Chip Mosher: Yes, I’d Ask Him To Teach My Kids
October 21st, 2007Chip Mosher is probably a name that is not familiar to most voters in Senate District 6. He teaches English clear across the valley, at an at-risk high school.
I first met Chip four or five years back. He’s quite a character, writes an occasionally profane piece for the physically striking Steve Sebelius‘ weekly newspaper, and is a passionate advocate for common-sense public policy to improve the quality of work life for teachers. Sometimes his rhetoric is a little overdone, a crime I find easy to forgive.
It looks like he’s taken sides in the recent battle between unions seeking to represent teachers. Education wonks should check out his new website.
Mosher and I probably disagree at least 60% of the time, maybe more (I don’t want to hurt his reputation…) but… you know what? I sure wish he could be my children’s high school english teacher. Unfortunately, no one in my family is employed by the Clark County School District, so a zone variance is out of the question.
Mosher makes me dream about what the world would be like under vouchers. Principal Mosher would take over a central-city high school campus, I imagine, where he hires administrators (for today’s entry-level teacher salaries) to shuffle paperwork, and where he returns the word “principal” to it’s original meaning, “principal teacher.” He’d make enough money that he could afford a cabin in the mountains within a four hour drive, where he and his teaching staff would descend every summers’ end to plan the next year.
His teachers would all vie for his time, instead of vying to avoid him, and his school’s students’ academic achievement would be off the charts. The recent college masters grads who serve as his underpaid administrators would variously write letters to newspaper editors advocating cash assistance to buy a house and apply for a job as one of Chip’s teachers.
A parent can dream, can’t he?