Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
--"The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus
So read the words inscribed on a plaque in the base of the Statue of Liberty, a national beacon that stands tall on the first US soil seen by generations of immigrants. How many people have fled their homes, desperate for a chance at the freedom and comfort America is said to provide? We are a nation of refugees, from the very first men and women who set foot on the shores of an unknown land in search of a place where they could worship in their own way, and in peace.
Hundreds of years later, we are facing history yet again, as the clock ticks down the three hours that stands between our nation's next fiscal year and a shutdown of our federal government. How did we get here? When did we get so tied up in our own personal agendas that we forgot that we are all in this together, and what affects one of us affects all of us? When did our public get so apathetic that we can't even get 50% to turn up to vote, at the same time that we watch countries around the world revolt for the opportunity to cast a ballot? When did our elected officials forget that they are there to serve us, the American people, and not the lobbyists or the corporations or interest groups? How did we get here? I wish I knew.
I'm sure someone could go back and trace events from a specific point in time, just as I am sure that the root cause would change depending on who that "someone" was. I can be pretty snarky (you might have noticed that about me), but tonight that part of me is at war with the side of me that is honestly quite terrified of the way things are going in our nation. Add in the sadness I feel for the government employees and military that are going to be hurt the most by this mess, and the disgust I feel at the legislators who can't put their petty, partisan bickering aside for long enough to do their jobs, and I'm just not sure what I want to say about the whole thing--or, more accurately, how I want to say it.
I do know that I'm tired of being made to feel like "less" because I'm a government employee, or because I'm part of the middle class, or because I'm liberal, or because of any of the other reasons I've heard bantered about over the last few weeks. I'm also tired of our legislators taking their election as a referendum on any issue--social, financial, or otherwise--and acting accordingly. I mean, right now, 2 and a half hours away from a government shutdown, one of the major sticking points is funding for Planned Parenthood.
Really, legislators?
The American people are barely pulling ourselves out of a recession, holding on to our jobs and homes and lives by our fingernails, and you are threatening to shut down the entire federal government over social issues? Aside from the fact that much of our national philosophy is based in our abillity to help others--can't that be debated later? Apparently not.
Since funding for Planned Parenthood is likely going to be the cause for our shutdown, let me be sure I understand this clearly: you (and by you, I mean the GOP) want to defund Planned Parenthood because it provides abortions. The same organization also provides education, birth control, prenatal care, general preventive health care for men as well as women, counseling, STD screening, cancer screening for men as well as women, infertility counseling, and many more services. What's more, they provide these services to anyone, not just in the US, but around the world. But you don't care about all of those things; we care about the abortions! So--you're going to defund Planned Parenthood because they provide abortions, also effectively limiting all other family planning and prenatal care that they provide. You're limiting pregnancy prevention options, limiting the patient's right to choose to terminate her pregnancy, and limiting the prenatal care provided to women who are forced to carry children they may not be willing or able to provide for. But then, when those children are born, you don't want to provide social services like food stamps or subsidized housing, because that's welfare and you're tired of welfare. Does that sound about right? I might also mention that most of you are old men, who are not now and have never been faced with an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. You don't have any idea what a woman goes through when her body is completely taken over by hormones and a whole other little tiny person. For you to presume that you do is, well, presumptuous. So back off my uterus, buddy.
Second, do you actually understand what "trickle down" means, or is that just a theory you spout when you want to promise more jobs but can't actually say where they're going to come from? Think of yourself as the board of directors of this great corporation called America. If you shut down the company, it hurts EVERYONE. That impact trickles all the way down the lowliest guy at the bottom of the pile, like the ripples in a pond after you've chucked a boulder into it. How is THAT helping to create jobs and fix America? Oh. I see...it isn't.
Update: It appears that my rant may be moot. Is it possible that our legislators have stopped squabbling like two-year olds (and I do mean those on both sides of the aisle. I've seen more civilized debate in my daughter's daycare class) and have actually come to an agreement? It appears they have. My original premise stands, however. If this is the kind of leadership we're destined for in the coming years...maybe I should become religious, because I'm quickly becoming convinced that prayer is the only option left.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Can We Make It Two More Years?
It hardly seems possible that in just two short years we'll be returning to the polls once again. Less than 6 months ago, the 2010 midterm elections saw a shift from Democrat to Republican control in many state legislatures and even the United States House of Representatives. The US Senate maintained its Democratic majority by a slim four members.
Most will agree that our slow economic recovery and Americans' general dissatisfaction with our current leaders has led to the widespread Republican support of late. I suppose I should be happy that this sense of unrest seems to have galvanized people to become involved in the governmental process, but I'm really more concerned about how short our memories seem to have become. Just a few short years ago our economy imploded, with repercussions felt not just across America, but across the entire world and leading to a collapse that was frequently compared to the Great Depression.
The discussion of Wall Street vs. Main Street has remained on our lips these past 3 or 4 years, but much of the rhetoric seems to have shifted from lamenting lax regulations and inadequate oversight to protesting excessive spending and far-reaching policies. It's all part of what I feel to be the reason for the tension that's been simmering all this time and is now threatening to boil over--we need someone to blame, and we need it now.
Obama won the presidency on his platform for change, in a nation stunned by the collapse of its economy. He promised regulations to prevent the banks from repeating their past mistakes, and salary caps for those executives that led their businesses to finanacial ruin. He supported legislation to bail out those floundering institutions, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, little more than two years later, the same voters who decried the irresponsible business practices that led to our economic meltdown are complaining about the deficit, a large part of which is due to the trillions of dollars in bailout and stimulus money designed to keep our economy afloat. Now, those same voices are raised in protest of stricter regulations designed to prevent exactly the same kind of collapse we saw just a few short years ago. Citizens blame Obame for our current economic woes, not seeming to remember that the crisis began BEFORE he was elected. How could we forget so quickly?
The pendulum swung the other way last November, and many Republicans who ran on platforms of job growth and government reduction won the majority, in large part due to the support of the Tea Party. With the backing of the anti-tax group, Republicans have taken office and proceeded to abandon their campaign promises in favor of attacking the middle-class, working families of America. Public employee unions have spent the last several weeks protesting the Wisconsin legislature's push to strip them of almost all of their collective bargaining rights, and thousands more are gearing up in Ohio and Indiana. Those politicians who vowed to "take back America" are keeping their word, all right--but they're not handing it back to the people. Instead, they're handing it over to the businesses and corporations whose deep pockets put them in office in the first place. Sure, let's cut or eliminate corporate income taxes. You know what that will lead to? Record profits for those businesses and record salaries and bonuses for those at the top. What it won't (necessarily) lead to is job creation.
Private sector businesses exist for one purpose--to make money. Like other Americans, businesses have had to "tighten their belts" and make do with less, and our unemployment rate testifies that the workers are the first to go. Those who have kept their jobs are working themselves harder and harder, frantic at the thought that they might be the next ones in the unemployment line. As a result, one man or woman may be producing as much as two or three workers in past years, often at the risk of his or her physical and mental wellbeing. Do you really think that companies that are enjoying record profits, which these tax cuts will only increase, are going to create new jobs when their productivity isn't suffering? More jobs equals lower profits and lower bonuses for those executives like Rick Scott (who sold the state's private planes because he has his own). Cutting or eliminating corporate taxes is nothing more than a gamble with the hope that those in charge will use the money wisely. I won't be holding my breath.
While we're on the subject of financial irresponsibility, let's talk about some of the other items that have been up for debate recently, like, oh, I don't know...Florida's brilliant teacher merit pay legislation. We narrowly escaped a similar crisis last year by the grace of Charlie Crist's veto, but this year our Governor has promised to sign the bill into law regardless of its popularity. Because he's exercising the will of the people, right? The public demands accountability for its teachers, who are, as one Polk County resident so eloquently put it, "on the dole," so we'll give them accountability. We'll hold those teachers accountable and prove that most, if not all of them are lazy and worthless and little more than part-time, glorified babysitters!
