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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
U.S. schools don’t have enough great teachers. There are various reasons for that, chief among them tenure protections that prevent principals from cutting loose low performers and union contracts that require the worst teachers to be paid the same as the best. But the trouble begins even before teachers arrive in the classroom: Education schools at U.S. universities don’t give them the preparation they need to succeed. (Bloomberg View)
Louis C.K. is angry. Again. Anger is one of the best tools in his vast comedic arsenal, anger so palpable it hardly seems like an act: anger about his weight, his lack of hair, his lack of a girlfriend, the travails of parenting (two daughters), the travails of life in New York, the ease with which he slips into an ice-cream-and-porn routine on his living-room floor. The anger comes from some place genuine and deep, and it has made his FX show, Louie, the finest comedy on cable. (Newsweek)
New York
Nearly 50,000 city students were turned away from charter schools this year, a very slight dip from last year’s total, according to new enrollment estimates from the New York City Charter School Center. (Chalkbeat)
A proposed nine-year contract deal between the city and the teachers union would increase teachers’ pay and simplify the way they are rated, free some schools to design innovative schedules, provide parents with more opportunities to meet with educators, and allow the city to more easily fire teachers who are deemed incompetent or accused of misconduct, officials announced Thursday. (Chalkbeat)
North Carolina
Dave Hartzell loves teaching, and his principal at Sterling Elementary says he’s one of her best. But the birth of a baby and Hartzell’s desire to let his wife stay home with the child are forcing him out. After six years of teaching he earns about $36,000 a year in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools – and that’s almost $5,000 above the state minimum. (Charlotte Observer)