(KUT) – Dae is watching Netflix at his desk during his health science class at LBJ Early College High School. “It was pretty cool sophomore year,” the senior says of the LBJ program, which gives students practical training that leads to medical certification. Dae’s mom is a nursing assistant, and he thought he might like to become a registered nurse one day. “Then we came back and it’s not the same … because we have no teacher,” he says. “So we don’t really do anything in this class.”
Brandon Wilson, a business teacher at LBJ, is monitoring the students today. “They just told me this morning to come in here and cover the class,” he says. “[The students] have not been working on the curriculum, which is not good. I think they need to find something for them to do.”
There should be three health science teachers running this program, but this year there is only one. So, instead of being taught by registered nurses, Dae and his classmates have had substitute teachers who don’t have medical training. That means the students don’t get to use medical equipment, practice procedures on medical dummies or get the skills needed for certification.
