Attack on Public Education
The whole idea of public education is to educate the masses. Not just the rich. Not just the smart. The masses, in hopes that this will create a more positive community, one that is safe and thrives. We believe that no matter what one is born into, or no matter what disabilities one has, he/she has a right to an education that will help them become the best they can be. Poor children can become rich doctors. Disabled children can become famous artists. The American dream comes with hard work, but is accomplished through education.
Yet, it is this very institution that is under attack, being the scape goat for the evils of society. Public education, according to the headlines is “failing” America’s students as the teachers squander away with their “short” work hours and “exorbitant” pay. It is these headlines that compel me to write and offer a different lens on this crisis. It’s not an argument about teacher pay, many schools have enacted their own pay freezes. Teachers rarely get a 1% raise and if they do, the amount they pay in insurance goes up concurrently. It’s not an argument about how many hours teachers work. Ask any competent teacher to clock their time spent outside of the classroom and the “short” work week will quickly turn to 60 hours + a week easily. The argument needs to truly be the funding of public education itself. If education is in such dire straits, why are revenues for the The School Aid Fund projected to be up by $672.7 million over the last year? If education is such a priority for the government, why are they cutting $470 per pupil, costing my own district of Waverly $1,404,000 in lost state aid? If we are all sharing the sacrifice, why is the replacement of the Michigan Business Tax with a 6% Corporate Income Tax resulting in 1.8 billion dollar tax breaks for most large corporations? In my short teaching career, I have seen our staff shrink, budgets dwindle, class sizes increase and electives disappear. We have lost administrators, parapros, buildings and programs. Every year we are asked to perform with less and we do. And if this wasn’t enough, our state at the same time raises the minimum level of test scores required for students to meet Adequate Yearly Progress. At the same time our resources go down, we are expected to raise test scores higher than last year. I am to do more, with less. It’s like creating five dresses with two bolts of material one month and the next month being expected to create seven dresses with one. The message is clear...I am supposed to fail. This is not about my salary. This is not about the time of day I am to show up to work and leave. And for me, it’s not even about the union. This is about a government that no longer believes public education is worth funding. They no longer believe a teacher is an honored position that involves a multitude of roles - one of which is teaching children academics. The state is cutting almost $500 per child in funding. The national government is cutting funding for valuable programs such as the National Writing Project and Teach for America. Someone needs to see that it’s not a large leap from cutting funding to hurting students. Will I look back upon my life and realize that I was the last generation of public educators, lamenting the time when the government dismantled public education forcing the privatization of schools? Where only the rich receive an academic education, the poor receive basic training skills, and the disabled are institutionalized? I live in a time where million dollar corporations receive bail outs which in turn fund million dollar bonuses to incompetent executives. I live in a time where Wall Street stock brokers make millions on the backs of working class investors. America is the land where anything is possible, and unfortunately now, I see how true this is.
Yet, it is this very institution that is under attack, being the scape goat for the evils of society. Public education, according to the headlines is “failing” America’s students as the teachers squander away with their “short” work hours and “exorbitant” pay. It is these headlines that compel me to write and offer a different lens on this crisis. It’s not an argument about teacher pay, many schools have enacted their own pay freezes. Teachers rarely get a 1% raise and if they do, the amount they pay in insurance goes up concurrently. It’s not an argument about how many hours teachers work. Ask any competent teacher to clock their time spent outside of the classroom and the “short” work week will quickly turn to 60 hours + a week easily. The argument needs to truly be the funding of public education itself. If education is in such dire straits, why are revenues for the The School Aid Fund projected to be up by $672.7 million over the last year? If education is such a priority for the government, why are they cutting $470 per pupil, costing my own district of Waverly $1,404,000 in lost state aid? If we are all sharing the sacrifice, why is the replacement of the Michigan Business Tax with a 6% Corporate Income Tax resulting in 1.8 billion dollar tax breaks for most large corporations? In my short teaching career, I have seen our staff shrink, budgets dwindle, class sizes increase and electives disappear. We have lost administrators, parapros, buildings and programs. Every year we are asked to perform with less and we do. And if this wasn’t enough, our state at the same time raises the minimum level of test scores required for students to meet Adequate Yearly Progress. At the same time our resources go down, we are expected to raise test scores higher than last year. I am to do more, with less. It’s like creating five dresses with two bolts of material one month and the next month being expected to create seven dresses with one. The message is clear...I am supposed to fail. This is not about my salary. This is not about the time of day I am to show up to work and leave. And for me, it’s not even about the union. This is about a government that no longer believes public education is worth funding. They no longer believe a teacher is an honored position that involves a multitude of roles - one of which is teaching children academics. The state is cutting almost $500 per child in funding. The national government is cutting funding for valuable programs such as the National Writing Project and Teach for America. Someone needs to see that it’s not a large leap from cutting funding to hurting students. Will I look back upon my life and realize that I was the last generation of public educators, lamenting the time when the government dismantled public education forcing the privatization of schools? Where only the rich receive an academic education, the poor receive basic training skills, and the disabled are institutionalized? I live in a time where million dollar corporations receive bail outs which in turn fund million dollar bonuses to incompetent executives. I live in a time where Wall Street stock brokers make millions on the backs of working class investors. America is the land where anything is possible, and unfortunately now, I see how true this is.
Jeff Grinvalds
Nebraska Writing Project
