Wire service front-pager in today’s Greensboro News & Record pondering if Wednesday’s teachers rally in Raleigh will make a difference. JLF Vice President for Research and Director of Education Studies Terry Stoops is quoted:
The response from teachers and school districts is causing critics to say that the protest is a “political stunt” that is inconveniencing families. The N.C. Republican Party is derisively calling Wednesday “Teacher Walkout Day.”
“I think they will see very unhappy parents who are sympathetic to their plight but who feel like they could voice their concerns in a different way that didn’t interfere with the instructional day,” said Terry Stoops, vice president of research for the John Locke Foundation.
….Stoops of the Locke Foundation says school districts should have denied the requests for leave.“Their weak-kneed response was to cancel classes rather than to ask teachers to take their political activities and do them on their own time or after the school year concludes,” said Stoops, a former teacher. “There are plenty of options for allowing teachers to engage in political activities that don’t interrupt their classroom duties and responsibilities.”
As you can imagine the response from teachers advocates—namely Mark Jewell, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators– is the walkout is benefitting the students. I personally fail to see the logic there.