Oh, one small thing. We have NO IDEA how much it's going to cost, or where the money's going to come from. You don't have a problem with that, do you?
That's right. It costs money--a LOT of money--to create, maintain, administer, and process results from standardized tests. The new legislation places that onus on the individual school district, which means that the district will be responsible for purchasing existing tests or commissioning the creation of new ones. In a state that offers literally hundreds of individual courses, how is that going to happen without costing money, as Rick Scott claims? He's not concerned with how it works, apparently, since he's cutting $3.3 billion from education and has stated that schools will have to "figure out how to do better with less." In fact, Scott feels that those cuts, first to education and now to child welfare services across the state, are not only appropriate but necessary for him to make good on his campaign promise of creating some 700,000 jobs in the state.
Now I didn't vote for the man. But apparently some people did, and I'm willing to bet that some--not all, but some--would have cast their ballot a little differently if they'd seen the flip side to the job creation coin tossed around by Scott during his campaign. If they'd known that the 2.6 million children in Florida's schools and the half-million children served by the Department of Children and Families would be the ones to bear over half the financial burden of Scott's master plan, would they have voted differently?
Many people have as limited an understanding of the function of DCF as they do of public schools. Ask a random person about DCF and they'll probably give you an answer that has something to do with taking endangered children from their parents and placing them with other families. And yes, that is part of the equation, but what about all of the other services offered by DCF? They offer services to protect and care for adults who are disabled or otherwise unable to care for themselves; foster care and adoption services; support and shelter for victims of domestic violence; assistance programs for struggling families; resources for homeless children and families; substance abuse counseling; mental health services. And, lest you think that DCF is only for poor people or unfit parents, they also oversee the licensing of every childcare provider in the state, which number over 7,000. So if you have a child in childcare (like I do), DCF is your best friend. I know that I am only able to go to work and be a productive member of society because I trust the person taking care of my child.
I'm pretty surprised, to be honest, at the way the governor and his Republican counterparts in the state legislature (and other elected officials around the country) have so aggressively rocked the boat this early in the game. I wouldn't have thought they'd be so eager to throw away their newly won power, but it seems I was wrong. Then again, we always seem to develop memory loss when it comes time to cast our vote--perhaps that's what they're counting on.
Most will agree that our slow economic recovery and Americans' general dissatisfaction with our current leaders has led to the widespread Republican support of late. I suppose I should be happy that this sense of unrest seems to have galvanized people to become involved in the governmental process, but I'm really more concerned about how short our memories seem to have become. Just a few short years ago our economy imploded, with repercussions felt not just across America, but across the entire world and leading to a collapse that was frequently compared to the Great Depression.
The discussion of Wall Street vs. Main Street has remained on our lips these past 3 or 4 years, but much of the rhetoric seems to have shifted from lamenting lax regulations and inadequate oversight to protesting excessive spending and far-reaching policies. It's all part of what I feel to be the reason for the tension that's been simmering all this time and is now threatening to boil over--we need someone to blame, and we need it now.
Obama won the presidency on his platform for change, in a nation stunned by the collapse of its economy. He promised regulations to prevent the banks from repeating their past mistakes, and salary caps for those executives that led their businesses to finanacial ruin. He supported legislation to bail out those floundering institutions, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, little more than two years later, the same voters who decried the irresponsible business practices that led to our economic meltdown are complaining about the deficit, a large part of which is due to the trillions of dollars in bailout and stimulus money designed to keep our economy afloat. Now, those same voices are raised in protest of stricter regulations designed to prevent exactly the same kind of collapse we saw just a few short years ago. Citizens blame Obame for our current economic woes, not seeming to remember that the crisis began BEFORE he was elected. How could we forget so quickly?
The pendulum swung the other way last November, and many Republicans who ran on platforms of job growth and government reduction won the majority, in large part due to the support of the Tea Party. With the backing of the anti-tax group, Republicans have taken office and proceeded to abandon their campaign promises in favor of attacking the middle-class, working families of America. Public employee unions have spent the last several weeks protesting the Wisconsin legislature's push to strip them of almost all of their collective bargaining rights, and thousands more are gearing up in Ohio and Indiana. Those politicians who vowed to "take back America" are keeping their word, all right--but they're not handing it back to the people. Instead, they're handing it over to the businesses and corporations whose deep pockets put them in office in the first place. Sure, let's cut or eliminate corporate income taxes. You know what that will lead to? Record profits for those businesses and record salaries and bonuses for those at the top. What it won't (necessarily) lead to is job creation.
Private sector businesses exist for one purpose--to make money. Like other Americans, businesses have had to "tighten their belts" and make do with less, and our unemployment rate testifies that the workers are the first to go. Those who have kept their jobs are working themselves harder and harder, frantic at the thought that they might be the next ones in the unemployment line. As a result, one man or woman may be producing as much as two or three workers in past years, often at the risk of his or her physical and mental wellbeing. Do you really think that companies that are enjoying record profits, which these tax cuts will only increase, are going to create new jobs when their productivity isn't suffering? More jobs equals lower profits and lower bonuses for those executives like Rick Scott (who sold the state's private planes because he has his own). Cutting or eliminating corporate taxes is nothing more than a gamble with the hope that those in charge will use the money wisely. I won't be holding my breath.
While we're on the subject of financial irresponsibility, let's talk about some of the other items that have been up for debate recently, like, oh, I don't know...Florida's brilliant teacher merit pay legislation. We narrowly escaped a similar crisis last year by the grace of Charlie Crist's veto, but this year our Governor has promised to sign the bill into law regardless of its popularity. Because he's exercising the will of the people, right? The public demands accountability for its teachers, who are, as one Polk County resident so eloquently put it, "on the dole," so we'll give them accountability. We'll hold those teachers accountable and prove that most, if not all of them are lazy and worthless and little more than part-time, glorified babysitters!
Oh, one small thing. We have NO IDEA how much it's going to cost, or where the money's going to come from. You don't have a problem with that, do you?
That's right. It costs money--a LOT of money--to create, maintain, administer, and process results from standardized tests. The new legislation places that onus on the individual school district, which means that the district will be responsible for purchasing existing tests or commissioning the creation of new ones. In a state that offers literally hundreds of individual courses, how is that going to happen without costing money, as Rick Scott claims? He's not concerned with how it works, apparently, since he's cutting $3.3 billion from education and has stated that schools will have to "figure out how to do better with less." In fact, Scott feels that those cuts, first to education and now to child welfare services across the state, are not only appropriate but necessary for him to make good on his campaign promise of creating some 700,000 jobs in the state.
Now I didn't vote for the man. But apparently some people did, and I'm willing to bet that some--not all, but some--would have cast their ballot a little differently if they'd seen the flip side to the job creation coin tossed around by Scott during his campaign. If they'd known that the 2.6 million children in Florida's schools and the half-million children served by the Department of Children and Families would be the ones to bear over half the financial burden of Scott's master plan, would they have voted differently?
Many people have as limited an understanding of the function of DCF as they do of public schools. Ask a random person about DCF and they'll probably give you an answer that has something to do with taking endangered children from their parents and placing them with other families. And yes, that is part of the equation, but what about all of the other services offered by DCF? They offer services to protect and care for adults who are disabled or otherwise unable to care for themselves; foster care and adoption services; support and shelter for victims of domestic violence; assistance programs for struggling families; resources for homeless children and families; substance abuse counseling; mental health services. And, lest you think that DCF is only for poor people or unfit parents, they also oversee the licensing of every childcare provider in the state, which number over 7,000. So if you have a child in childcare (like I do), DCF is your best friend. I know that I am only able to go to work and be a productive member of society because I trust the person taking care of my child.
