacher shortage" actually refers to.

Subject-Area Shortages

The U.S. Department of Education has information running back over two decades on teacher shortage areas in each state by subject. That list does not reflect whether states are actually hiring such teachers, so much as denote that they would like to.

From that federal data, four trends are most visible:

• Special education teachers do the Lord's work: Almost every state has long needed and continues to need special education teachers of all stripes. For a position that is coveted, though, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average salary for special education teachers is almost indistinguishable from non-special education teachers'. I don't think that's how supply and demand is meant to work.
• Science and math teachers are widely needed: While many states have long sought to have more math and science teachers, there's an uptick in the middle of the last decade. Part of that is likely the increased accountability for math proficiency under the No Child Left Behind Act, and some might have been inspired by the boom in STEM careers. (The shortage list doesn't always differentiate by scientific fields.) Government officials, from President Obama on down, have been pushing for more STEM teachers.
• What subjects have too many teachers? If there are so many members of the teaching profession, but shortage areas remain, then it's reasonable to believe some subjects have too many teachers. The likely culprits: English and early childhood. Relatively few states listed English or humanities as shortage areas in 2014-15. And a January 2013 Education Week analysis found that many states oversupply elementary teachers.
• Don't get certified in New York: New York reported no shortages in core subject areas last year, though like many states, it does need bilingual educators. The Empire Statemay be the most competitive job market, with somewhere under 30 percent of new teachers being able to find jobs.

(Teacher opinion blogger Peter Greene has done yeoman's work highlighting news stories about teacher shortages from every state and the District of Columbia, while adding some color commentary, if you're interested.)

Demographic Shortages

The teaching profession is very white. It is, specifically, 82 percent white. High school teachers are a little less likely to be white, at 70 percent. There are a lot of reasons why the teaching profession may be so white. Some may be due to discrimination in teacher licensing tests. Some may also be due to the systemic discrimination within the U.S. education system, including quality of instruction and discipline. In the words of Christina Berchini, writing in Education Week Teacher in April:

"Why would historically marginalized populations elect to eventually become teachers for the very system that (likely) underserved them in some way?"

This is the kind of discussion that generally invokes protest from a segment of white teachers, who would point out that they are just as qualified and capable of teaching students of color. SomeIs There a Teacher Shortage? That Depends How You Frame It - Teaching Now - Education Week Teacher:

Kansas' teachers have a bold plan: relocate | MSNBC

Kansas' teachers have a bold plan: relocate | MSNBC:

Kansas’ teachers have a bold plan: relocate

The results of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R) economic experiment haven’t been pretty, but the effects on the state’s public school system have been especially ugly. As Republican state officials scramble to close a budget shortfall caused by tax cuts Kansas couldn’t afford, education has been underfunded to a ridiculous degree.

 

Some schools even wrapped up the academic year early, lacking the funds necessary to keep the doors open.

 

Valerie Strauss reported this week in the Washington Post that some Kansas educators have a bold, new plan to deal with the problem: they’re leaving.

Teachers can’t hotfoot it out of Kansas fast enough, creating a substantial shortage expected only to get much worse. […]

 

According to new data released by the Kansas Department of Education, at least 3,720 teachers left their jobs either by going to other states to teach, retiring or leaving the profession altogether, the Associated Press reported. That, the AP said, was substantially higher than in previous years.  KCUR reported in this story by Sam Zeff that Kansas is becoming such a hard place for teachers that many are crossing into Missouri to find jobs.

It’s not like the state left these teachers with a lot of options. But Kansas does have a plan to deal with the problem.

 

Increasing teacher pay? No. Strengthening teachers’ collective-bargaining rights? No. Rather, theTopeka Capital-Journal reported that Kansas will instead “lift teacher licensure requirements for six school districts, including two of the state’s largest.”

 

Oh. Qualified teachers are leaving, confronted with untenable conditions, so Kansas is responding to the shortage by welcoming less qualified teachers.

 

The Capital-Journal added that the policy is “based on model legislation from the American Legislative Exchange Council.”

 

That’s the far-right group better known as ALEC.

 

Kansas will be dealing with the consequences of the Brownback era for quite a while.

