by David Safier
On "Education: The Rest of the Story," the public access show I do with Ann-Eve Pedersen, I discuss the average 3-5 year tenure of teachers at charter schools. The typical story is, they begin teaching at the charters straight out of college, the schools work them hard, chew them up and spit them out. They leave a few years later exhausted and often demoralized, many of them leaving the teaching profession for good.
I have taught in both, and I have found the district schools I worked at much more challenging than the charter schools. Of course the district schools were on the East coast (CT, NY, ME,FL) while the charter schools were in AZ.
I know a teacher who taught at a TUSD high school and I was very impressed with his energy and dedication. Because of an opportunity for his spouse, they relocated to New Orleans. He had taught for 10 years in Tucson and figured he was up for the challenge. He went to work at a KIPP school with its 9-hour school days, 6 days a week. His students were not super-motivated BASIS type kids. Just average New Orleans kids, meaning very challenging circumstances. He basically ran himself into the ground and after a few months went on disability. Talk about chewing up teachers and spitting them out!