Today, along with another stellar performance in a State Board of Education meeting, State Superintendent Mark Johnson announced the following:

So, WHERE ARE THE TEACHERS? McKinney was a teacher until last school year. Jeffery Elmore is a teacher, but has spent more time in Raleigh supporting his party’s stalling a budget process and extending the long session of the 2019 NCGA until winter while using teachers as political pawns.

This list seems to include many people who do not have the best interests of public schools and their teachers and students in mind.

Lt. Gov. Dan Forest wants to give everyone a voucher for a private school, preferably a religious school. He also said this last summer in a church service:

“No other nation, my friends, has ever survived the diversity and multiculturalism that America faces today, because of a lack of assimilation, because of this division, and because of this identity politics. But no other nation has ever been founded on the principles of Jesus Christ, that begin the redemption and reconciliation through the atoning blood of our savior.”

Forest has also been critical of Cooper’s executive orders concerning the coronavirus which have probably saved lives.

The NC DPI leadership team? The one that reports only to Johnson after his enabled reorg?

There’s Sen. Deanna Ballard who issued a press release in an attempt to diminish the problem of teacher salaries. Oh, and she hates unions.

There’s Rep. Jason Saine. He’s helped set up charter schools and is a recent National Chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council – ALEC.

A “special Adviser on Education” from SAS? The private company that gave us EVAAS? The people who compute our School Performance Grades? The people who use a secret algorithm to rank teachers with Value Added Measurements?

Jonathan Felts? The unofficial spokesperson for Mark Johnson?

“Felts, a former George W. Bush White House staffer, professional GOP consultant and senior advisor to former Gov. Pat McCrory, says he’s taking no pay for his work in the office of new Superintendent Mark Johnson.

That includes providing updates and statements to the press on behalf of Johnson’s state office and offering scheduling details for the superintendent as he embarks on a statewide listening tour. Felts emphasizes his official title is transition chairman for Johnson, nearly two months into the new superintendent’s tenure in Raleigh.”

And no teachers – the people on the front lines. Yes, there are superintendents, but no teachers. And there are no people representing the two largest areas of the state: Charlotte or the Triangle where more cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed.

Considering Johnson’s performance in leading a group of people to create the outcome we had with iStation, it shouldn’t be a surprise that his leadership in  how our schools should operate after the pandemic does not instill confidence in this teacher.