 

Explore:

The MaddowBlog, ALEC, Education, Education 

Kansas' teachers have a bold plan: relocate | MSNBC:

Hoosier School Heist Continues: $50 million plan - Grants, loans for charter schools | Indiana | Journal Gazette

Grants, loans for charter schools | Indiana | Journal Gazette:

Grants, loans for charter schools

State board OKs $50 million plan

Get Hoosier School Heist in Paperback

Hoosier School Heist On FaceBook

INDIANAPOLIS – The State Board of Education on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to start taking applications for a new, $50 million Charter School Grant and Loan Program.

But the board still needs to make decisions on how to prioritize the applications if the requests exceed the amount of money available.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz was concerned about the lack of a prioritization plan. She said schools should know that information before they apply.

She abstained from the vote, which was 9-0.

Lawmakers, pushed by Gov. Mike Pence, created the program at the end of the last session to provide funding for capital, technology and transportation investments.

Unlike traditional public schools, public charter schools do not receive local property tax revenue for those purposes. Traditional public schools receive, on average, about $3,000 per student per year in local property tax revenue for capital, transportation and debt payment, a news release said.

The program is two-pronged. First, charter schools will receive a grant of $500 per student for capital, transportation and technology improvements.

Charter schools automatically qualify for the grant if they receive A-C school accountability grades; are in their first or second year of operation; primarily serve special-needs students; or don’t qualify to receive a grade.

D or F schools automatically qualify if their school accountability grade is equal to or better than their closest comparable traditional public school in each of the previous two years.

The board will award grants in two payments to eligible charter schools. The first $250-per-student grant will be made immediately based on projected enrollment for the upcoming school year. The second payment will be made after the fall enrollment count and will be adjusted to reflect actual enrollment.

It is projected that a total of $10.75 million will be awarded to public charter schools this fall.

The second part of the program involves low-interest loans for public charter schools. Schools may borrow up to $5 million. If a school plans to buy or build a facility with Grants, loans for charter schools | Indiana | Journal Gazette:

GoLocalProv | Public or Private: Are RI Charter Schools Trying to Have it Both Ways?

GoLocalProv | Public or Private: Are RI Charter Schools Trying to Have it Both Ways?:

Public or Private: Are RI Charter Schools Trying to Have it Both Ways?

Their teachers are not unionized. They don’t pay into public pensions. And they are exempted from some of the rules that apply to traditional public schools. But they are funded by taxpayer dollars, are free of charge to students attending, and cannot expel students.

Are charter schools public schools or publicly funded private schools?

Charter advocates say it’s the first.

Officially, charters are considered public schools by the Rhode Island Department of Education, according to spokesman Elliot Krieger. “They are entirely public schools; they are not private or nonpublic schools in any respect. We generally refer to them as ‘charter public schools,’” Krieger said yesterday.

But others say it’s not as black-and-white as that.

State Sen. James Sheehan prefers to call them “quasi-public schools.” “They like to pretend they are a new form of traditional public education. In reality, they are not,” said Sheehan, a North Kingstown Democrat who is a history teacher at Tollgate High School in Warwick.

“I characterize charter schools as privately operated but publicly funded schools,” said Jim Parisi, an organizer for the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals.

Woonsocket a flashpoint for statewide debate

The question is coming to a head in a major legal battle brewing over the opening of the RISE Prep Mayoral Academy in Woonsocket. In a complaint filed in Providence County Superior Court yesterday, attorneys for the Woonsocket City Council argue that RISE should not be allowed to open because its proposed location of 1 Social Street is in a commercial zone where nonprofit schools are not allowed.

Katelyn Silva, a spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Mayoral Academies, said the zoning restriction did not apply because RISE would be considered a ‘municipal use.’

But RISE is also a nonprofit school—at least according to its articles of incorporation, filed with the state Secretary of State on November 14 of last year.

Those articles stipulate that should the school dissolve, its assets would be distributed to Rhode Island Mayoral Academies, a nonprofit association—not the taxpayers of Woonsocket, William M. Dolan, the attorney for the city council, notes in a legal memorandum filed in court.

“Its by-laws do not provide any mechanism by which the people of Woonsocket may control it or its operations, and the school (clearly) has nothing to do with Woonsocket’s municipal government,” Dolan writes.

