Well, heck, no, say the New York State Board of Regents, as they prepare to do away with a literacy test which a prospective public school teacher has to pass before he can be certified ( http://nypost.com/2017/03/06/state-considering-major-changes-to-teacher-certification-exams/ ). [Oh, no! I used the impersonal “he”!]
Nope–after they vote on it next week, you won’t have to be able to read if you want to teach school in New York. They’re even thinking of going back and certifying some who’ve failed the rest recently.
Why are they doing this? Hint: It cannot possibly be to provide a better education for the children. I mean, does it seem that strange an idea, to have the class taught by someone who actually knows more than the students?
You guessed it! It’s because too many members of Our Cherished Minorities are failing the test. Naturally, instead of better equipping the testees to take the test, they’ll get rid of the test. Because, really, it doesn’t matter if the person teaching you is a total ignoramus, as long as he or she is a Minority. It doesn’t matter if you don’t learn anything the whole time you’re in class, as long as your school’s teaching staff is Diverse.
And it certainly doesn’t matter how much money they wring out in taxes from you, to pay for what they laughingly call an “education” but which is rapidly evolving into a euphemism for paying off teacher pensions.
Do I get extra credit for using the word “evolving”?