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And, unsurprisingly, districts usually place failing teachers in predominantly black and Hispanic schools.

Actually, no. The district doesn't place them there. They end up there because the students are so difficult that teacher turn-over rate is very high. Teachers who get hired there usually can't hack it, and either manage to scramble out to a better school or -- more often -- leave teaching altogether because even working at Starbucks is preferable to being assaulted by a little gangster and learning that no one is going to do anything about it.

So those are the schools with the openings, and those are the schools who will hire anyone they can in hopes that the teacher can just keep the kids in the room for 55 minutes and nothing gets set on fire. If you think I'm kidding, be aware that I am a LAUSD teacher, and I've seen it.

I mean, yes, there are bad teachers (or rather, there are teachers who would have been fine in a classroom in Iowa 70 years ago when children had manners, parents had responsibility and control, and the principal had a big wooden paddle,) but they can't manage a classroom full of entitled minority students with crippled home-lives, no discipline, and carte blanche to do anything they want.

I believe you. My daughter graduated with a degree in social work and promptly landed a job. She was well-liked by most of her clients-- parents of autistic children, some of whom actually followed her advice and saw real results; but most of whom did the bare minimum necessary to keep their government checks coming.

Trouble is, she made little money at it. The agency for which she worked had arcane rules on mileage reimbursement such as going directly to a client in a neighboring county was considered "commuting" and not reimbursable, whereas a five mile drive over to the next client was.

After a few months she landed a job at a nearby juvenile lock-up, better hourly wage, less time on the road and decent benefits. She loved the job and enjoyed seeing results when her charges were mostly runaways, teenage prostitutes and the like. The facility had such a low recidivism rate that they eventually went out of the area to keep it filled. Of course, that meant getting gang bangers and the like in from Philadelphia. As that happened, she begin to fear for her personal safety.

Eventually, she discovered that she could make more money with her degree at a call center doing customer service support, not that it has a lot to do with a social work degree, but because they wanted a college degree.

... because even working at Starbucks is preferable to being assaulted by a little gangster and learning that no one is going to do anything about it.

Meanwhile; in Indianapolis...

Paddling, Taylor said, was part of teaching back then. And it was effective at controlling bad behavior.

“Sometimes that’s what had to happen,” she said. “I always told the students ‘I expect you to behave and if you don’t, well if I paddle you once, I won’t have to again.’ ”

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2014/06/15/longtime-ips-teacher-celebrates-th-birthday/10556101/