The fact that RISE has a state charter would, if anything, make it a state use, not a municipal use, he adds. That GoLocalProv | Public or Private: Are RI Charter Schools Trying to Have it Both Ways?:

Here's What Americans Want From A No Child Left Behind Overhaul

Here's What Americans Want From A No Child Left Behind Overhaul:

Here's What Americans Want From A No Child Left Behind Overhaul

Eight years after the nation's major education law expired, we might finally be getting a new one.

As members of the Senate and House of Representatives work to find compromise on their respective overhauls of the No Child Left Behind Act, Americans are expressing agreement with a central tenet in both chambers’ proposals: the federal government should have less influence over standardized tests.

A nationally representative HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted in early August shows that more than half of Americans think state governments should have more power than the federal government to determine how standardized tests are used in schools. Only 21 percent of respondents said they thought the federal government should have more power than states in this arena; about a quarter said they were not sure.

The poll comes after the House of Representatives and the Senate each passed their own bills rewriting the No Child Left Behind Act in July. The two versions, called the Student Success Act and the Every Child Achieves Act, respectively, contain key differences. But both bills empower states to have more control over the way standardized tests are used to measure school success.

 The No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law during a rare glimmer of bipartisan cooperation in 2002, emphasizes standardized testing and consequences for schools that fail to live up to the law’s expectations. The law favors a one-size-fits-all approach, allowing the federal government to determine standardized testing schedules for schools and to decide how schools should be held accountable for those test scores. The law expired in 2007, but since that time, Congress has failed to decide on an adequate replacement. Instead, a patchwork of waivers designed by the Obama administration allows states to escape from the law’s harshest requirements in exchange for their cooperation in implementing education policies the president favors.

The passage of the Student Success Act and the Every Child Achieves Act represent real momentum in replacing No Child Left Behind after years of partisan head-butting and stagnation. Currently leaders in the two chambers are conferencing to work through some of the two bills' key differences in an attempt to create a bill that will pass Congress. 

Both the House and Senate bills maintain the federal standardized testing schedule initiated by NCLB, calling for math and reading assessments every year in grades three through eight, and once in grades nine through 12. But unlike NCLB, the bills ask states to design their own systems to determine how schools should be held accountable for students' exam scores.

Nearly half of Americans disagree with the current standardized testing schedule in place -- meaning they are likely not pleased with key components in the House and Senate bills that retain that schedule. Forty-seven percent of poll respondents said they think most K-12 students take “too many standardized tests,” while 23 percent said students take “about the right amount of tests." Only 11 percent said they think students “take too few tests.” About one-fifth of respondents said they are Here's What Americans Want From A No Child Left Behind Overhaul:

Who Is In The Clown Car - Preview the GOP Presidential Debate: What to Expect on Education - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Preview the GOP Presidential Debate: What to Expect on Education - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Preview the GOP Presidential Debate: What to Expect on Education

 With the roster finally set for Thursday night's Republican presidential candidates' debate, what should the edu-world expect from the top 10 candidates?

Well, we got a bit of a preview of what may transpire during the GOP candidates' forum held at Saint Anslem's College in Manchester, N.H., on Monday night. And—surprise, surprise—the headline there was the Common Core State Standards.

Expect that to be the name of the game again Thursday, with potentially a pinch of higher ed.

Of course we all know the real reason you'll be watching: The Donald, aka real estate mogul Donald Trump, who splashed onto the GOP presidential-contender scene back in June and has been offending his way to the top of the polls ever since.

Despite his fondness for bashing opponents, Trump has promised to keep it classy Thursday evening. Unless, of course, someone goes after him first, in which case all bets are off.

So far this edu-election season, Trump has slammed rival and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for his support of the common core and ripped into Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, another candidate, over education funding cuts in his state.

But Trump is hardly the only candidate who's gone after Bush for his continued backing of the standards. Nearly the entire GOP field has launched a couple of anti-common-core missiles Bush's way, with the exception of Walker, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, all of whom oppose the standards just the same.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich seems to be the only other Republican presidential hopeful who also supports the common core.

So, who made the cut for the premier Republican debate and what might they say about education? Here's a quick run-down.

Donald Trump: Trump doesn't have a long record on education, though he did run his namesake and now-shuttered for-profit college, Trump University. If he says anything at all about education other than the common core, expect him to stick to general Republican talking points, like the need for more school choice.

