TCLA: Bill of Rights: Features: 7: Interview with Jerome Horton

Moises Castillo: What would you do to improve the quality of teachers in the schools if you could do anything?

Assemblymember Jerome Horton: We have gone through a transition where the teachers have gone from a high priority in our system to a middle to low priority relative to compensation and training. As a person’s compensation increases, the conditions and requirements are also increased and the level of expectations increase. We need to increase the entry-level compensation for teachers, as well as increase the pay in the higher levels. This way we provide teachers some upward mobility, as opposed to having them have to leave teaching and go into administration. We need a higher level of teachers that oversees other teachers and works with other teachers in training and professional development. If we raise the compensation at the entry level we will automatically encourage more and more of our talented students to enter into the profession of teaching. By having more talented students entering into the profession, you raise the standards and the expectations of that profession within itself.

Another area to improve education is in substitute teaching. Teachers oftentimes go in and replace credentialed teachers. For example, in LAUSD, there needs to be adequate training for substitute teachers. Substitute teacher account for about 2.8 million instructional hours which represents one year out of the average child’s K-12 education and that’s a lot of educational hours where you have substitute teachers who are not adequately trained.

MC: What are some of the barriers that might impede progress in these areas?

AJH: There is not enough unity of different groups in the educational system. We need to have all the interested parties come together and sit down and do what is best for the teachers and students. One of the problems that I have observed is that you have non-educators making decisions for educators and that is never a good thing. That is like me making a decision for a judge and, certainly as an elected official, I’m not a judge. I’m a policymaker, but I should not be making those intimate decisions for teachers. There are also issues with current tenured teachers who have been brought up through a system that has lacked accountability for so long and are not as responsive as they should be.

MC: What do you think about using student opinions or student research findings to improve teacher quality?

AJH: I think the students provide a valuable insight into what it would take to improve the quality of teachers. The students are a valuable source of knowledge that we need to tap into more, not only in the educational realm, but in all the other aspects of life that they deal with such as in socioeconomic issues and sex-education. The genesis of our most radical and cutting edge types of experiences were the students in the 60’s, 70’s , 80’s. It was the students who drove the political agenda and I would welcome that type of involvement again.