Teacher Shortages Should Be No Surprise

Tony Lux at NWI.com:

It is amazing to read about the blue ribbon committees being formed at the Statehouse to determine why there is a teacher shortage. The feigned ignorance and surprise of legislators is incredibly hypocritical.

Blame for the teacher shortage should be placed clearly at the feet of government officials in this state and across the nation who have scapegoated, demeaned and devalued the teaching profession.

...

If schools were failing, then teachers were ineffective. Teachers were not only ineffective, but overpaid as well.

The solutions were multi-faceted. Plans were formulated to evaluate teachers more stringently to get rid of the bad ones. The witch hunt to rid schools of weak teachers cast a pall over the credibility of the teaching profession. Teachers were seen as not just the most important variable, but the only variable that affected student learning. Any reference to the effects of poverty on student learning were dismissed out of hand as an effort to avoid accountability.

What followed was a legislative snowball racing downhill. An oversimplified, flawed system for grading schools on an A-F scale was created. School grades continue to be required despite major flaws in state assessments. State standards were raised to be the highest in the land, resulting in increased hours of testing time and diminishing teaching time. Laws dictated more stringent teacher evaluations tied to school grades and test scores. Laws dictated limiting salary increases so teaching experience and advanced degrees were devalued. New teacher and administrative licensing standards implied that anyone with a degree could be a teacher or administrator, even without training. Charter schools, unfettered by union agreements, were heralded as schools that could do better by hiring teachers at low salaries and cheap benefits.

Complexity index funding targeting the most disadvantaged underachievers was reduced and redirected. The effects of tax caps crippled property tax collections for many school systems, forcing them to use general fund dollars to pay debt rather than staff.

Educators are so demoralized they do not encourage their own children to follow in their footsteps, much less other students.

Today, with decreased funding for public schools, teachers cannot enter the profession with any kind of guarantee that in five to 10 years they will be earning very much more than they are now. 

Still surprised there is a teacher shortage? Really?

New York State hasn't experienced the same teacher shortages that states like Indiana and Nevada have, but the problem will get here too because there's an awful lot of teacher/bashing/scapegoating going on here that makes education a very unsavory career choice for college students of today.

For now, we have a "shortage" of "great" teachers willing to work in schools deemed "struggling" by the state and set to be handed off into receivership.

Indeed, NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia just decried this shortage and called for teachers with "heart" to come work in "struggling" schools.

Here are some Perdido Street School blog readers on the insanity of that:

This false wish for "great teachers" and "teachers who can rise to the challenges inside struggling urban schools" is just another Deform mantra. It is meant to shame teachers who are ALREADY "great" and who HAVE risen to challenges inside struggling urban schools. The dearth of teachers has been deliberately created by Deformers. They have shamed, demoralized and marginalized urban teachers. But they have done this for a very specific purpose. They want TFA's, alternate cetificates, and a general de-professionalization of teaching. So not be fooled by what they "say" they want. Look instead at what they are doing in urban districts. In Buffalo, teachers have recently been referred to as "dregs" and "the lowest form of human capital" by our superintendent/receiver. It doesn't get any clearer than that.

And:

"We're in the process now if looking for teachers who really have that heart ......" What? Are you @#$%ing crazy? If you gave me a 20K bonus to work in one of those receivership schools, I wouldn't take it. Why? Here's why. If you take it, your MOSL SCORES will be SHIT. In NYC where I teach, that's currently 40% or 40 points out of 100. Last school year I received a 17 and an 18 out of 20 for each piece. Obviously that's a total of 35 out of 40 which is very good. These shit schools that teachers with "heart" should go to are pulling 7's and 8's. That's around 15 out of 40. If you score below 65 total, which is very possible at one of these shit schools, you will be labeled "ineffective". You can be the BEST teacher in the world BUT if your at Lehman HS or Clinton HS or Any other, you literally have no chance. If you get 2 ineffectives in a row, a 3020-a process can easily remove you. You will be terminated. Your family, house, future, all destroyed because you were supposed to have "heart". What a @#$%ing JOKE. I HOPE SHE READS THIS IR SOMEONE GETS HER MY MESSAGE. The goal, find a small school to jump into and do your job, get your MOSL scores that these schools produce. If they really want teachers to work at "these" schools, they must eliminate the evaluation procedure because it's not reflective of the truth. Then again, I'm a Physical Education teacher at a really nice small school in the Bronx. My MOSL is based off ELA, nothing to do with me. This is also ridiculous because any schmuck in Bronx Science teaching Gym is riding the data wave. All BULLSHIT.