Jeb Bush: Having overseen some major changes to Florida's education system and later founding a national K-12 policy group, Foundation for Excellence in Education, Bush has the longest education record of them all. He's most known for successfully pushing his state to adopt the A-Plus Plan, which required schools to be held accountable using A-F letter grades and established a new series of standardized tests to measure students' academic performance. The plan also instituted new "Opportunity Scholarships" that allowed students greater freedom to attend schools of their choice through vouchers.

Scott Walker: Look for Walker to tout his success in turning Wisconsin into a "right to work state," ditching teacher tenure, and paying teachers based on performance. He's credited those changes with increased student achievement, including on ACT test scores.

Ted Cruz: In his speech announcing his run for president, the Texas senator said, "Imagine repealing every word of the Common Core." The standards foe was an active player in the recent Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization debate in the Senate, during which he offered (and the Senate rejected) an amendment that would have allowed states to opt out of the federal K-12 law while still collecting the federal dollars for it.

Mike Huckabee: While governor, Huckabee boosted spending on K-12 education, even raising taxes to do so. And since leaving office he's been a proponent of the power of arts education, including at the GOP convention in 2012. In the past, he's culled lots of support from home schoolers, so a shout-out to that voting bloc wouldn't be too surprising.

Ben Carson: Carson, a neurosurgeon, might have the least education policy chops of all the GOP candidates. On his website, he takes typical Republican stances, including criticizing the common core and rolling back the role of the federal government.

Marco Rubio: Like most Republicans, Rubio is a big proponent of charter schools. He's also proposed federal tax credits for private schools, and teamed up with Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., on a bill to create "American Dream" accounts that help low-income students prepare for college.

Rand Paul: The Kentucky senator, a Tea Party firebrand, has long called for the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education. Short of that, he'd like to see the common-core standards nixed and is a big supporter of allowing Title I dollars for low-income students to follow them to the school of their choice, including private schools. We might see Paul try to turn an education conversation into a conversation about the need to overhaul the criminal justice system, including for juveniles. He's been making a big push for that along with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.

John Kasich: Like Walker, Kasich has tried to curb the collective bargaining rights of teacher, though so far he's been unable to do so. Most notably, however, he has increased state spending on education, including for the state's school voucher program and for charter schools, and he signed a new A-F accountability system for schools into law in 2013.

Chris Christie: As New Jersey governor, he's made tenure harder to obtain and has attracted a lot of attention with his efforts to turn around the Newark school system. Christie recently made waves in the education field during a CNN interview in which he said teachers' unions deserve "a punch in the face" and are "destructive."

Some things we'll be watching for: Will Bush and Kasich continue their support for the common core? If so, how much flak will they take for it? How will the three senators with similar education agendas differentiate themselves? Will the ESEA reauthorization efforts come up? Will U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan get name-checked for "coercing" states into adopting certain education policies?

In addition to the main event, there's an undercard debate of sorts for the candidates outside the top 10, which starts at 5pm. Those participants include:

• Rick Perry, former governor of Texas
• Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana
• Rick Santorum, former senator from Pennsylvania
• Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard
• Lindsey Graham, senator from South Carolina
• Jim Gilmore, former governor of Virginia

Preview the GOP Presidential Debate: What to Expect on Education - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Five of Jon Stewart’s greatest hits on teachers, school reform and stupidity - The Washington Post

Five of Jon Stewart’s greatest hits on teachers, school reform and stupidity - The Washington Post:

Five of Jon Stewart’s greatest hits on teachers, school reform and stupidity

Education and school reform weren’t topics that Jon Stewart (whose mother is a veteran educator) spent a great deal of time exploring on “The Daily Show” but when he did, it was worthwhile listening. Never the hard-line critic of corporate school reform that many would have liked him to be, Stewart still poked holes in it on occasion. Now that the show is ending, here are some of his greatest education hits on the show:

1. Cheating teachers go to jail. Cheating Wall Streeters don’t. What’s up with that? — April 2015

Stewart makes the inevitable comparison between  former teachers and administrators in Atlanta who were sentenced for cheating on standardized tests — a few for as much as seven years — with the folks on Wall Street who in 2008 nearly brought down the country’s financial system. Only one Wall Streeter was sentenced to 12 months in jail. The Atlanta convictions, of racketeering and other crimes in a standardized test-cheating scandal, were believed to be the worst of a wave of test cheating in nearly 40 states and Washington, D.C. — not by students but by teachers and administrators who were under pressure to meet score goals.