I'm pretty surprised, to be honest, at the way the governor and his Republican counterparts in the state legislature (and other elected officials around the country) have so aggressively rocked the boat this early in the game. I wouldn't have thought they'd be so eager to throw away their newly won power, but it seems I was wrong. Then again, we always seem to develop memory loss when it comes time to cast our vote--perhaps that's what they're counting on.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
A Few Words, In Memory of Florida's Education System
Below is an excerpt from Rick Scott's State of the State address, given earlier this evening. The excerpt focuses on his "goals" for education in Florida...or, as I prefer to think of it, this excerpt is a eulogy for education in Florida. For this solemn occasion, I have elected to use the "red pen" approach to offering a critique of Mr. Scott's speech.
"We also need to focus on our incredible opportunity to improve our K-through-12 education system. We now have real innovators offering a 21st century approach to education. And many of those new approaches offer better outcomes without increasing costs. How, exactly, are we going to avoid increasing costs when these "innovators" promise to leave no child untested and promise to add untold additional work to the already overburdened classroom and administrative staff in Florida's schools?
With so many Floridians out of work, and the exhaustion of one-time federal handouts,
Let’s begin by agreeing on a few basic principles. Yes, lets.
First, that individual student learning must be the touchstone for all our decisions. Practices that improve student learning must be adopted. Practices that impair student learning must be abolished. I'm glad he pointed that out, because if there's one thing that we've obviously been doing wrong this whole time, it's using practices that actively impair student learning. Every teacher I know asks him or herself at least once a day, how can I stall a student's education today? (I was going to try to be serious and not sarcastic. I'm proud that I made it this far.)
Second, I think we can all also agree that the single most important factor in student learning is the quality of teaching.
Great educators are priceless. Actually....we have a very specific price. Just ask Wisconsin. Every one of us has a teacher in our past who made a lifelong difference in our lives. Educators, like other professionals, should be rewarded based on the effectiveness of their work, not the length of their professional life. Because no other profession awards pay and bonuses based on the length of employment. Good to know...I'd hate for us to be the ONLY profession ANYWHERE that does that. That’s why
The third principle worth remembering is that we all improve through competition. Oh, no you don't, Mr. Scott. NO CHILD WILL BE LEFT BEHIND. "Competition" implies that some will be better than others, and NCLB refuses to acknowledge that. Think of how exciting it will be when schools are recruiting our children, when every school in the state focuses on continual improvement in order to outperform every other school in attracting students. We need to expand the eligibility for opportunity scholarships to harness the power of engaged parents. Why is "the power of engaged parents" so far down on his list? Could it be because he genuinely has no clue what makes education successful?
And I am calling for an increase in the number of charter schools – which are public schools that are allowed to work independently of their school board and can innovate in ways that encourage all schools to improve. They still have A school board, it's just not the county school board. They still use taxpayer money, and thus are still subject to the taxpayer who knows better than they do.
With us here today is the principal of a very successful charter school – Sonia Mitchell of
And finally, we can all agree that measuring results is a key aspect of education. No, actually we can't. People who actually EDUCATE know better. But you haven't asked us, have you? We must test our students (ALL OF THEM. MANY TIMES), and we must evaluate our educators. Those measurements need to be fair and thoughtful, and they need to have rewards and consequences. Here he added, "not just rewards," in case anyone had forgotten just how cushy the teaching profession actually is. Snuck that little jab right on in there.
We must also analyze how much education money is spent in the classroom versus the amount spent on administration or capital outlays. No analysis necessary...we can alreay tell you that 80% of the education budget is salary. Florida has a lot of kids, and it takes a lot of people to run the school system. Hope they're still there after your "eight years."
With these principles in mind,
Monday, March 7, 2011
Tomorrow, Tomorrow...
Tomorrow opens the Florida legislative session, which will see voting on SB 736, linking teacher pay to student test scores, and a bill that will require Florida public employees to contribute 5% of their salaries to their pension plans. This session will also consider the budget proposed by Governor Rick Scott, which promises to cut 3.3 billion from public school funding. Oh, and let's not forget the revival of the voucher program, which was already deemed unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court.
To say that I'm discouraged would be an understatement. Last year, school teachers and employees offered such a backlash against SB 6 (predecessor to SB 736) that then-Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the bill after it passed through several committees and the Florida Senate. This year, the bill, which is scheduled for voting on Wednesday, the second day of the legislative session, has raised barely a blip on the radar compared to last year. I find this troubling for a number of reasons.
First, the bill contains mandates that are grossly and irresponsibly unfunded. First, teacher pay is facing drastic cuts under this year's budget shortfalls, yet SB 736 promises (yet fails to enumerate) significant increases in pay for teachers whose students show academic improvement. Where is that money coming from?
Second, and most troubling, is the egregious amount of additional testing that must take place to see SB 736 in effect. The only areas that currently have state-mandated test are reading, math, and science. We already spend millions of dollars every year administering and maintaining these testing mechanisms for just 3 subject areas. (Really, it's 2, because Reading is NOT a core content area--Language Arts or English is NOT the same as reading, and should not be considered its equivalent.) What about social studies, foreign language, physical education, agriculture, music, visual arts, performing arts, and all of the other areas that don't already have state-mandated tests? Sure, a few of them have end-of-course exams in place. But the larger part of them don't, and guess what that means? Those tests must be created.
And guess what that means? Someone has to create them.
Guess who has to create them? The district.
And guess what that means? We've got to spend money. Millions of dollars district wide, possibly billions of dollars statewide.
How much money? I have no idea, and I'd venture to guess that these legislators don't know either. Where is this money coming from? Creating, maintaining, and administration of 3 subject area tests is already a huge drain on our education budget--how much will that increase when we add some sort of measurable testing goal for every subject taught in the state of Florida? Our governor wants to CUT money from the education budget, while the Senate wants to mandate untold addtional expenses with not a word about where the funds will come from. I'm not great at math, but these numbers don't seem to add up.
And...that's just at the district level. After these student assessments are created, along with the teacher assessments that the district must create, everything gets sent to the Department of Education for approval! Who, you might ask, is going to approve all of these extra mandates? Certainly not the employees whose jobs have been on the line since Scott took office. The DoE is going to have to hire MORE people to complete these tasks, which--you got it--is MORE government and MORE tax dollars being spent. From where? No clue.
We've seen unfunded educational mandates before. Remember the Class Size Amendment? The all-knowing legislators were SO sure that would be a good idea that we voted it into our Constitution...and this year, when it went into effect on the classroom level, we saw what happened. There weren't enough teachers, schedules were disrupted, students weren't able to get the classes they wanted and needed, and in November, we saw an...amendment to the amendment? Not sure what it was, but it was right there on the ballot, boldly asking us to fix the mistakes that the legislature made those many years ago. Oops, it said, our bad, we pushed this through and it's not working and we want you, the voter and taxpayer, to fix our mistake. Luckily, we said no, and held those lawmakers accountable. I hope that in the next few days we will do the same thing.
Please be informed. Please contact your state legistlator and ask them to vote "no" on SB 736 and its unfunded mandates. I refuse to believe that anyone actively wants to see our education system go down the drain, but that's where it's headed if we don't speak up. Go to http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/Find and find your state Senator. Write a letter, send an email, make a phone call. Speak up in favor of Florida's students!
To say that I'm discouraged would be an understatement. Last year, school teachers and employees offered such a backlash against SB 6 (predecessor to SB 736) that then-Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the bill after it passed through several committees and the Florida Senate. This year, the bill, which is scheduled for voting on Wednesday, the second day of the legislative session, has raised barely a blip on the radar compared to last year. I find this troubling for a number of reasons.
