Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed HB 4292 into law to allow non-teacher school employees (such as lunch ladies) to act as substitute teachers. Typically, substitute teachers must have at least an Associate’s Degree with 60 hours of training. That standard has been lowered to anyone with a high school degree or an equivalent certificate such as a GED (General Education Degree). Aside from lunch ladies, other school employees will be eligible to act as subs under the new law. Bus drivers, librarians, secretaries, and more may become substitute teachers at some point. The bill was sponsored and backed by a group of state Republicans.
Understaffing has been described as the new pandemic. Restaurants, bars, hotels, and other similar spaces have been open for a while after random lockdowns. However, the lockdown created more problems for these places other than losing out on business while they were forced into temporary closing. After reopening, many of these places could not get their employees to return. The mainstream media will say this is a result of workers realizing they were underpaid and instead of coming back to said underpaid job, they found something better. The reality is that many of these poeple simply do not want to work because they found being at home and living off of the Government a more attractive alternative.
Schools are no different than restaurants and hotels when it comes to dealing with the problems of understaffing. Many teachers found the stress of trying to educate children through remote learning too much to bear. Others were afraid of the virus. The majority of teachers who quit probaby did so for the same reason restaurant workers and everyone else did. To sit at home, collect a government check, and not do much else. The problem with that is that the same amount of kids need to be educated. Substitute teachers fill in the gaps when regular teachers decide to skip town or take a break. But there is shortage of them as well. So Michigan came up with the bright idea to stick pretty much any adult in the classroom with a pulse.
If this becomes an evident pattern all over the country, more and more people will simply refuse to send their kids to public school. Home school and private school (if available) will be the primary option. For those who cannot afford to leave their jobs to educate their children or pay for very pricey private school, the only thing left is to battle the public school system. Parents are already getting on the bad side of the FBI for viocing their greivances at school board meetings. Attempting to intimidate or shame concerned parents of public school kids into silence won’t work. These parents voices will only get louder because the problem will not get better any time in the near future.
SOURCES:
Whitmer signs bill allowing non-teaching school staff to serve as subs
Michigan Lets School Cooks, Bus Drivers Substitute Teach Amid Shortage
Michigan governor signs bill to keep K-12 classes open by using non-teaching staff as substitutes – World Socialist Web Site
Bus drivers as subs? Here’s what educators think | WOODTV.com
Poll: 90% of Chicago Public School Teachers Would Go Back to Virtual Learning
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