Indeed, it is all bullshit - teachers know it, the kids they teach know it and this is why, as we move forward into the future, fewer and fewer of those kids will look to follow in the footsteps of their teachers.

And why should they?

The system is rigged against teachers, the media and the political class take daily potshots at teachers, educators have been blamed for everything from the high rate of poverty and inequity in this country to the near economic collapse of the system in 2007/2008 and, as Tony Lux said in his NWI.com piece, the politicians and educrats have worked overtime to strip teachers of economic incentives (i.e., raises) based upon anything other than test scores and so-called objective "data" that really only measures how well a teacher's students' families are.

Add in the stripping of work protections from teachers, the imposition of the EngageNY teaching scripts onto educators and the increased linkage of test scores to teacher evaluations (now up to 50% in New York thanks to our "Student Lobbyist Governor") and you'd have to say any kid who thinks about going into teaching now ought to have his/her head examined.

Carl Heastie Acknowledges Even A "Super Teacher" Can't Break The Ravages Of Poverty, Mental Illness, Outside Issues

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie suggested to the Times-Union that success in school may be a little more complex than "It's the teacher's fault!":

In a wide-ranging interview with the Times Union editorial board on Monday, Heastie said it's high time lawmakers and others looked at students' lives inside and outside the classroom when it comes to addressing education.

"I really think that we shouldn't be looking at education alone anymore or mental health alone anymore or poverty alone anymore. I think that we have to look at the total family structure and see why it is that students are going into school not prepared for these challenges," the speaker said. "And I think a lot of it has to do with what's going on at home and their neighborhoods. Even super teacher may not be able to get through to a student whose life outside of school has issues."

...

"It's anti-poverty legislation, mental health, social services, minimum wage, all of these things that can change the outcome and plights of families," he said.

Heastie's allied with the teachers unions, so it's not a surprise that what he said to the Times-Union sounds like it could have been said by Randi Weingarten or Michael Mulgrew as they pushed for community schools that offer social and health services to students.

Nonetheless it is good to have one of the three men in the room state this publicly, though you can bet the other two men in the room (Cuomo, Flanagan) won't acknowledge any such thing.

Not that Heavy Heart Carl will do anything about it - last legislative session was heavy on the "Blame The Teachers/Blame The Schools" items, with standardized tests now counting for 50% of a teacher's evaluation, tenure gutted by two consecutive "ineffective" ratings, and the state getting receivership powers over "struggling" and "persistently struggling" schools.

The governor and his education reform donor pals wanted that legislative and that's exactly what they got it.

The only thing Heastie and his Assembly Heavy Hearts held on were Cuomo's beloved school voucher program that would have allowed him to steal even more money from public schools and give it to private schools.

As it is, Cuomo still managed to steer hundreds of millions of extra dollars the way of the private school sector and of course none of the new "accountability measures" for public schools count for charters.

So what Heastie says about taking a holistic approach to education, that's nice to hear, but in reality, it will have no bearing on our teaching or students' learning.

This coming school year will be another "Blame The Teachers/Blame The Schools" year thanks to Governor Cuomo, State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and Heavy Heart Heastie.

Being A Teacher These Days Means Walking A Tightrope Without A Safety Net

There's this myth perpetuated by education reformers, politicians and the media that "bad teachers" can't be fired, that once you become a tenured teacher, all you have to do to remain in the job is breathe and not get convicted of a felony.