First, the bill contains mandates that are grossly and irresponsibly unfunded. First, teacher pay is facing drastic cuts under this year's budget shortfalls, yet SB 736 promises (yet fails to enumerate) significant increases in pay for teachers whose students show academic improvement. Where is that money coming from?
Second, and most troubling, is the egregious amount of additional testing that must take place to see SB 736 in effect. The only areas that currently have state-mandated test are reading, math, and science. We already spend millions of dollars every year administering and maintaining these testing mechanisms for just 3 subject areas. (Really, it's 2, because Reading is NOT a core content area--Language Arts or English is NOT the same as reading, and should not be considered its equivalent.) What about social studies, foreign language, physical education, agriculture, music, visual arts, performing arts, and all of the other areas that don't already have state-mandated tests? Sure, a few of them have end-of-course exams in place. But the larger part of them don't, and guess what that means? Those tests must be created.
And guess what that means? Someone has to create them.
Guess who has to create them? The district.
And guess what that means? We've got to spend money. Millions of dollars district wide, possibly billions of dollars statewide.
How much money? I have no idea, and I'd venture to guess that these legislators don't know either. Where is this money coming from? Creating, maintaining, and administration of 3 subject area tests is already a huge drain on our education budget--how much will that increase when we add some sort of measurable testing goal for every subject taught in the state of Florida? Our governor wants to CUT money from the education budget, while the Senate wants to mandate untold addtional expenses with not a word about where the funds will come from. I'm not great at math, but these numbers don't seem to add up.
And...that's just at the district level. After these student assessments are created, along with the teacher assessments that the district must create, everything gets sent to the Department of Education for approval! Who, you might ask, is going to approve all of these extra mandates? Certainly not the employees whose jobs have been on the line since Scott took office. The DoE is going to have to hire MORE people to complete these tasks, which--you got it--is MORE government and MORE tax dollars being spent. From where? No clue.
We've seen unfunded educational mandates before. Remember the Class Size Amendment? The all-knowing legislators were SO sure that would be a good idea that we voted it into our Constitution...and this year, when it went into effect on the classroom level, we saw what happened. There weren't enough teachers, schedules were disrupted, students weren't able to get the classes they wanted and needed, and in November, we saw an...amendment to the amendment? Not sure what it was, but it was right there on the ballot, boldly asking us to fix the mistakes that the legislature made those many years ago. Oops, it said, our bad, we pushed this through and it's not working and we want you, the voter and taxpayer, to fix our mistake. Luckily, we said no, and held those lawmakers accountable. I hope that in the next few days we will do the same thing.
Please be informed. Please contact your state legistlator and ask them to vote "no" on SB 736 and its unfunded mandates. I refuse to believe that anyone actively wants to see our education system go down the drain, but that's where it's headed if we don't speak up. Go to http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/Find and find your state Senator. Write a letter, send an email, make a phone call. Speak up in favor of Florida's students!
Friday, March 4, 2011
A "Modest" Proposal
First of all, if you recognize the allusion, thank an English teacher.
Now for business. Here's the deal. I'm sick of hearing about how easy it is to be a teacher from people who haven't stepped foot in a public school classroom since their high school graduation. I hear it on the news, in the paper, from random strangers, from my own family members, and I'm tired of it. So here's my proposal: if you, Joe Taxpayer businessman, think it's so easy, then YOU do it.
That's right. You teach.
My plan will not only open the eyes of the private sector employees who think we teachers have cushy part-time jobs, it will also help close the budget gap our county faces next year. Substitute teachers cost money--on any given day, there might be as few as 5 substitutes at my school, or as many as 10. Let's assume that each of Polk County's 17 high schools has 5 substitute teachers on a given day. Each sub is paid $90, so that's $450 per school, with a total
of $7,650. Assuming the same for the county's 19 middle schools, that's a total of $8,550. We'll assume 3 subs for an elementary school, which is only $270 per school, but there are 66 elementary schools in Polk, so that brings our total to $17,820. Let's add those up...we're at $34,000. For one DAY. And there are teachers who have to be out and can't find coverage, so sometimes that one sub is covering 3 teachers' classes. We're talking 6.1 million in a school year just on substitute teachers.
So here's what we'll do. Business professionals from the private sector will donate their time, say, one day a month, to act as a substitute teacher in a local school. They'll be fingerprinted (at their own expense, of course), and go through NEO training, just like any other sub. Then, because we know they're busy, important people, we'll allow them to sign up ahead of time for a day--or days, if they're feeling ambitious--on which they can be called on to fill in for a public school teacher at the elementary, middle, or high school level. That might mean, of course, that their phones will ring at 5 a.m., which is the time my alarm goes off anyway, and that they'll have to skip their morning trip to the gym or their latte at Starbucks in order to be at the school by 7 a.m. to greet the kids at the door. (Not to worry, they'll be off at 2:30 so they can go to the gym after work, and a latte is a bad idea because there's often no time to go to the bathroom when you're teaching all day.)
Of course they won't get a TRULY accurate idea of what a teacher does. The lessons will be provided for them. The kids will probably act differently because a stranger is in the room. They won't have to attend faculty meetings or parent conferences. But give that private sector businessman enough days in enough classrooms, and I really do believe that his perspective of the educational professional will change (hopefully for the better).
What I'm after here is exposure and education. It's our job to educate--maybe we need to start educating those outside our classrooms about what we actually do. In following the ongoing debates in the last few weeks, I'm so often struck dumb by the perceptions that seem to be common about the teaching profession. And I choose the word "profession" deliberately because I feel like, at the heart of the matter, many of the politicians and pundits who are out there furthering the rhetoric are not comparing us to the equivalent private sector professional. I've heard so many comparisons of teachers to "the private sector" and I wonder, exactly what private sector are we talking about? Bankers, lawyers, CPAs...or the hourly employee at McDonald's? I mean, let's face it--there are jobs that require a college degree and considerable training, and there are those that don't. Teaching is one of the ones that DOES. I have close to a thousand hours of continuing education on top of my bachelor's degree--that's almost enough for two master's degrees. I had to take not one, not two, but three certification exams in order to be considered qualified. Every teacher who stands in front of a classroom has at least done that much, and will do much more in his or her professional lifetime. So you, Mr. Politician or Ms. Political Pundit, don't you DARE belittle what I do as a professional. I am highly trained and highly qualified, and I am damn good at what I do. Do I "leave work" at 3:00? That's the end of my day (which started at 6:45, two full hours before my private sector counterpart has even poured his first cup of coffee) and I often do leave campus at 3...to go home and grade papers and make lesson plans and call parents, and, and and... Do I get summers "off"? Sure do, and I enjoy every minute of it. I also spend my summers at workshops, planning lessons, reading books, and furthering my education (usually at my own expense) so I can be prepared on the first day of school. (And a note on that--"summers off" can't be the basis of your argument anymore. It's getting old, and it's starting to sound like sour grapes on your part. Perhaps you wish you'd chosen your profession more wisely?)
I am well aware that my paycheck comes from tax revenue, just as I'm well aware that the wages of the manager at Publix come from the money I spend in the store. But guess what? I don't assume that just because I shop there, I know how to run a grocery store. I certainly wouldn't presume to tell that business manager how to do her job, so what makes Joe Taxpayer an expert on education? Nothing. Nor does it make a Congressman or Senator an expert. Who are the experts, you might ask? Teachers. Contrary to the picture that some are trying to paint of us right now, we aren't evil. We love our jobs, and we love our students, and we're often willing to do whatever it takes to see them succeed. If you want to know what needs to be done to make that happen, ask us. We're the ones in there with the kids every day, we're the ones who know them and their strengths and weaknesses, we're the ones who take pride in their successes and commiserate in their failures. We aren't the enemy; we're just looking for some respect.
