Is Public Education Working?

Yesterday, I showed up to work as a substitute teacher at Holyoke High School (HHS) in Holyoke, MA. Actually, I wasn’t a substitute teacher or what we used to just call a ‘sub.’ My official title was Visiting Teacher, and my visit lasted exactly one day.

Holyoke is a city of some 38,000 residents, of whom nearly 50% are Hispanics, who initially came up from Puerto Rico looking for jobs. There used to be a lot of factory work in Holyoke, but the red brick factories are now almost completely gone. The median family income in Holyoke is just under $38 grand a year; in Massachusetts, the median family income is $84 thousand and change.

I was a permanent teacher at HHS from 1995 through 1998, when I left to work at MassMutual as a Director of IT. I retired from MotherMutual in 2008, did a few other things and would have returned to teaching a few years ago except that I (and everyone else) ran into Covid-19.

After doing all the things you have to do to get on a public payroll in MA (background checks, etc.) I reported for work at 7:30 and was given a teaching schedule consisting of 5 basic algebra classes along with a Home Room class.

The first thing I noticed was that although the Home Room started at 7:45, maybe half the 20 students ended up in their seats just before Home Room ended at 7:55. We didn’t tolerate tardiness…