no I don't think he is. i bet there are some great teachers.
but why are you so quick to jump to their defense?
they're teaching in schools without the training and credentials that are required of American teachers. if you're not an American, you don't have to follow the rules? but if you are you do? there's a lot of legal bilingual American teachers who need jobs. and they're not easy to get.
Did everyone read the article? (Not surprised that Dario didn't, lol.)
According to the article, it's been difficult for the Denver Public School system to find qualified teachers who are bi-lingual. So the state of Colorado has established an alternative teaching license that allows bi-lingual folks to work as teachers who are at the same time taking classes that would enable them to obtain their traditional teaching license(s) within one year and they're giving preference to people who were brought to this country as illegal aliens when they were minors if they also have clean criminal records. Whoop-de-doo.
If the above is true, this is no big deal because:
- The best, most credentialed teacher in the world is gonna have a hard time if he or she doesn't speak the same language as the students.
- Hiring folks who share the experiences of those they're teaching can only be good for the students who likely need wholesome role models they can identify with.
- A whopping 2 teachers have been hired so far and they say that plans to hire only about 10 more are in the works.
As someone else mentioned, this issue probably is really about money/salary. I'm guessing you'd have to offer a lot of $ (comparatively) to a fully qualified and experienced bi-lingual teacher to live and teach in cold-ass Denver. Probably a lot cheaper to use one of these intern-type folks. (And, if they're only teaching the kids who currently have very little proficiency in English, it's probably OK, imo.)