The battle in regard to in person learning rages on across the country.
Of course we have seen a surge in coronavirus cases.
Thanks to the omicron variant hospitals have been overwhelmed,
especially in states where a lot of people have refused to get vaccinated or
refused to get boosted.
Now Oklahoma happens to be one of those states.
And so in lieu of educators people who actually go to school have
expertise have the necessary training to be teachers.
Oklahoma has decided to rely on other professionals to fill those roles.
And those professionals include cops, armed cops.
So let's take a look at this post by the more police department in Oklahoma, more
PD is proud community partner is a proud community partner of more public schools.
This week several on duty officers are serving in the classroom as
schools continue to face teacher and staff shortages.
Today officers Straczynski and Lewis covered 6th grade classes at
Apple Creek Elementary, 6th grade is not an elementary is it?
>> It is.
>> It wasn't in, I don't think it is.
There's like middle of school, that's definitely elementary for.
>> Okay.
>> Well in Connecticut anyway.
>> Okay it's middle school in California.
But anyway let's move on it doesn't even matter if it's more important.
Yeah, so you see the photo of the cops and like who knows look,
let's be fair maybe the cops actually these are cops who maybe made
a career change from being educators to then later being cops.
Maybe they have the credentials necessary to be teachers because guess what guys
teaching is a profession that you would need credentials for.
That's why their education programs and
that's why teachers are expected to meet certain standards, right?
Except no none of those qualifications are implemented or mandatory or
expected under this weird system where you use cops in lieu of qualified teachers.
By the way of course no masks, full uniform, armed with guns.
Great I would really love my sixth grader to be part of that class.
>> They took promotional photos for it and they didn't even wear masks and
some of the kids in the photos are wearing masks.
You're in this position because so many people have Covid, I'll step in and
breathe all over the kids.
What is it with cops not participating in this?
Like I when I say this, I mean any societal solution to the pandemic.
>> Yeah, [CROSSTALK] >> Any are good or
whatever, but none of those cops was wearing a mask.
>> And this is Oklahoma where I would venture to say there's a more
laxed attitude during this pandemic.
And the Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt is the one who issued this executive order to
find people, anyone basically to fill the role of teachers during these shortages.
So this is an executive order.
Here's what he said in an official statement I've said from the beginning
that our students deserve an in person education and
our schools need to stay open.
I appreciate schools and teachers that are doing everything they can to provide in
person learning for their students as well as the business community for stepping up.
So-. >> CEOs are being substitute teachers I
guess.
>> No not CEOs, CEOs are using some of their employees to also fill these
roles but like okay so for me this is the important point to the story.
It makes it so clear that the obsession with in person learning for
some, not all I understand that in person learning is important and
I'm not minimizing that.
But for me my consideration is in regard to
what serves the best interests of the students, like I care about that.
So I understand the concerns about not receiving in person learning but
that is not what most people,
especially those involved in this story are concerned about.
What they're really concerned about is yo parents, they got to go back to work.
Okay so let's get these brats taken care of, we'll hire some cops to do it.
No they don't have the credentials for it.
They don't they might not even know math but they can teach sixth grade math.
Why not?
As long as we provide some form of day care.
So employers can get their employees back to work.
That's to me that's what this is about because if it
was really about ensuring quality education for the kids.
You wouldn't have people who are not qualified for the job,
filling the role of teachers during teachers shortage.
>> You could import teachers from another part of the country that's not
experiencing a horrific rise in Covid, well, actually, that's not actually.
>> Yeah. >> No, look, you're sort of,
I guess joking.
It's daycare or whatever.
But yeah, like I'm going to guess that the republican governor of Oklahoma probably
doesn't stay up late at night wondering if elementary students are getting
a good enough education.
Probably not so just throw the cops in there or whatever.
And if the cops get Covid or if the cops spread Covid, whatever, because I think
you have at least what you have the pragmatic business side of this cover.