Now for business. Here's the deal. I'm sick of hearing about how easy it is to be a teacher from people who haven't stepped foot in a public school classroom since their high school graduation. I hear it on the news, in the paper, from random strangers, from my own family members, and I'm tired of it. So here's my proposal: if you, Joe Taxpayer businessman, think it's so easy, then YOU do it.
That's right. You teach.
My plan will not only open the eyes of the private sector employees who think we teachers have cushy part-time jobs, it will also help close the budget gap our county faces next year. Substitute teachers cost money--on any given day, there might be as few as 5 substitutes at my school, or as many as 10. Let's assume that each of Polk County's 17 high schools has 5 substitute teachers on a given day. Each sub is paid $90, so that's $450 per school, with a total
of $7,650. Assuming the same for the county's 19 middle schools, that's a total of $8,550. We'll assume 3 subs for an elementary school, which is only $270 per school, but there are 66 elementary schools in Polk, so that brings our total to $17,820. Let's add those up...we're at $34,000. For one DAY. And there are teachers who have to be out and can't find coverage, so sometimes that one sub is covering 3 teachers' classes. We're talking 6.1 million in a school year just on substitute teachers.
So here's what we'll do. Business professionals from the private sector will donate their time, say, one day a month, to act as a substitute teacher in a local school. They'll be fingerprinted (at their own expense, of course), and go through NEO training, just like any other sub. Then, because we know they're busy, important people, we'll allow them to sign up ahead of time for a day--or days, if they're feeling ambitious--on which they can be called on to fill in for a public school teacher at the elementary, middle, or high school level. That might mean, of course, that their phones will ring at 5 a.m., which is the time my alarm goes off anyway, and that they'll have to skip their morning trip to the gym or their latte at Starbucks in order to be at the school by 7 a.m. to greet the kids at the door. (Not to worry, they'll be off at 2:30 so they can go to the gym after work, and a latte is a bad idea because there's often no time to go to the bathroom when you're teaching all day.)
Of course they won't get a TRULY accurate idea of what a teacher does. The lessons will be provided for them. The kids will probably act differently because a stranger is in the room. They won't have to attend faculty meetings or parent conferences. But give that private sector businessman enough days in enough classrooms, and I really do believe that his perspective of the educational professional will change (hopefully for the better).
What I'm after here is exposure and education. It's our job to educate--maybe we need to start educating those outside our classrooms about what we actually do. In following the ongoing debates in the last few weeks, I'm so often struck dumb by the perceptions that seem to be common about the teaching profession. And I choose the word "profession" deliberately because I feel like, at the heart of the matter, many of the politicians and pundits who are out there furthering the rhetoric are not comparing us to the equivalent private sector professional. I've heard so many comparisons of teachers to "the private sector" and I wonder, exactly what private sector are we talking about? Bankers, lawyers, CPAs...or the hourly employee at McDonald's? I mean, let's face it--there are jobs that require a college degree and considerable training, and there are those that don't. Teaching is one of the ones that DOES. I have close to a thousand hours of continuing education on top of my bachelor's degree--that's almost enough for two master's degrees. I had to take not one, not two, but three certification exams in order to be considered qualified. Every teacher who stands in front of a classroom has at least done that much, and will do much more in his or her professional lifetime. So you, Mr. Politician or Ms. Political Pundit, don't you DARE belittle what I do as a professional. I am highly trained and highly qualified, and I am damn good at what I do. Do I "leave work" at 3:00? That's the end of my day (which started at 6:45, two full hours before my private sector counterpart has even poured his first cup of coffee) and I often do leave campus at 3...to go home and grade papers and make lesson plans and call parents, and, and and... Do I get summers "off"? Sure do, and I enjoy every minute of it. I also spend my summers at workshops, planning lessons, reading books, and furthering my education (usually at my own expense) so I can be prepared on the first day of school. (And a note on that--"summers off" can't be the basis of your argument anymore. It's getting old, and it's starting to sound like sour grapes on your part. Perhaps you wish you'd chosen your profession more wisely?)
I am well aware that my paycheck comes from tax revenue, just as I'm well aware that the wages of the manager at Publix come from the money I spend in the store. But guess what? I don't assume that just because I shop there, I know how to run a grocery store. I certainly wouldn't presume to tell that business manager how to do her job, so what makes Joe Taxpayer an expert on education? Nothing. Nor does it make a Congressman or Senator an expert. Who are the experts, you might ask? Teachers. Contrary to the picture that some are trying to paint of us right now, we aren't evil. We love our jobs, and we love our students, and we're often willing to do whatever it takes to see them succeed. If you want to know what needs to be done to make that happen, ask us. We're the ones in there with the kids every day, we're the ones who know them and their strengths and weaknesses, we're the ones who take pride in their successes and commiserate in their failures. We aren't the enemy; we're just looking for some respect.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Que Sera
I've spent the last few weeks in a sort of mini crisis of faith. Not faith like religion--I already know where I stand there--but faith in my fellow human beings. That faith is in crisis because, everywhere I look lately, my fellow man lets me down. I realize how melodramatic that sounds, and I know that there are still so many good things in life, but others I just can't look past, and that's been a tough pill for me to swallow lately.
Everywhere I look, the public is attacking state employees, especially teachers. It's not just the ridiculous and insulting budget proposed by Florida's new "CEO," either--other states like Wisconsin and Indiana are facing similar crises. The unrest in our states grows every day, and I feel like it's only the beginning.
Lest you think it's just my youth speaking, I asked my considerably more experienced mother if she remembers public opinion toward teachers ever reaching this low, and she said no. The tension troubles me. I feel like we're in a pot that's boiling, and sooner or later it's going to overflow. I'm deeply disturbed when I look in the paper every day and read the letters to the editor that castigate public employees for our "selfishness" in protesting the changes to our pensions, or make claims that we're whiners that don't have it all that bad. Which, sure, compared to a cashier at McDonald's, I'm sure I don't have it all that bad. But I also have a college degree and over 700 hours of continuing education, which I think ought to count for something. Instead I get people with no clue what my job entails calling me names for speaking up in defense of my profession. How is that right?
In the last day or so, however, that bitter pill has begun to go down somewhat easier. It's still bitter, and I don't like taking it, but I've started to realize something--education the way "they" want to make it isnt' sustainable. These proposals might go through, and things will get rough, for teachers AND students, but at the end of the day, it won't last. There's no way it can. Something will have to give, either in a more drastic protest by teachers (and other public employees) to show that we demand the respect that the public refuses to give, or on the side of the legislators when they realize that they can't have their proverbial cake and eat it too. They can't continue to pile demands on our plates without offering some financial support and compensation. You can't mandate MORE testing when we're already looking at cutting 3.3 billion from the education budget. You're not Jean Luc Picard; saying "Make it so" isn't enough.
If it were, teachers would be better paid than doctors and lawyers, because hey--they wouldn't BE doctors and lawyers without teachers!
Everywhere I look, the public is attacking state employees, especially teachers. It's not just the ridiculous and insulting budget proposed by Florida's new "CEO," either--other states like Wisconsin and Indiana are facing similar crises. The unrest in our states grows every day, and I feel like it's only the beginning.
Lest you think it's just my youth speaking, I asked my considerably more experienced mother if she remembers public opinion toward teachers ever reaching this low, and she said no. The tension troubles me. I feel like we're in a pot that's boiling, and sooner or later it's going to overflow. I'm deeply disturbed when I look in the paper every day and read the letters to the editor that castigate public employees for our "selfishness" in protesting the changes to our pensions, or make claims that we're whiners that don't have it all that bad. Which, sure, compared to a cashier at McDonald's, I'm sure I don't have it all that bad. But I also have a college degree and over 700 hours of continuing education, which I think ought to count for something. Instead I get people with no clue what my job entails calling me names for speaking up in defense of my profession. How is that right?