The truth is far from the myth as this commenter at Perdido Street School blog writes:

Who'd want to become a teacher anywhere? I don't teach in a struggling school (though its close) and the decision to come in to teaching ranks as the biggest mistake of my life. Financially, psychologically, etc. A toll is taken on the psyche when your profession is labeled as the reason for almost all the negative issues going on in our society, relentlessly, no matter how ridiculous. The volume of it and the incessant nature makes one a bit twitchy. It was a stupid call. At least working at Amazon, you are probably paid well for the few years you survive....and then you can go get another job.

The thing that isn't talked about so much, and should be, is that when a teacher is drummed out, for any reason really, they will never teach again in public school. It's an established, formalized, institutionalized, fully-legal blacklisting. So a public school teacher falling under the hatchet of reform faces a much steeper slope out of unemployment than does, say, a corporate person who gets fired. As always, the "accountability" and "disruption" on the corporate side is always somehow lighter than they want to impose on the public side.

A fired teacher is DONE....the one thing they have prepared and trained for is no longer something they can tap on in their job search. (Unless they go to work at a desperate private school that will pay them like $19k a year.) Even admin....they leave or get booted somewhere, they get to become admin somewhere else (see Elia). No deep institutional, legal blacklisting for them! Even principals, AP's, Directors, etc in my district who have been let go for deep incompetence always get another job in Admin by the next school year in another district.

So that's a thing and it matters. For teachers, our options become way way way limited after being fired. We are the ultimate tightrope walkers...no safety nets.

That's right - as I posted this morning, get the "I" rating smeared on your head and you're pretty much done - administrators will look to drum you out (especially if you're a senior teacher higher up on the salary step ladder), the system will look to drum you out (and with two "ineffective" ratings in a row, that can be done in an expedited manner), and no one will look to hire you.

I am in my fifteenth year as a public school teacher, before that I was in grad school and working as both a per diem substitute teacher and an SAT tutor.

I haven't had a job outside education since 1999.

Let's say I get dinged two years running under the new iteration of Andrew Cuomo's APPR teacher evaluation system and get an expedited trip out of my NYCDOE teaching job by 2017.

What would I do for work then?

As the commenter above noted, my experience and my resume is stuffed to the gills with education-related credentials and work.

Good luck to me trying to get a job doing something outside education with that kind of resume, but good luck to me trying to get a job inside education with the "ineffective" scarlet letter.

Walmart greeter here I come.

Welcome to Walmart, welcome to Walmart, welcome to Walmart...

It's time to dispense with the media myth that tenure is a lifetime appointment to a teaching gig.

The truth is, tenure no longer exists and it doesn't take a whole hell of a lot to have your career taken from you in an expedited (and rigged) process.

Think I'm engaging in hyperbole?

Head on over to a receivership school and see where you are in two to three years.

NY Times Covers National Teacher Shortage, But Misses Point Of Why It's Happening

And so we've gone from "How do we fire teachers!" to "Gee, we can't find teachers!" in a pretty short period of time - even the education reporter at the NY Times noticed:

ROHNERT PARK, Calif. — In a stark about-face from just a few years ago, school districts have gone from handing out pink slips to scrambling to hire teachers.

Across the country, districts are struggling with shortages of teachers, particularly in math, science and special education — a result of the layoffs of the recession years combined with an improving economy in which fewer people are training to be teachers.

...

Louisville, Ky.; Nashville; Oklahoma City; and Providence, R.I., are among the large urban school districts having trouble finding teachers, according to the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents large urban districts. Just one month before the opening of classes, Charlotte, N.C., was desperately trying to fill 200 vacancies. 

But as is usual with the Times ed coverage, they screw up the story and miss why the shortage is happening:

Educators say that during the recession and its aftermath prospective teachers became wary of accumulating debt or training for jobs that might not exist. As the economy has recovered, college graduates have more employment options with better pay and a more glamorous image, like in a rebounding technology sector.

In California, the number of people entering teacher preparation programs dropped by more than 55 percent between 2008 and 2012, according to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Nationally, the drop was 30 percent between 2010 and 2014, according to federal data. Alternative programs like Teach for America, which will place about 4,000 teachers in schools across the country this fall, have also experienced recruitment problems.

