Inconsistencies

As you all know, the MTC reunion was held this past weekend. I'm happy to say that the event exceeded my expectations. Despite the fact that the alumni ultimate Frisbee game consisted of more alumni than first years, the dinner to follow was more than enough to make up for it. Personally, I thought Governor Winter's speech was moving and inspiring. I can’t wait to try to effect that kind of change in my future students.

Speaking of moving, I was talking to a few of the alumni last night and they reminded me just how expensive it is to move across the country to Mississippi. They told me how lucky I was that most of my moving expenses were paid for by the state because I am teaching in a critical shortage area.

I'm teaching in DeSoto County, which, in my opinion, is the furthest thing from a critical shortage area. The state doesn’t recognize it as such either. Does this mean I won't be reimbursed for moving expenses? To be honest, I'm not really sure, but many of you will find yourself in a similar situation. The Jackson corps members and the DeSoto corps members are not teaching in "critical shortage areas" and therefore, according to the state "reimbursement for moving expenses" form, you will not get your money back. I spent the day calling moving companies from Wisconsin just to see how much it would be to rent a small trailer to carry my meager possessions across the country and the cheapest quote was $401.72. That's not including gas, a hotel stay, or meals (all covered under the reimbursement plan). When all is said and done, I will end up paying close to $600 just to move to Mississippi and teach in DeSoto County schools. Quite frankly, that’s a lot of money, a lot of money that I don’t have lying around.

I can understand that moving across the country is expensive, but what I do not understand is that this was one of the selling points of the Mississippi Teacher Corps program. If you look under the comparisons link on the main website, moving reimbursement is one of the components that sets MTC apart from TFA or NYCF. Yet it does not say, "only for those in critical shortage areas." It simply says that one of the benefits of the MTC is that your moving expenses will be reimbursed. Furthermore, it says under the program link on the homepage and I quote, "After the initial summer training you will be a certified teacher and placed in a critical-needs school." According to the state of Mississippi, that is certainly not the case for eight of our corps members.

The problem that I have with this program is that there are huge inconsistencies. I know this word has been thrown around quite a bit throughout the past three weeks and for good reason. I had no control over where I would be placed. When Dr. Mullins called me and told me I’d be teaching in DeSoto County, I assumed that this was a critical needs area because the website states that corps members will be placed in a critical needs area. That's inconsistency number one. Because I'm not in a critical needs area, the whole program is misleading. MTC places most of its teachers in the Mississippi Delta. Therefore the instruction is tailored to the problems that teachers in the Delta will face (i.e. the instruction I am receiving may be somewhat relevant but not specifically tailored to my future experience in DeSoto County.) Am I at a disadvantage now? That is inconsistency number two. Because I'm not placed in a critical needs area, I will have to pay for all moving reimbursements out of my own pocket. The program, once again, mislead me into thinking that my expenses would be covered. This is inconsistency number three.

Believe me, I could go on and on. We're all aware of the inconsistencies surrounding our peer teaching experiences and our student teaching evaluations from a few weeks ago. I regret that I have to put this on the web for everyone to read, especially after we held a reunion which undoubtedly made many of us feel good about what we're trying to do. I only hope that someone in a position of power in this program, whether that be Ben or Germain or even Dr. Mullins will read this and attempt to smooth out these inconsistencies. I know that everyone is working hard to make this the best alternative certification program in the country but at this rate, I feel as though we have a long way to go.

God Bless.