Thursday, April 26, 2018

My Current Thoughts on Teacher Strikes and Walk Outs in Arizona

If you're not from Phoenix or Arizona you might not have heard about the unraveling of our education system.  In the past weeks and months there has been an extensive effort to increase education funding to our public schools.  Teachers are advocating for a 20% raise and funds to be prioritized for support staff and classroom management such as textbooks, desks, chairs, and overall needs of our students. 

While there was some talk to offer teachers a 20% raise by 2020 it was a lot of empty promises most of which hinged on the election of the governor who may or may not even be in office to uphold his end of the deal, not to mention the fact that the offer allocated 0 funds towards administration, janitors, or other school employees nor money to put towards the classroom situation and from the sounds of it much of the funds would actually have to come from services offered to students with special needs.

I've heard the comments that teachers chose this.  I chose to be a teacher, yes.  But I made that choice and I got my degree in 2008, since then budgets have been cut 1 billion dollars from education. Which to be honest is a huge reason I don't teach full time, I do still teach part time at a private school, but I've been able to structure a schedule which allows me to maximize my time value and make a livable wage for myself and family.  And at the moment, I'm the primary provider for our family's income, meaning if I wanted to go back to teaching I would increase my hourly weekly commitment but loose about 30k a year. TO WORK MORE!  But I love art teaching so much it was almost worth that loss for me to go back full time, until my Husband's family business closed and he opted to go back to school for Nursing (which is a post for another time).  The point is I did choose to teach but I didn't choose to be living at the or below the poverty line with two small children. 

The education system is failing our children, I'm highly qualified, hold a teaching certificate, continue my education on my skills and would love to go back for a master's program yet I can't "afford" to teach in a public school anymore, or rather they can't afford me.  Think about how many well educated teachers they've lost because those teachers deserve competitive pay, have families to provide for and mortgages to pay.  I know and love each of the teachers my daughter has had over the past 2 years of her public education, but I know there are many students struggling with under qualified teachers and underpaid support staff.  Everyone in Arizona deserves better.

Starting today, many districts are closed in anticipation of teacher walk outs.  And they will continue to be closed until the demands have been met, this means many students will be asked to make up missed days into our hot summer, and I STILL SUPPORT THE TEACHERS.  Because they asked nicely, they've begged, they've pleased and the government here is still failing them, now they're actually threatening to sue teachers.  SUE THEM for protesting these cuts and degrading pay.  There are elected officials refusing to address this issue, ie not doing their job, yet they want to bully and threaten teachers. 

I have lots more to say and maybe I'll update this post but for now I just wanted to get some thoughts on 'paper' so to speak.  What are your thoughts? How is this affecting you and your family? Have you called the governor or signed any petitions?

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