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I am a retired teacher, having taught 33 years, and recently supervised student teachers.   Throughout my career I have seen the revenue decline in our schools.  Only one time in the early nineties did things improve.  Every year we saw less money.   At one time I personally had to purchase $6,000 worth of materials for my kindergarten classroom so that my students had essential equipment.  Every year we saw our staff cut, even with similar numbers of students.  Our principal kept saying, "We need to do more with less.  We have to meet these standards."  One year he even gave us each a package of raisins, saying, "You deserve a raise in pay!"  Educators are kept out of the decision making end of education financing. People think that we get 3 months of vacation, but don't understand how much of that is spent in updating schooling (for the many extra requirements being put in place yearly) or planning for the next year.   Many teachers arrive by 7:30 A.M. and stay until 5:30 or 6 P.M.  daily.

SO WHAT DO WE CUT? 

Start by cutting out all consummable supplies and asking parents to purchase those supplies.   Buy workbooks instead of copy paper, so teachers don't have to spend their time copying for the students.  Workbooks are spendier at first, but would save a lot of teacher time, which could be so much more wisely used in planning and collaborating.  Cut out all sports/P.E. and  begin a community based sports and fitness program, much like they have in Europe.  We made a great mistake in America when we included these along with academic subjects in our schools.  We simply can't afford it.  Use the monies that are available for textbooks, teacher pay and the buildings.  Keep academics at the top of the budgeting focus.  I can tell you, if something doesn't get straightened out we will be looking at a nation with no school teachers.  No one will go into the field, even if they love teaching, if they look at the requirements for ongoing certification, work conditions and pay.  Wake up America!  Call your Congressmen. Tell your friends and neighbors to do the same.  Our teachers should not have to take moonlighting jobs to make financial ends meet.  Mary

posted 2 years, 11 months ago
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Emily, the number of illiterate people will increase rapidly if the United States as a whole doesn't come to grips with the deteroration of public education across the nation.  The school districts have been bleeding money significantly for over a decade and no one seems to notice, at least enough to do anything about it.  Having been a teacher of early primary students for 33 years, I have seen requirements for further education be placed on teachers, having to be paid for by them personally, while salaries have failed to keep pace.  I was 50 years old with a Master's Degree in Education and 90 credit hours beyond that before I made $50,000 a year.  Then, many times the districts would have to make cuts in the teachers' budgets for the following year and I personally spent $7,000 on materials for my kindergarten classroom within a three year period.  NO other monies were available.  If my students were to be successful, I had to step up to the bar.  If this, along with the stresses of knowing if they will continue to have a job, due to cutbacks, continues, there will not be people willing to go into the education fields.  Being noble and wanting to educate the world does not put food on the teacher's families' table.  Neither does it provide shelter.  I know one dedicated male teacher who rented for 17 years after he began teaching before they could purchase a home -- and this in a rural area of Washington where the costs are not so high as urban areas.  Something has to change.  People need to start paying attention to what is happening.  Please, for the sake of all our children, start watching what is happening and look for solutions to pay for our children's education!!

posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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