MEMO TO: Council of Chief State School Officers
FROM: Democrats for Education Reform
RE: Potential PR disaster for “Teacher of the Year” awards
First off, congratulations on a wonderful event at the White House today honoring the incredible role that great teachers are playing in rebuilding our nation for the challenges of our collective global future. To have your important message so strongly reinforced by President Obama and Secretary Duncan (and especially Teacher of the Year Michelle Shearer, of Maryland) made the Rose Garden ceremony a clear home run in our eyes.
But we couldn’t help but worry about the potential public relations disaster that awaits.
There were times that the sun was in our eyes, but it looked to us like a lot of the teachers selected to represent their states were – how do we put this – not the most senior teachers in their respective states. In fact, most of the winners looked like the kind of youthful, energetic, world-changing teachers who, as Shearer put it, could be doing anything in their careers but have chosen to make a difference in the lives of children.
(Let’s just say the ratio of gray hair to non-gray hair in the audience – Williams and Barone included – was around 70:1, while the same ratio for the winning teachers on the steps was like 1:70. It’s not like all of the teachers were spring chickens, mind you, but they were clearly closer to being “last hired” if you catch our drift.)
To be clear, we have nothing against teachers with less than 20-years of classroom experience. Many of them are great people who are working miracles for children.
But considering the nasty fiscal climate that wer’re encountering nationwide, and the reality that pink slips are becoming as commonplace as detention slips in many districts, we urge you to consider awarding your future state “Teacher of the Year” awards to educators based SOLELY on seniority.
It’s obviously the fairest way to handle these kinds of situations going forward, and it will have the added benefit of steering clear of embarrassing headlines in the event these excellent teachers of the year are laid off by their districts due to “last hired, first fired” or “last in, first out” rules.
Congrats again. In seniorite and fraternite!