Yes, it's true that a rebounding economy leads fewer people to go into teaching - there are more opportunities available for other kinds of work with "better pay and a more glamorous image."

But unexplored in the Motiko Rich Times piece is one big reason why teaching isn't a job with a glamorous image. - the consequences of 10+ years of corporate education reforms.

Every day you open the newspaper or turn on the TV, you see or hear some teacher-bashing crap, some politician like Christie saying he wants to punch teachers in the face, some rag like the Post blaming teachers for destroying the lives of children by using the Three Little Pigs as a DO NOW exercise to teach POV and bias.

Then there are the new "accountability rules" - the constant observations, the evaluation ratings tied to test scores (as high as 50%), the increased work load and stress for the same (or less) money, the decreased benefits, gutted pensions, and diminished work protections like tenure (Kansas is an emblem of this, but it's happening nationwide too.)

I'd say if kids are looking around at the job landscape and saying "Hell, I can do better than be a teacher!", they're right - and smart for saying it.

I teach seniors and I tell the ones who say they want to be teachers to think twice about the major - that teacher bashing and odious accountability measures (most of which simply add more work to a teacher's load without making them better teachers) make the job miserable these days.

I also tell them that teaching isn't really a career anymore, that the politicians and educrats and oligarchs who fund education reform see it as a McJob that can be filled by untrained temps who do it for a couple of years and move on (or get moved on by accountability measures) to something else.

To that end, the Times again:

Ms. Cavins, 31, who once worked as a paralegal and a nanny, began a credentialing program at Sonoma State University here in Rohnert Park less than a year ago. She still has a semester to finish before she graduates. But later this month she will begin teaching third grade — in both English and Spanish — at Flowery Elementary School in Sonoma. Ms. Cavins said she would lean on mentors at her new school as well as her professors. “You are not on that island all alone,” she said.

Esmeralda Sanchez Moseley, the principal at Flowery, said she could not find a fully credentialed — let alone experienced — teacher to fill the opening. “The applicant pool was next to nothing,” she said. “It’s crazy. Six years ago, this would not have happened, but now that is the landscape we are in.”

Before taking over a classroom solo in California, a candidate typically must complete a post-baccalaureate credentialing program, including stints as a supervised student teacher. But in 2013-14, the last year for which figures are available, nearly a quarter of all new teaching credentials issued in California were for internships that allow candidates to work full time as teachers while simultaneously enrolling in training courses at night or on weekends.

In addition, the number of emergency temporary permits issued to allow non-credentialed staff members to fill teaching posts jumped by more than 36 percent between 2012 and 2013.

At California State University, Fresno, 100 of the 700 candidates enrolled in the teacher credentialing program this year will teach full time while completing their degree.

“We don’t like it,” said Paul Beare, dean of the Fresno State school of education. “But we do it.”

Mission accomplished for education reformers - a cheap untrained temp workforce is soon going to be commonplace in schools, this will lead to an even bigger "teaching quality crisis" and allow reformers to promote privatization as the answer to the "education crisis."

Shame Motiko Rich missed the part of the story about how education reform has helped bring about the national teacher shortage.

But alas, this is another example of a Times ed article that only gets half the story: the "national teaching shortage" is reformer-generated and will serve the ultimate goal of may education reformers - to destroy the public school "monopoly" and privatize the public school system.

Caring For Students Beyond Their Academic Needs

I was observed for the fourth and final time this week.

This one was announced and I had two days of preparation time to get ready for it.

While I was trying to put together a dog/pony show lesson that would satisfy the Danielson rubric-wielding administrator looking for evidence of "rigor," "assessment" and "differentiation," I had to take some time out to do what it is I'm supposed to do and help students.

One student needed help amending her financial aid form - she had drastically underestimated her parents' income because she was using various income documents that were, to be frank, a mess to comprehend.

Amending a FAFSA form shouldn't take that long but making sense of what mom made, what dad made and putting that onto the form so that it added up to their joint married income did - about forty minutes in total.

Then another student needed some help editing an appeal letter to a college she was rejected from.  That took a few minutes, not too long, but when you're supposed to be getting ready for an observation in the high stakes era of "I and bye!" (as in "ineffective"), time matters.