In the last day or so, however, that bitter pill has begun to go down somewhat easier. It's still bitter, and I don't like taking it, but I've started to realize something--education the way "they" want to make it isnt' sustainable. These proposals might go through, and things will get rough, for teachers AND students, but at the end of the day, it won't last. There's no way it can. Something will have to give, either in a more drastic protest by teachers (and other public employees) to show that we demand the respect that the public refuses to give, or on the side of the legislators when they realize that they can't have their proverbial cake and eat it too. They can't continue to pile demands on our plates without offering some financial support and compensation. You can't mandate MORE testing when we're already looking at cutting 3.3 billion from the education budget. You're not Jean Luc Picard; saying "Make it so" isn't enough.
If it were, teachers would be better paid than doctors and lawyers, because hey--they wouldn't BE doctors and lawyers without teachers!
Monday, February 21, 2011
New Education Bill
So I read the new education legislation, SB 736, all 37 pages of it. I must say that I don't find nearly as offensive as its predecessory, SB 6, though I'm still troubled by a few points.
Like SB 6, the new proposal also ties teacher evaluations and pay to student performance, but SB 736 is much more clear about how school districts and administrators are expected to reach those conclusions. Honestly, I don't see a problem with using student performance as part of a teacher's evaluation--in fact, there are times during the last few years when I've wished that was part of it. Contrary to popular belief, I don't think most teachers have anything to hide. I think that, for the most part, we're doing everything that's asked of us and working our fingers to the bone to see our students succeed. I also think that any teacher worth his or her shiny red apple would want to be rewarded when we see that hard work pay off.
The way SB 736 sets it up is that every teacher will receive the same base pay, and will receive salary increases based in part on how much growth our students see, which, to be fair, is pretty much how it works everywhere else in business. And before you remind me that the school system isn't like everywhere else, let me say that trust me, I know. But I do think that it's kind of the habit of teachers to want to be like "everywhere else" when it suits us, and to want to be like a school system when it suits us. I'm just as guilty of that double standard as everyone else, but I really think that in this case, it's not necessarily a bad thing for our students' academic growth to be factored in. Look at it this way--when a salesman sells more product, he makes more money. Same goes for us--we facilitate more student achievement, we make more money.
Notice, however, that SB 736 doesn't just link teacher pay to student test scores, which is pretty much what SB 6 did. Instead, it clearly focuses on academic growth over time as the bottom line. I can live with that. Over the past 2 years, I've shown about 75% growth in my level 1 and 2 reading students, a number I'm proud of. Have all of them passed the FCAT? No. But three-quarters of the students who walked into my classroom have gotten that much closer, and I'm proud of them for that. Last year in my first year teaching Advanced Placement, I had 12% pass the exam, and over 50% get a 2. That's pretty impressive in a school where quite a few AP students hadn't passed the FCAT yet. Yeah, I'm bragging, but I also want to show that I'm not trying to hide anything all those times I've argued against achievement-based merit pay. I am against it the way it's been previously presented, but I'm not against measurement of student growth, because I firmly believe that's what I'm there to facilitate.
I am a little troubled that student achievement is a full 50% of the teacher's evaluation, however. That's a pretty big chunk of the assessment pie, considering everything else that goes into being a successful teacher. The bill only vaguely refers to the "additional duties" that will go into the other 50% of the evaluation, leaving it up to the individual district to determine what constitutes the remainder. And therein lies the biggest part of my problem with this new bill--everything else is left up to the district, including the burden of cost for implementing all of these new mandates.
Under SB 736, subject areas which cannot be assessed by state mandated testing (pretty much everything except reading, math and science) will be subject to end-of-course exams or other measurable standards. Who creates these? The district, which will then send the assessment tool to the state for final approval. So here is my question: where is the money coming from? Gov. Scott just proposed a budget that cuts 3.3 billion in education funding. Granted, the legislature has said that the budget won't pass in its entirety, but they've said there will still be some cuts. So if we're already cutting funding, why are we proposing measures that are going to add so much to education's already overflowing plate? It costs a LOT of time and money to create tests like the ones they're talking about; do they think people are just going to volunteer their time? Who is going to be the one in the state department of education who approves these new evaluation measures and student assessments? That's going to be a mountain of work on its own; is this going to be allocated to someone who already works for the DoE, or are they going to have to create new positions? Or, perhaps the legislators will send over their interns for a week or so to help alleviate the increased workload.
We already struggle to meet our obligations in the state budget and we are already facing cuts across the board in both state government and specifically in education. Didn't the legislation learn its lesson about unfunded mandates with the class size amendment debacle?
Apparently not.
Like SB 6, the new proposal also ties teacher evaluations and pay to student performance, but SB 736 is much more clear about how school districts and administrators are expected to reach those conclusions. Honestly, I don't see a problem with using student performance as part of a teacher's evaluation--in fact, there are times during the last few years when I've wished that was part of it. Contrary to popular belief, I don't think most teachers have anything to hide. I think that, for the most part, we're doing everything that's asked of us and working our fingers to the bone to see our students succeed. I also think that any teacher worth his or her shiny red apple would want to be rewarded when we see that hard work pay off.
The way SB 736 sets it up is that every teacher will receive the same base pay, and will receive salary increases based in part on how much growth our students see, which, to be fair, is pretty much how it works everywhere else in business. And before you remind me that the school system isn't like everywhere else, let me say that trust me, I know. But I do think that it's kind of the habit of teachers to want to be like "everywhere else" when it suits us, and to want to be like a school system when it suits us. I'm just as guilty of that double standard as everyone else, but I really think that in this case, it's not necessarily a bad thing for our students' academic growth to be factored in. Look at it this way--when a salesman sells more product, he makes more money. Same goes for us--we facilitate more student achievement, we make more money.
Notice, however, that SB 736 doesn't just link teacher pay to student test scores, which is pretty much what SB 6 did. Instead, it clearly focuses on academic growth over time as the bottom line. I can live with that. Over the past 2 years, I've shown about 75% growth in my level 1 and 2 reading students, a number I'm proud of. Have all of them passed the FCAT? No. But three-quarters of the students who walked into my classroom have gotten that much closer, and I'm proud of them for that. Last year in my first year teaching Advanced Placement, I had 12% pass the exam, and over 50% get a 2. That's pretty impressive in a school where quite a few AP students hadn't passed the FCAT yet. Yeah, I'm bragging, but I also want to show that I'm not trying to hide anything all those times I've argued against achievement-based merit pay. I am against it the way it's been previously presented, but I'm not against measurement of student growth, because I firmly believe that's what I'm there to facilitate.
I am a little troubled that student achievement is a full 50% of the teacher's evaluation, however. That's a pretty big chunk of the assessment pie, considering everything else that goes into being a successful teacher. The bill only vaguely refers to the "additional duties" that will go into the other 50% of the evaluation, leaving it up to the individual district to determine what constitutes the remainder. And therein lies the biggest part of my problem with this new bill--everything else is left up to the district, including the burden of cost for implementing all of these new mandates.
Under SB 736, subject areas which cannot be assessed by state mandated testing (pretty much everything except reading, math and science) will be subject to end-of-course exams or other measurable standards. Who creates these? The district, which will then send the assessment tool to the state for final approval. So here is my question: where is the money coming from? Gov. Scott just proposed a budget that cuts 3.3 billion in education funding. Granted, the legislature has said that the budget won't pass in its entirety, but they've said there will still be some cuts. So if we're already cutting funding, why are we proposing measures that are going to add so much to education's already overflowing plate? It costs a LOT of time and money to create tests like the ones they're talking about; do they think people are just going to volunteer their time? Who is going to be the one in the state department of education who approves these new evaluation measures and student assessments? That's going to be a mountain of work on its own; is this going to be allocated to someone who already works for the DoE, or are they going to have to create new positions? Or, perhaps the legislators will send over their interns for a week or so to help alleviate the increased workload.