The case stemmed from a 2013 indictment by a grand jury of Beverly Hall, the now-deceased Atlanta schools superintendent, and 34 teachers, principals and others. Twelve teachers eventually went to trial; one was acquitted of all charges and the 11 others were all convicted of racketeering — under a law used against the Gambino organized-crime family — plus a variety of other charges. Prosecutors alleged that Hall had run a “corrupt” organization that used test scores to financially reward and punish teachers. Hall passed away earlier this year.

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2. Bill allows  teachers, parents to hit kids hard enough to bruise — February 2014
A legislator in Kansas was pushing legislation to allow teachers and parents to whack kids hard enough to bruise, apparently out of the mistaken belief that beating up children is an effective disciplinary method. A legislative committee killed the bill, but the sorry fact is that someone thought it was worth committing to paper. Said Stewart, invoking the name of a bill sponsor:

Hello, my name is Representative Gail Finney. Are you holding back from punching the **** out of your children because you fear legal repercussions? Well, fear no more. Your nightmare is over, whereas theirs is just beginning.

The bill called for permitting teachers, caretakers and anybody else with permission from a child’s guardian to hit them really, really hard — hard enough to bruise.

Stewart:

Whoever it is in your life that you believe hits the hardest. … “Hey, uh, while you’re here to fix the cable, would you mind going upstairs. I’ve got a 9-year-old that won’t make the bed. A quick shot to the chops should do it …

Under House Bill 2699:

‘Corporal punishment’ means 10 forceful applications in succession of a bare open-hand palm against the clothed buttocks of a child acknowledging that redness or bruising may occur on the tender skin of a child as a result.

The video:

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3. What are critics of preschool talking about?  — March 2013

After President Obama advanced an expansion of high-quality preschool in his 2013 State of the Union speech, critics went after the idea, and Stewart went after them, saying:

…. If these children want an education, they should get jobs and pay for it themselves. But that’s illegal, Thanks nanny state…

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

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4. Taking on Michelle Rhee — February 2013

It was a big deal when Stewart invited school reform leader Michelle Rhee on the show after her memoir, “Radical,” was published, and though he didn’t rip her to pieces in the way her critics wanted, he did test her about whether her brand of reform unfairly targeted teachers. He also said something that Rhee and other reformers could take insult from: that there has been “no real innovation in education since John Dewey.”

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

 Teachers, he told Rhee, are demoralized. “Are we hanging them out to dry, coming in every three years, saying here’s the new reform, you are going to teach to that… increase your scores or you are fired?” He said the education scene is “like a football team who gets a new offensive coordinator every year.”

In explaining why her new memoir is titled “Radical,” Rhee expressed some surprise that she was seen as a radical when she first became chancellor of D.C. schools because all she was doing was taking “obvious” common-sense actions such as closing failing schools and firing bad teachers. (She posed on the cover of Time magazine with a broom, so it’s hard to really see how she was surprised.) Stewart pointed out that the concern was how she decided to close the schools and fire the teachers, questioning whether the metrics for assessment were fair.

When Rhee said that poverty only makes things more “challenging,” Stewart said, “It seems like education can only be put in place once the soil is fertile.” His suggestion — that for many children even great teachers can’t overcome the effects of hunger and poor nutrition and exhaustion and trauma from violence — was exactly right.

Unfortunately, Stewart didn’t ask her about some of her more provocative actions — such as firing a principal on television or about the famous incidents in which she was so desperate as a young teacher to keep her students under control that she taped their mouths shut, and, once, swatted a bee and popped it in her mouth to shock them.

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5. Trying to talk to Education Secretary Arne Duncan — February 2012

Duncan was so programmed that Stewart was unable to get the basketball-playing secretary to have some fun talking about the New York Knicks’  hero, Five of Jon Stewart’s greatest hits on teachers, school reform and stupidity - The Washington Post:

Why Arne Duncan is skeptical about making college free - Vox

Why Arne Duncan is skeptical about making college free - Vox:

Why Arne Duncan is skeptical about making college free

Education Secretary Arne Duncan has heard Democratic contenders for president propose making college tuition- or debt-free — and he's afraid the debate is missing something.