I had a scholarship recommendation to write for a student that was due Friday - this one was my fault, the student had asked before break but I had forgotten to write it and now had to get it done on deadline (which I did.)

Finally another student wanted to talk about some things going on at home that she's been struggling with. I had given her a book I had about "sensitive people" (I keep a library of social and emotional books in my classroom that I lend or give to students I think may be helped from reading them) and she wanted to talk about how one of the chapters had resonated for her.

This is the kind of thing I enjoy about being a teacher - the opportunity to use my talents, skills and experience to help students in various ways, from financial aid help to college counseling work to social/emotional counseling.

None of that work showed up in my observation, of course.

The only thing that matters in an observation these days is the academic stuff - is the material "rigorous," are the assessments comprehensive and ongoing, am I "differentiating" the learning for both higher performing and lower performing students - that sort of thing.

The observation came and went and I'm sure it went fine - I put on the kind of dog/pony show that administrators want to see.

But wouldn't it be nice if some of the other stuff I do that I think is just as valuable as my classroom teaching skill, made it into the observation?

How about "Amended FAFSA form for student despite needing to get lesson plan for dog/pony show done and emailed to administrator"?

How about "Helped a student with family drama going on by listening to her and trying to find some self-help material that student could read on her own to guide her through"?

How about "Cares about students and is willing to help them in whatever way he can"?

Quite frankly, I don't really need acknowledgement for this stuff, because I do it freely and without expectation of that.

In other words, I do not want a pat on the back or a medal for doing what I think is part of my job.

But in this "Era Of The Bad Teacher," it would be nice if evaluations took into account more than just "rigor," "assessment" and the like, because had I not put on a dog/pony show the way the administrator wanted, all that other stuff I did this week to help students wouldn't have saved me from being "ineffective."

Trading Places: Education Edition

A commenter at Perdido Street School blog responds to Ruben Diaz Sr.'s assertion that the NYCDOE dumps the "worst teachers" into the Bronx:

NYCDOE dumps "the worst teachers" in the city into the Bronx? Seriously Lord Cuomo? In your blackest heart of hearts do you really believe this? And you really believe that the "best teachers" can close the learning gap produced by generational poverty and the hopelessness it breeds?

Then take this simple suggestion: A "Trading Places" pilot program that would save a lot of time, money, and energy. Take the best 8th grade math and ELA teachers in your Byram Hills district and switch them with the "worst" math and ELA teachers in the Bronx. Give it two years to be fair - and watch the miracle happen. Those "worst" teachers from the Bronx will suddenly find themselves on the highly effective list. What simple way to improve teacher performance. And its free. Oh, and those Byram Hills teachers - you can simply fill their resignations with some TFAers.

A fantastic idea, and one that I think we should push.

Switch the "bad teachers" from the "failing schools" with the "excellent teachers" from the "excellent schools" and let's see how things look after two years.

Even have a dollar to put up for the bet.

What say you, Mortimer?

Randolph?

Ruben?

Andy?

Care for an experiment?

Prostitute Scandal At Cuomo's Thruway Authority

It's like Spitzer never left:

ALBANY — Investigators are looking into whether top Thruway Authority officials used their state phones to make arrangements with call girls, the Daily News has learned.

...

It’s unclear how many people are being looked at. But sources say it is believed that at least one and maybe more used their office phones or work cellphones to arrange the meetings.


Amid the probe, authority Executive Director Thomas Madison and chief financial officer John Bryan resigned at the end of the year.

Billionaire developer Howard Milstein also recently resigned as the chairman.  

One source said Milstein, a big-time donor to Gov. Cuomo, left to avoid getting caught up in the controversy once the IG report is released. But another source denied that was the case, saying Milstein had planned to leave after Cuomo’s first term.

It's turning out to be a hell of a start to the political year for Governor Cuomo.

He has his "Opportunity Agenda" speech moment stolen by the feds when US Attorney Preet Bharara arrested Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver the next day.

Speculation is spreading that Cuomo himself is a target of the federal investigation.

