Off with their heads...

NOTE: This is a post from Jaxson, a guest writer.

When I signed up to teach, I did not expect to be appearing on 'The Apprentice' with Donald Trump.

When it comes to education reform, however, our best answer is to tell educators that they are fired.

In a weird confluence of events, people of various political stripes are gathering their bats and other blunt objects to bash the teacher piñata.

If threats work with getting people to market a new soft drink or sports car on the streets of Manhattan, we assume that we can scare our schools into teaching better.

The firing squad (as I affectionately call these critics) like to think that the best gauge of a school system's progress is based on how many teachers they get rid of. According to their assertion, if only they would dismantle teacher tenure, they would bring in better teachers who actually care about teaching.

Firstly, this is flawed logic. According to statistics, half of all teachers do not even make it to their fifth year in the classroom. Many leave for other professions. Others were terminated because they did not fulfill their obligations toward maintaining their teaching certificate to become 'highly qualified' in compliance with No Child Left Behind (Taking the General Knowledge Exam, subject area exam, etc.).

Secondly, if the firing squad is taking aim at the 'dead wood,' their aim is also off. In their zeal to simply get rid of teachers, they are forcing many competent veterans out of the profession. Case in point: I know a teacher at my school who had a doctorate degree, was a finalist for county teacher of the year and taught college classes to teachers of English language learners (ELL). The state and the district went after this thirty-year-veteran because she did not have the proper number of credit hours in ELL education. Instead of waiting to be terminated, she decided to retire early. Instead of working with a great teacher (Isn't their 'reform' about encouraging the good ones to stay?), the system created another vacancy in our system.

This is not the way to run an education system. It is more tyrannical and sadistic than anything else because it has turned into a game of 'gotcha.' The quest to punish teachers is most visible when we witness the squads of people who do their 'focus walks' at the schools. They walk around with their clipboards and hand out demerits to teachers who do not have the prettiest bulletin board, or do not have a dry erase board that looks like everyone else's in the district. They rake teachers over the coals on the superficial issues while ignoring the fact that students are too busy beating the crap out of each other to notice the 'essential questions' on the board.

Education policy should me more than just our chance to take out our frustrations on the people who spend countless ours trying to help our children. If we continue to trash educators to score a few political points, and we continue to fire first and ask questions later, there will be nothing left to reform.