Thread by @Ed_Realist

On my drive up here, I was listening to @JonahDispatch and @smarick on The Remnant. It was very wonky, on things I don't usually fuss about, but there was like a five minute interlude I found very interesting--I mean, the whole thing was fine, but this was revealing.

@JonahDispatch @smarick Jonah was going on about how our ed schools present a Zinnian version of the universe, and that this is what teachers are taught and go out and teach their kids.

Andy Smarick pushed back , saying yeah, that's what the top schools do, but teachers are ideologically diverse

@JonahDispatch @smarick Jonah responded by saying yeah, but you know how all reporters want to work for the Times and the Post (pre-internet), so they all skew left, so too do teachers.

@JonahDispatch @smarick "And so in the same way with the education stuff....but the private schools that pay the most, the ones that are most prestigious and that you make a career out of this stuff, they do conform more to this line"

And I was like, um, what?

@JonahDispatch @smarick Once again, @smarick pushed back pretty well, although I thought he missed a big chance to correct--unless I misunderstood @JonahDispatch . So first, thanks to Andy for sticking up for teachers quite a bit. (He could have mentioned that 1 in 3 teachers voted Trump!)

@JonahDispatch @smarick But the real premise fail that Andy did *not* correct was Jonah's apparent belief that there's a hierarchy of schools, that all public school teachers are working to get to the elite private schools. If I misunderstood that, let me know, someone.

@JonahDispatch @smarick But that belief is just flat out wrong, as is the point Jonah made leading up to it. Private school teachers are LEAST likely to have gone through ed school, because private school teachers don't need to have teaching credential. And they don't pay more. They pay a lot less.

@JonahDispatch @smarick There aren't public school teachers yearning to work at Exeter/elite private schools. And any teacher who went to an elite ed school either has rich parents or a lot of bills to pay, which means they probably had loans to forgive, and that means a lot of them teach Title I.

@JonahDispatch @smarick There's no hierarchy of schools where podunk's at the bottom and Exeter's at the top. Public school teachers pay a big price if they leave a district after 5-8 years, so most of them don't. The big exodus goes from urban schools to suburbs, usually in first 5 years.

@JonahDispatch @smarick That is, after loans are forgiven, the Title I urban school teacher runs to the suburbs, or the teacher in a mixed district moves from the poor school to the wealthier, well-behaved schools.

@JonahDispatch @smarick I used to think that private schools were hiring public school teachers who wanted out, but no, not as a general rule. Public school teachers with spouses that had great benefits, sure. But public schools pay a LOT better. Private schools hemorrhage staff.

@JonahDispatch @smarick So I was happy to see @smarick correct @JonahDispatch generally, but he didn't even remotely address the huge misconception at the heart of his question. It's just not true.

Nor is it true that public schools or private hire based on the selectivity of credentialing institution

@JonahDispatch @smarick (Btw, I just realized twitter has been @ing both guys on all these tweets, and that's new. I apologize for that!)

@JonahDispatch @smarick @ING I think Andy has it right when he says that the district itself sets the tone. But the teacher shortage has left most districts in no position to be choosy.

Besides--if we can't teach kids math and reading, how the hell come anyone thinks we can transmit political world views?