Now Cuomo's got a hooker scandal at the Thruway Authority that was helmed by one of his big donors.

But he's going to push through a slate of education reforms because the biggest problem the state is facing is "bad teachers."

Never mind the corrupt politicians, the corrupt governor, the slew of Albany arrests and indictments (and promises of more to come) and now the hooker scandal at the Thruway Authority that may involve one of Cuomo's big donors.

When Did Campbell Brown Get Elected Governor Of New York State?

Cuomo yesterday, doubling down on his threats against teachers the past few weeks:

"The teachers’ union represents the teachers. I understand that. … I represent the students and I want to do the best we can for the students and for their education," he said. "One of the issues we have to work through where the teachers’ union doesn’t agree with me is, I want to evaluate teachers, and I want to be able to get bad teachers out of the classroom.

“I understand the union’s issue; they don’t want anyone fired,” Cuomo said. “But we have teachers that have been found guilty of sexually abusing students who we can’t get out of the classroom. We have a process where literally it takes years and years to get a bad teacher out of the classroom. And I understand the teachers’ rights, but I also understand the students’ rights. And the Albany government, the Albany media, is very responsive to the teachers’ union and their groups. I get it. But the students have rights, too. And this whole education system is about the students.”

Sounds just like Campbell Brown, doesn't it?

Interestingly, he talks about understanding students' rights, but fails to mention how so many parents and students hate the Common Core and Endless Testing regime the education establishment continues to pursue in this state.

See, opposing CCSS or the Endless Testing regime doesn't make his campaign donors happy, so he's not going to push that kind of "reform" ever.

He's instead going to play the manipulation card and make like there are thousands of "bad teachers" in classrooms raping and pillaging on their lunch breaks and prep periods and try and rile the public up to support his so-called reform agenda.

Don't be surprised if we don't see some Daily News or Post pieces detailing a couple of incidents to set the stage for the govenor's anti-teacher/anti-union agenda next week.

Hell, they may even show up in the Post or Daily News courtesy of the real Campbell Brown and not her doppelganger, the guy in the governor's office.

Rudy Giuliani: When Black Men Are Killed By Police, It's The Fault Of Teachers

Via Raging Horse we learn that former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the Saint of 9/11, said this:

“Maybe all these left-wing politicians that want to blame police, maybe there’s some blame here that has to go to the teachers union, for refusing to have, for refusing to have schools where teachers are paid for performance, for fighting charter schools, for fighting vouchers, so we can drastically and dramatically improve the education situation. Maybe they should be talking about and holding rallies about the problem of black fathers taking care of the children they fathered,” he said.”

Wow.

I've heard all sorts of reasons for why ed deformers want charter schools, vouchers, merit pay and a busted teachers union, but this is a new one.

I wonder if Giuliani will blame teachers when worldwide protests explode after the U.S. torture investigation report is released?

13 Rape Allegations (Including One Statutory) Against Bill Cosby, But Whoopi Goldberg Still Defends Him

From the Daily News:

A shrill, backstage brawl at “The View” Wednesday left co-host Rosie Perez in tears while panelists Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie O’Donnell battled over how to cover the latest allegations against Bill Cosby and the racially charged upheaval in Ferguson, Mo., sources said.

O’Donnell believed the show — now overseen by ABC News — needed to delve deeper into both controversial subjects, while Goldberg wanted to steer clear of the topics altogether.

Ultimately, both news stories were discussed at length on the air by the panel.

“There’s terrible frustration and there are problems,” a source close to the show told the Daily News. “Whoopi didn’t want to talk about Cosby and Ferguson, Rosie (O’Donnell) did — how could you not? These are topics that are uncomfortable for everyone, but it’s ‘The View’ and it’s their job to talk about topics that might make some people tense.”

Whoopi was happy to bash "bad teachers" not once but twice over the summer, claiming teacher tenure protects them.

Yet she defends her pal Cosby - now with 13 public rape allegations against him including one with an underage girl of 15 - by trying to ensure "The View" steers clear of the topic.

This comes after she defended him earlier in the week and attacked one of his accusers, saying she had "lots of questions" for her.

