A faction of the same body that is entertaining more “roles” for teachers to perform with a new licensure / pay proposal may also get to entertain a reworking of the school year that would make time an even more scarce commodity.

Rep. John Torbett is the chair of the House Select Education Committee that is “exploring” redefining the role of public education in North Carolina. That committee also seems to be doing some interesting work for the NCGA in an attempt to maybe avoid having to adhere to the LEANDRO decision.

Torbett also was a chief sponsor of HB1173 which seeks to make the state super the chair of the State Board of Education.

That WRAL report referred to in the screenshot above begins with this:

And…

Among the recommendations would be a change pushing back the start date and moving up the end date of the school year — compressing the state’s 185-day (or 1,025-hour) school year by two or more weeks. Such a change would raise questions about the length of fall, winter and spring breaks and the scheduling of teacher workdays during the school year. Torbett did not provide details on what the recommendation would be and stated only that it would “raise some conversation out in the general public.”

Torbett wants to make the person (Catherine Truitt) who is pushing the new licensure / pay proposal the head of the State Board of Education and then have teachers try and and be measured for the same amount of work in a smaller school year in a time where we are trying to come back from a pandemic.

Oh, he also wants bring some other suggestions to the table.

Because specificity is not Torbett’s strongsuit, look at that list in this way and see how those goals could be achieved.

• Higher educator pay BASED ON MERIT PAY AND ADDED VALUE MEASURES SUCH AS EVAAS.
• Expanded opportunities for grwoth and advancement for teachers that keep them in the classroom BUT NOT ADMIT THAT TEACHERS ALREADY SERVE IN VARIOUS ADVANCED ROLES AND THAT TIME IS REQUIRED FOR THIS TO HAPPEN BUT THIS PERSON WANTS TO SHORTEN THE SCHOOL YEAR.
• Addressing safety and disciplinary issues in schools WHEN TEACHERS HAVE BEEN COMMENTING FOR YEARS ABOUT THESE ISSUES BUT IT NEVER SEEMS THAT TEACHERS’ VOICES ARE HEARD.
• Declaring “all students should receive a high quality standard of education” WITHOUT EVEN ADHERING TO THE LEANDRO COURT DECISION.
• Potentially changing to how students and schools are assessed at the end of the year BY LEANING MORE ON EVAAS SCORES FOR TEACHER MEASURES AND OTHER MEASUREMENTS THAT GO INTO A 80/20 ACHIVEMENT OVER GROWTH FORMULA FOR SCHOOL REPORT CARDS?
• Introducing more “fun technology” in the classroom. WHAT THE HELL IS “FUN TECHNOLOGY” HERE? SOUNDS LIKE THAT “PERSONALIZED PLANNING” THING AGAIN.
• “Realigning” the duties of the state superintendent, the State Board of Education and state General Assembly in overseeing education that would be a “more nimble way of administering” which WOULD ALLOW FOR THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO HAVE ITS EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS BE ELECTED WITH GERRYMANDERED MAPS AND THEN SERVE ON A BOARD THAT CATERS SPECIFICALLY TO THE PEOPLE WHO DREW THOSE GERRYMANDERED MAPS IN THE FIRST PLACE. THAT BOARD WOULD THEN BE CONTROLLED BY A PERSON WHO CONTROLS DPI AND IS LOYAL TO THOSE SAME GERRYMANDERING PEOPLE.

All this in a shorter school year crafted by people who are still pushing the “learning loss” narrative but will never mention the LEANDRO court case decision.