We already struggle to meet our obligations in the state budget and we are already facing cuts across the board in both state government and specifically in education. Didn't the legislation learn its lesson about unfunded mandates with the class size amendment debacle?
Apparently not.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
My Voice
A few days ago, my local newspaper, The Ledger, ran a letter to the editor that I had written regarding the deplorable and disheartening $3.4 billion in education cuts our new Governor is proposing. I was pretty excited for a few days, then came back to reality to find everything pretty much the same as before.
I'm so tired.
Tired of being treated as if I should be glad for any scrap the government wants to hand me. Yes, my salary is paid out of our state's taxes. So are a lot of other people's. But I pay taxes too. I pay the salaries of the legislators who talk about "special interests" and refer to state employees as if we are parasites sucking the lifeblood out of the people of the state. Last time I checked, WE are people of the state. Without the infrastructure of state government, all that's left is anarchy.
I'm tired of people who have no clue what my job entails telling me how to do my job. On a daily basis, sometimes it's parents or students. I know what it takes to plan, prepare for, and execute effective lessons and provide what I hope is a quality education, but sometimes I don't think they do. Which is fine...but I don't tell the doctor what pills to prescribe, or a lawyer what defense to argue. And I understand that parents and students are concerned about their education, so I deal with it, even when it annoys me. What I can't deal with are politicians who think it's their divine right to hover over my shoulder and tell me how best to provide an education, when 99.9% of them haven't set foot in a public school since they themselves graduated. I went to college for four years. I've had over 700 hours of ongoing education and professional development in the 5 years since I started teaching (do the math; it comes out to almost nonstop continuing education). I'm not only qualified to teach in several areas, but according to the state of Florida, I'm highly qualified. So listen to me and my colleagues, most of whom are even more qualified than I am, when we say that you, legislators, and you, Rick Scott, are ruining.education.in.Florida. We know what we are talking about. You don't. Back off.
I'm tired of hearing about how horrible public employee worker's unions are. I don't see any legislation trying to limit the bargaining power of the auto worker's union or the AFL-CIO. Why are we different? Why should we be denied a voice? We provide essential services, without which the state would not be able to function, and we provide them to everyone: Democrat, Repulican, Teabagger, whatever. We don't get to choose. If Rick Scott's grandson walked into my classroom tomorrow, I would be professionally and ethically obligated to provide him an equal and equitable education, no matter if I personally would like to move to another state just to avoid the pit of despair Florida is in danger of becoming at the hands of his inept grandsire. All of the people who sit in all of the offices and do all of the tedious paperwork and phone answering and filing and databasing and everything else it takes to run a state the size of Florida--they do their jobs for little pay and no gratitude. Why are all of these people not worthy of the right to stand together and be heard in their demands for equitable wages and working conditions?
I'm tired of the general apathy toward education that seems to plague our society today. Don't tell anyone I said this, but teenagers aren't dumb. (kidding, kidding...mostly) For the past few years, studies have shown that teenagers' stress levels have risen as the economy worsens; though many of them aren't directly affected by the unemployment rate or the housing crisis, their parents are. It's not just adults losing their homes and jobs, it's the entire family, and that means the children. I digress here to show that children, teenagers especially, have a fairly keen grasp on the currents flowing around them, especially when it involves them. When children see on the news that education funds are getting cut (again) or that teachers aren't getting a raise (again) or that Florida schools are among the lowest in student performance (again), they get the message that education isn't important. When they hear their parents talk badly about their teachers and the school system in general, it sends the message that education isn't important. What else are they supposed to think? Children can do basic math--in $5 billion of budget cuts, $3.3 are from education. That's by far the lion's share of the cuts, and hey, if our own governor thinks we're not worth the money, then why should the kids we're trying to teach?
I'm tired of hearing about running the government like a business, or (worse in my book) running schools like a business. It doesn't work people, for the simple reason that we don't get to pick (which I may have mentioned previously). We don't get to throw out a damaged product or fire a nonproductive "employee." I have to take every single student that walks through my doors. Some have two married, working parents, some are from broken homes. Some come from affluent backgrounds, while others have to work to contribute to the family income just so bills can be paid. Some are orphans, while others others are homeless. Some have the newest clothes and designer brands, some wear the same clothes from middle school. Some have children of their own, while others are raising younger siblings, nieces, and nephews. Some will go to college, others won't even graduate. Some have already been to jail, already been in the system almost as long as they've been alive. You name a situation, and a teacher has seen it walk through the door of his or her classroom. I have students who I know are not going to pass a test or even the class, but I can't "throw them out" to make myself and my finished product look better. I have students who will put their heads down and go to sleep rather than take the FCAT, but I can't "fire" them from my classroom for poor performance. I have to give every student, regardless of ability or interest, the same opportunity for success. Ultimately, however, I can't force them to do well in school; so many other factors are essential in a child's success that go so far beyond the time he or she spends in my classroom each day. And this is just an example in education. Other government workers face the same limitations. Firefighters don't get to choose whose house fire they extinguish. Police officers don't get to choose who to protect and serve. When my husband rents a car to someone and they don't pay him, he can choose not to do business with them in the future. If he has an employee who is habitually late or absent from work, he can fire them. I don't have that option, and until I do, until every state employee gets to choose who we do "business" with, stop making that comparison.
I'm tired of all of these things, and worse, I'm tired of feeling like there's nothing I can do about it. I've always heard that if you don't vote, you don't get to complain about the way the government is run. So I voted, and Rick Scott won anyway. I don't like what he's doing, so I wrote to the paper, and my letter got published. Now what? Anything I can do just seems so small in comparison to what it feels like we're facing. I feel like I have so much energy and passion about the subject of education, and I'm terrified of where it's headed, not just for myself but for my students. I feel like I have so much to say about it all--but who do I say it to? I don't even know where to begin.
I'm so tired.
Tired of being treated as if I should be glad for any scrap the government wants to hand me. Yes, my salary is paid out of our state's taxes. So are a lot of other people's. But I pay taxes too. I pay the salaries of the legislators who talk about "special interests" and refer to state employees as if we are parasites sucking the lifeblood out of the people of the state. Last time I checked, WE are people of the state. Without the infrastructure of state government, all that's left is anarchy.
I'm tired of people who have no clue what my job entails telling me how to do my job. On a daily basis, sometimes it's parents or students. I know what it takes to plan, prepare for, and execute effective lessons and provide what I hope is a quality education, but sometimes I don't think they do. Which is fine...but I don't tell the doctor what pills to prescribe, or a lawyer what defense to argue. And I understand that parents and students are concerned about their education, so I deal with it, even when it annoys me. What I can't deal with are politicians who think it's their divine right to hover over my shoulder and tell me how best to provide an education, when 99.9% of them haven't set foot in a public school since they themselves graduated. I went to college for four years. I've had over 700 hours of ongoing education and professional development in the 5 years since I started teaching (do the math; it comes out to almost nonstop continuing education). I'm not only qualified to teach in several areas, but according to the state of Florida, I'm highly qualified. So listen to me and my colleagues, most of whom are even more qualified than I am, when we say that you, legislators, and you, Rick Scott, are ruining.education.in.Florida. We know what we are talking about. You don't. Back off.