Apparently Whoopi doesn't want to address any of those questions publicly on "The View" anymore.

Another teacher-basher exposed as a hypocrite and a phony.

Hey, Whoopi - if you have such concern for the kids, why not let "The View" cover the Cosby story, including the allegation that your friend Bill Cosby repeatedly had sex with an underage girl?

Good God - the show is supposed to cover the news.

The public implosion of the iconic Bill Cosby into sexual predator and statutory rapist certainly is news.

And like I said in an earlier post - you can bet if this was a teacher accused of these crimes, you'd be one of the first throwing stones.

Hosts On "The View" Give Bill Cosby More Leeway Than "Bad Teachers"

The View in August (via Ed Week):

Goldberg, the host of ABC's "The View," led her co-hosts in a heated discussion on tenure on Monday's and Tuesday's show.

The discussion started during Monday's "hot topics" segment with a mention of one of the two lawsuits challenging New York state's teacher-tenure laws.

"This is for all the teachers in the audience," said Goldberg, suggesting the New York state lawsuit and similar attacks on tenure "will most likely become a big issue in the 2016 presidential elections."
"Now, no one wants a teacher in the classroom who is not a good teacher," Goldberg said.

Regular (and soon departing) co-host Jenny McCarthy cited some of the lawsuit's examples of bad teacher behavior and said: "Who's protecting the students?

Guest co-host Nicolle Wallace, a former communications adviser to President George W. Bush and now a frequent commentator on cable news shows, paraphrased an unspecified op-ed from that morning, saying, "The teachers have a union. The kids don't have a union."

Guest co-host Kayleigh McEnany, another conservative commentator, added some backstage context. "Whoopi, you were sounding a little conservative back in the green room on this one."

Goldberg, the Oscar-winning actress who comes off as liberal on most issues, said: "I'm a thinker. I think about what's best for us. To me, bad teachers don't do anybody any good. So the unions need to recognize that parents are not going to stand for it anymore. And teachers, in your union, you need to say these bad teachers are making us look bad, and we don't want it."

The View this week (via Daily Beast):

In a notably ill-informed (and that’s really saying something) segment on Monday, the ladies of The View took on the resurfacing Cosby allegations with poise, nuance, and sensitivity. Just kidding—they were real big d-bags about it. Whoopi Goldberg led the crusade by boldly saying what absolutely nobody is thinking: “I hope there is justice for this lady, I hope somebody gets to the bottom of this, but I'm going to reserve my judgment because I have a lot of questions.”

The lady who Goldberg is referring to is Barbara Bowman, one of the victims who agreed to testify in the 2006 case. According to Bowman, “Cosby won my trust as a 17-year-old aspiring actress in 1985, brainwashed me into viewing him as a father figure, and then assaulted me multiple times.”

Apparently, despite 30 years of publicly telling her story, Whoopi Goldberg still thinks Bowman has “a lot of questions” to answer to. What those questions are, and why a survivor ought to face an inquisition for sharing her traumatic experience while her alleged rapist pursues his illustrious career in peace for decades, is a question I would like to ask Whoopi Goldberg.

As you can probably guess, Goldberg did not demonstrate a similar distrust towards Cosby himself, instead suggesting that “you say, this is a friend of mine and I don’t know.” While Goldberg was too busy not blaming anyone (except the victim), Rosie Perez dared to reveal the true culprit: the world wide web. She explained, “You know what's crazy for me though, is whether the allegations are true or not, is the fact that the venom that the public has when they go on social media…And if these are true, I hope these women have their day in court and he gets the punishment—but if it's not true, a lot of people have rushed to judgment.”

Because nothing screams “rushing to justice” like decades of not being held accountable for your crimes, followed by another decade of public amnesia post allegations. 

I wonder if a teacher with 16 allegations of rape against him would get a similar defense from Whoopi Goldberg and her View co-hosts?

I'm going to say, uh, probably not.

The next time Whoopi Goldberg says anything about "bad teachers," make sure you confront her on social media about her defense of Cosby.

Because she's full of shit.

In fact, confront her anyway about it.

Here and here.