I’ve more or less kept out of the flap over Dayton’s time as a teacher in New York.

The MNGOP has not.  And their angle is an interesting one; Dayton, who opposes Alternative Licensing for teachers, got his license through alternative means:

St. Paul- According to documents obtained by the Republican Party of Minnesota from the New York City Department of Education under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), Democrat gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton was licensed by New York City as a teacher under “Alternative B Requirements.” As a candidate for governor, Dayton is supported by Education Minnesota, a teachers union fiercely opposed to alternative teacher licensure.

He did, of course, teach.  Sorta – emphasis added throughout:

According to the New York City Department of Education documents, Dayton taught in City schools through an alternative teaching program called Teachers, Inc (page 1). As part of his arrangement with Teachers Inc., Dayton enrolled in courses at the University of Massachusetts (page 12) after graduating from Yale University in June 1969. Dayton worked as a “term sub” for 89 days (pages 25-27, 30) from 1969-1970.

Near as I can tell, “term sub” is a form of “long term substitute”.

Dayton submitted his resignation to the New York City Department of Education during the middle of the school year on January 11, 1971 for “personal reasons” (pages 28-29). As a candidate for public office, Dayton has routinely left the impression with Minnesotans that he was a full-time public school teacher for two years. [Note: Page number references correspond to numbers on top right hand corner of documents provided by the New York City Department of Education to the Republican Party of Minnesota]

I’ll work on getting a copy of those dox to see what else might be socked away in there.

Drake continues:

“Mark Dayton was able to teach in New York’s schools under an alternative teacher licensure program, but he is now captive to the teachers union, which opposes this common sense reform that a supermajority of Minnesotans support and which allowed him to teach forty years ago. While Dayton has personally benefited from an alternative teacher licensure program, he promises to protect powerful special interests and defend the status quo as governor.

So he was a substitute teacher who worked the equivalent of 18 school weeks over a school year and a half (during which, by my math, he’s have been eligible to have taught 45 or so weeks).  Cool.

The story, so far, is that Dayton, having graduated from Yale without any “teaching hours” or certification, went to the U of Massachusetts at Amherst to get qualified.

So I took the liberty of contacting the public information office at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

This was the email I got back:

From: [redacted] <[redacted]@urd.umass.edu>

To: “mitch[redacted]@[redacted].com” <mitch[redacted]@[redacted].com>

Hello,

According to the registrar’s office, the name of Mark Dayton, born 1/26/47, does not come up when searched at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

I wanted to confirm this, just to make sure there was no mistake.  I sent the following:

From:”mitch[redacted]@[redacted].com” <mitch[redacted]@[redacted].com>

To:  [redacted] <[redacted]@urd.umass.edu>

Ms. [Redacted],

Thank you – the date of birth is the one that I have, and the full name was Mark B. Dayton.

So he did not attend. By this, is it correct to assume that Mark B. Dayton did not receive either a degree or a teaching certificate from UMA?

Thank you so much for your help,

(etc etc)

The representative responded:

From: [redacted] <[redacted]@urd.umass.edu>

To: “mitch[redacted]@[redacted].com” <mitch[redacted]@[redacted].com>

I do not know. All I can tell you is that they searched the name Mark Dayton, dob 1/26/47, and came up with no information.

I”ll be asking the Dayton campaign about this.