The other half is he is a Republican and so he has to be in favor of in person
teaching because they have decided that is now a part of our political identity.
Why?
I don't know, does it have anything to do with conservatism?
>> No.
>> Gun rights?
I don't know, it's just they decided and Tucker Carlson did some monologues.
And so now every single Republican effect elected official has to be in support of
it regardless of the Covid situation in their state.
Regardless of the percentage of school personnel that are available to work.
They just have to do it because if they don't, they'll get attacked.
>> So honestly, I really think it's because they want to support business
interests and they want to get everyone back to work.
I really think that's what's driving this and yeah,
maybe they've also decided to lean into this as a culture war issue possibly.
But my point is it has nothing to do with what serves the best
interests of students.
How can we ensure that they're getting the best education possible despite
the fact that we're still dealing with this pandemic.
And remember we're talking about Oklahoma here where there is a huge
population of people who have not been vaccinated.
If you have been vaccinated, if you have been boosted as we've said on this show
before, I don't want people to panic about omicron obviously still be responsible
mask social distance and all of that.
But if you're not vaccinated you do have something to be concerned about.
And Oklahoma tends to be one of the states that has lower vaccination rates and
before I get to those data points.
I want to point out the qualifications that these cops and
others need to have before filling the role of teachers.
No, none of that, not even that.
So Secretary of Education Ryan Walters said all additional persons paired with
public schools will be required to pass standard background checks.
Nice avoid inappropriate conduct with students.
Okay, that's good and follow state and local laws and rules.
There are clear expectations of what is expected from a sub and
how they will behave Walter said what about their ability to teach?
What about that?
Like does that matter at all?
>> I think there's any expectation that they will be teaching anything.
I don't think that they're generally is for
most subs I think subs do an important job than they have for literally decades.
But I don't think so here they're bringing in cops in Texas.
They're literally asking parents to come in and
sub I don't think they expect anything it's gonna be taught there.
I think it's just-.
>> I want to make a correction so I guess it depends on the school district but
there was a brief period of time where I was having a career crisis.
And like I was like I could do substitute teaching until I figure out my life and
you have to go through like a testing process.
You have to yeah you have to have certain qualities.
>> But these aren't people who are working in an ongoing way as subs these are people
clearly filling a vacancy due to pandemic.
Like the parents that are being tapped in Texas and
I don't like either of those solutions.
But the solutions bother me less than the fact that we're in this situation at
all coupled with an unwillingness to even admit that this is yet
another massive failure.
So the Republican Governor of Oklahoma is not saying okay guys we got to get
somebody like maybe it's the cops, maybe it's the post office people.
People who serve in some leadership position, please help us because we're
desperate because everybody's got CCovid we should have taken it more seriously.
They're not saying that they're like, hey, this is awesome.
Let's get some cops in there.
Don't get vaccinated.
That is the thing that bothers me the most.
We do not need to be in this situation, but you won't get vaccinated,
you won't take it seriously.
You're coughing in each other's mouths and you have been for a year and a half and
there has been no increase in understanding since the very beginning of
this thing.
>> And just to really reinforced John's point here, why don't we go to the final
graphic which shows you what the Covid cases look like in Oklahoma specifically.
So if you look at the graph, you see this sharp incline at the very end.
Thanks to the omicron variant and as I've mentioned before,
Oklahoma is one of the states that has the lowest vaccination rates.
And that leads to the problem that they're experiencing to begin with, with
the teacher shortages and schools having to shut down for in person learning.
There was a better way to handle all of this and the very people who bitch and
moan about teachers not wanting to show up for in person learning.
Are the very ones who created an unsafe environment that they don't want
to be part of to begin with.
So I think that's a really good point, John, I completely agree with you on that.
And I feel bad for the people who are caught in the middle,
the students who deserve a quality education.
They deserve more than just being thrown into, some building that's masquerading as
education when really it's nothing more than daycare, it's pathetic.
>> And it's serving mainly as a chicken pox party right now, basically.
>> Yeah.