Seriously? Well, Apparently.

Tonight on the news, I heard a snippet about a high school in Rhode Island that will be firing ALL of its teachers. I think I got whiplash trying to turn around to catch the rest of the segment.

Apparently, this poverty stricken school in Rhode Island is sucking. Their graduation rate is hoovering around 50%, 90% of their students are living below the poverty level, and 25% of the students are ESL (English as a second language). In my experience, as limited as it may be, the last two of these things can pretty much guarantee a struggling school.

Now, here is the question: WHY are they firing all the teachers?

Well, in reading through a few articles, it sounds like it might be two-fold. CBS Link ABC Link

CBS makes it sound like the teachers are being let go simply because their school is underperforming. The ABC article goes a bit more in depth, and it turns out that the teachers want to get paid for the extra 25 minutes a day they would be working (among other new responsibilities). The teacher's union said no way and so the teachers will be fired.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't work for free. Work is work. If I was an hourly employee, that 25 minutes would be worth money. Why should that 25 minutes not be worth money to a salaried teacher? After all, that extra 25 minutes a day works out to be an extra 2 weeks worth of work over the course of a 190 day school calendar.

I also don't feel like teacher performance should be so strictly tied to student achievement. Sure, the lazy teacher who sleeps in class and, literally, doesn't even try to teach (shout out to my 11th grade Chem teacher, Mr. Miller!) is not going to have students who are knocking people's socks off. But I firmly believe there are plenty of fabulous teachers out there who have students who could give a shit about education. Those students are not going to do what needs to be done. I also believe there are plenty of fabulous teachers out there who have students who just can't do the whole school thing. And that's fine. I'm a firm believer that a lot of today's school curriculum is not necessary. The world needs gas station attendants probably more than it needs CEOs.

Regardless, I think the firing of all the school's teachers is excessive at best and downright idiotic at worst.

Maybe its good that I got out of education.