Mark Brown tackles the Governor’s defunding of a well run program to encourage high quality students to become teachers.
One reason could be the fact that Golden Apple was brought into the state fold under former Gov. Jim Edgar. Blagojevich isn’t going to go further up the political ladder by touting great programs started by his predecessors.
Golden Apple takes students right out of high school and puts them in a summer internship program that gives them classroom teaching experience. The summer program is taught by the award-winning Golden Apple teachers.
If you’re familiar with the teachers honored by Golden Apple in your own community, you probably know that they seem to find the best teachers, the real difference-makers.
An effective evaluation of the program every year could probably be done for about $50,000 if it isn’t already included in the budget. Thus, the state could keep tabs on the program’s effectiveness without reinventing the wheel.