I'm tired of hearing about how horrible public employee worker's unions are. I don't see any legislation trying to limit the bargaining power of the auto worker's union or the AFL-CIO. Why are we different? Why should we be denied a voice? We provide essential services, without which the state would not be able to function, and we provide them to everyone: Democrat, Repulican, Teabagger, whatever. We don't get to choose. If Rick Scott's grandson walked into my classroom tomorrow, I would be professionally and ethically obligated to provide him an equal and equitable education, no matter if I personally would like to move to another state just to avoid the pit of despair Florida is in danger of becoming at the hands of his inept grandsire. All of the people who sit in all of the offices and do all of the tedious paperwork and phone answering and filing and databasing and everything else it takes to run a state the size of Florida--they do their jobs for little pay and no gratitude. Why are all of these people not worthy of the right to stand together and be heard in their demands for equitable wages and working conditions?
I'm tired of the general apathy toward education that seems to plague our society today. Don't tell anyone I said this, but teenagers aren't dumb. (kidding, kidding...mostly) For the past few years, studies have shown that teenagers' stress levels have risen as the economy worsens; though many of them aren't directly affected by the unemployment rate or the housing crisis, their parents are. It's not just adults losing their homes and jobs, it's the entire family, and that means the children. I digress here to show that children, teenagers especially, have a fairly keen grasp on the currents flowing around them, especially when it involves them. When children see on the news that education funds are getting cut (again) or that teachers aren't getting a raise (again) or that Florida schools are among the lowest in student performance (again), they get the message that education isn't important. When they hear their parents talk badly about their teachers and the school system in general, it sends the message that education isn't important. What else are they supposed to think? Children can do basic math--in $5 billion of budget cuts, $3.3 are from education. That's by far the lion's share of the cuts, and hey, if our own governor thinks we're not worth the money, then why should the kids we're trying to teach?
I'm tired of hearing about running the government like a business, or (worse in my book) running schools like a business. It doesn't work people, for the simple reason that we don't get to pick (which I may have mentioned previously). We don't get to throw out a damaged product or fire a nonproductive "employee." I have to take every single student that walks through my doors. Some have two married, working parents, some are from broken homes. Some come from affluent backgrounds, while others have to work to contribute to the family income just so bills can be paid. Some are orphans, while others others are homeless. Some have the newest clothes and designer brands, some wear the same clothes from middle school. Some have children of their own, while others are raising younger siblings, nieces, and nephews. Some will go to college, others won't even graduate. Some have already been to jail, already been in the system almost as long as they've been alive. You name a situation, and a teacher has seen it walk through the door of his or her classroom. I have students who I know are not going to pass a test or even the class, but I can't "throw them out" to make myself and my finished product look better. I have students who will put their heads down and go to sleep rather than take the FCAT, but I can't "fire" them from my classroom for poor performance. I have to give every student, regardless of ability or interest, the same opportunity for success. Ultimately, however, I can't force them to do well in school; so many other factors are essential in a child's success that go so far beyond the time he or she spends in my classroom each day. And this is just an example in education. Other government workers face the same limitations. Firefighters don't get to choose whose house fire they extinguish. Police officers don't get to choose who to protect and serve. When my husband rents a car to someone and they don't pay him, he can choose not to do business with them in the future. If he has an employee who is habitually late or absent from work, he can fire them. I don't have that option, and until I do, until every state employee gets to choose who we do "business" with, stop making that comparison.
I'm tired of all of these things, and worse, I'm tired of feeling like there's nothing I can do about it. I've always heard that if you don't vote, you don't get to complain about the way the government is run. So I voted, and Rick Scott won anyway. I don't like what he's doing, so I wrote to the paper, and my letter got published. Now what? Anything I can do just seems so small in comparison to what it feels like we're facing. I feel like I have so much energy and passion about the subject of education, and I'm terrified of where it's headed, not just for myself but for my students. I feel like I have so much to say about it all--but who do I say it to? I don't even know where to begin.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Disappointed. Again.
Let me start by saying that, yes, I left. I considered all of my options, discussed them with my husband, and searched my sould before deciding that it was time for me to leave Ridge and move to a new school. It wasn't an easy decision--I'd been at Ridge since the day the doors opened to students. I'd gone to every meeting, training, workshop, planning session, and professional development asked of me, and then some. I'd taught every subject thrown my way, which literally meant a different prep in each of the 5 years I was there. I'd put in the time during school and after school, done the grades, built relationships with the kids, and grown to feel like I was part of something worth all the work and time and effort. It wasn't always easy. There were students I didn't get along with, and colleagues with whom I didn't see eye-to-eye. There were injustices and frustrations and disappointments. It wasn't always easy, but I loved that school, and while I was there, it had my 100%, sometimes my 110%, sometimes my 150%. Often the effort I put in to my students' learning was a strain on my personal life, not to mention my finances. No, leaving wasn't an easy decision, but I made it, and I left.
So I was extremely disappointed, but unfortunately not surprised, when I heard today that the staff at Ridge voted to not to include last year's teachers in the bonus money awarded to schools who move up a letter grade. The larger slap in the face was not only that last year's teachers who have since left will be excluded, but that teachers who are new to the school this year will receive the bonus money. That includes brand new hires, transfers, and essentially everyone else who happens to work at the school this year, regardless of where they were last year when the seeds were being sown for the reward they are to reap.
To add insult to injury, I also learned of a rather impassioned and one-sided speech given by another faculty member, who seems be incapable of entertaining ideas other than her own. This speech seemed to encourage the idea that all current staff receive the bonus money, and other staff who tried to speak in opposition--either in support of all faculty from last year or for only current staff members who were at Ridge last year--were summarily shut down. Unfortunately, I am again not surprised, as this individual is a large factor in why I left in the first place, for much the same reason. This person, who should, in theory, have no more authority than I do, somehow managed to make my job so miserable that I couldn't stand to be there anymore. And I'm not the only one, by a long shot. I'm just the only one who left.
The longer I sit here, the more I realize that I can't really say any of the stuff that I want to, because at the end of the day, it would be petty and unprofessional, and we've all seen in the past how rants on the internet can come back to haunt you. So I'll just say that I'm very disappointed, and somewhat discouraged, that I will not be rewarded for the hard work I put in for the last 5 years, the more so because people who never even HEARD of Ridge will benefit from my effort. There are plenty of other schools who voted to include last year's teachers in the bonus money, correctly realizing that they are the ones who directly contributed to the raise in student achievement, which is what "it's" all about it. Like my mom said, good thing I don't do it for the money.
So I was extremely disappointed, but unfortunately not surprised, when I heard today that the staff at Ridge voted to not to include last year's teachers in the bonus money awarded to schools who move up a letter grade. The larger slap in the face was not only that last year's teachers who have since left will be excluded, but that teachers who are new to the school this year will receive the bonus money. That includes brand new hires, transfers, and essentially everyone else who happens to work at the school this year, regardless of where they were last year when the seeds were being sown for the reward they are to reap.
To add insult to injury, I also learned of a rather impassioned and one-sided speech given by another faculty member, who seems be incapable of entertaining ideas other than her own. This speech seemed to encourage the idea that all current staff receive the bonus money, and other staff who tried to speak in opposition--either in support of all faculty from last year or for only current staff members who were at Ridge last year--were summarily shut down. Unfortunately, I am again not surprised, as this individual is a large factor in why I left in the first place, for much the same reason. This person, who should, in theory, have no more authority than I do, somehow managed to make my job so miserable that I couldn't stand to be there anymore. And I'm not the only one, by a long shot. I'm just the only one who left.
The longer I sit here, the more I realize that I can't really say any of the stuff that I want to, because at the end of the day, it would be petty and unprofessional, and we've all seen in the past how rants on the internet can come back to haunt you. So I'll just say that I'm very disappointed, and somewhat discouraged, that I will not be rewarded for the hard work I put in for the last 5 years, the more so because people who never even HEARD of Ridge will benefit from my effort. There are plenty of other schools who voted to include last year's teachers in the bonus money, correctly realizing that they are the ones who directly contributed to the raise in student achievement, which is what "it's" all about it. Like my mom said, good thing I don't do it for the money.
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