A proposal for making higher education debt-free has become almost mandatory for Democratic candidates in the primary. Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley have both put forward plans; Hillary Clinton's campaign manager hinted in May that she'll eventually have a proposal of her own.

Meanwhile, Duncan has been emphasizing the importance of assuring quality in education. In a wide-ranging interview Monday, Duncan and I discussed his concerns about the free college agenda and the congressional effort to overhaul No Child Left Behind.

Why Duncan thinks debt-free college isn't enough

"I THINK WE CONTRIBUTED TO THE IDEA OF QUALITY MATTERING"

The Obama administration has emphasized that college should be affordable. But they've also pushed harder than any of their predecessors on trying to ensure colleges are giving students value for money.

The problem, in their eyes, isn't necessarily student debt; it's when students either don't graduate or don't get good jobs, which can turn student debt from a financial handicap into a disaster.

"If all we’re doing is making cheaper or free a system in which the failure rate is so high, that doesn’t get the country where we need to go," Duncan said.

He didn't criticize the Democratic contenders explicitly, saying that it's still early in the campaign and candidates from both parties should be pressed for more specifics on their goals for higher education. But he argued that debt-free college on its own is not a sufficient agenda.

"If that’s all we’re talking about, if that’s all the nation is talking about, it is insufficient," he said. "Yes, it needs to become more affordable. Yes, we need to reduce debt. Those are important pieces of the puzzle. Those aren’t the only pieces of the puzzle."

It's important to focus "not just on access but on quality," he said. In higher education, he said he'd define quality as "do these degrees have value in the marketplace?"

It was President Obama who first put the idea of free college in the spotlight. During the State of the Union address, he called for a partnership between states and the federal government to offer two years of free community college to all students. (The White House later clarified that there would be an income cutoff: Families making more than $200,000 per year would not be eligible.)

The White House has continued quietly pushing states and cities to create free community college plans of their own, meeting with college presidents, community leaders, and business executives to talk about the idea, Duncan said.

But the White House plan — which was dead on arrival in Congress — came with strings attached. States would have to keep up their funding for higher education. They'd also Why Arne Duncan is skeptical about making college free - Vox:

Sexual harassment claims become the norm at Sacramento City Hall

Sexual harassment claims become the norm at Sacramento City Hall:

Sexual harassment claims become the norm at Sacramento City Hall

Sexual harassment claims have become the norm at Sacramento City Hall.

Even the mayor's own political party wants more supervision.

The Sacramento County Democratic Party called for an independent city ethics commission to investigate city hall on Wednesday. This is in light of recent multiple sexual harassment allegations and alleged misuse of public funds by a city council member. The county Democrats don't think there's anything independent about the city investigating itself.

What makes the request by the county Democrats unique is the fact that both the recently accused Mayor Kevin Johnson, and councilman Allen Warren, are both Democrats.

I asked Kerri Asbury, the chair of the Democratic Party of Sacramento County if it was a bit of an unusual move. "Well, at the end of the day, we're about holding our elected officials accountable no matter whether they're democrat or republican," said Asbury.

Sacramento County Democrats also said an independent review board was needed because complaints revealed a "shocking work environment" at city hall. That, and the fact that the mayor was using paid government staff to promote his personal brand and ego, according to Asbury. While it's unusual to hear criticism from one's own party, it's not surprising between the mayor and county Democrats.

It's probably no secret that the Sacramento County Democratic Party has had a chilly relationship with the Mayor Johnson through the years."Yes, it's true. We did not endorse him in 2008 and he did not seek our endorsement in 2012," according to Asbury.

Democratic Party vice chair Terry Schanz said in a prepared statement that he wonders "how many more negative national stories will be written about Sacramento before citizens react."

This is not the first time that an independent city ethics commission has been called for.

When Asbury was asked, she said, "Ultimately at city hall, you feel it's the fox watching the hen house. I think we need to have some transparency in our city government. Some oversight being done outside city hall."

The City of Sacramento through spokesperson Wendy Klock-Johnson issued this statement: "The city's policy and procedure on discrimination and sexual harassment complaints is available online. The city attorney's office is handling the investigation into the recently submitted claims."Sexual harassment claims become the norm at Sacramento City Hall: