Hey! How are you? I hope you are doing well! Its been a couple of weeks since I felt the need to write or the need to share my random thoughts and I have been patiently waiting for some sort of inspiration to write and today I found it!
As many of you know I am a teacher to students with special needs....and I love my work and the smiles on the many faces I see everyday! Also, as most know, our state is in a state of crisis at this point trying to figure out a way to help the ones that can't balance the budget....the ones making the BIG bucks, who screwed the budget up in the first place!
So here is today's dilemma that I am afraid may have more long lasting, negative effects than we are aware of at this moment.....our good ol' state legislatures are continuing to take from my child and yours as well, AGAIN! I am sure that you have heard the news and have figured out by now that CMS is in a much BIGGER debt boat than us here, but those kids and our kids are all suffering from the same debt crisis! Supposedly a "budget" for next school year is weeks away from being signed and its not PRETTY. It's not pretty for educators or students and in the big picture America's future! Now I have a 2 sided look on this and I am going to share both sides b/c both sides to me are VERY important......
My educator's side (I will start there b/c this was my 1st side before the parent side)....granted anyone who is a teacher does not do it for the money (we ALL know this), many that are teachers have had the dream since they were kids or some were inspired by a teacher during their school career and felt the need to share the passion with others. My dream came in the 3rd grade, although this was my toughest year in school and I probably should have been tested for EC services at this point in my school career b/c nothing school related came easy to me and everything I got was a struggle.....so I thought I wanted to teach elementary school and that was the plan even when I was rejected by ASU my freshman year and struggled my way through MCC hoping to get a transfer to anywhere that would take my sad, little GPA so that my dreams could come true. And the doors opened when UNCC gave me a chance and accepted someone, who on paper, did not look like a very good student....at this point I still wanted to teach elementary ed until the 1st semester of 2001 in Intro to SPED, my mind was changed and eyes opened not only to what my problems had been all through school, but problems that other kids just like me were and had experienced, so the decision was made to change majors to Special Ed. I will stop rambling, but I will say my GPA was still not pretty when I graduated (after a 5 year struggle) and my major was not SPED b/c I wasn't "good enough" for the program, but I worked my way around that road block and made my dreams of Special Ed come true. During my education journey and once I found my calling...I then decided to further my education and get my Masters degree in EC, when what I believe my real GPA finally showed up on paper.....it wasn't a 4.0, but 3.8 with Dean's List recognition :) I worked VERY hard to get what I got as many educators do and not for the PAY or BENEFITS. I know MANY people out there that would love to have my job b/c 5 years ago education was the way to go and those that chose that path are waiting tables, working odd jobs, and hoping that maybe one day their dream of being a teacher will come true. SO what does this mean to you....in the State of NC we are ranked 45th in our nation for teacher pay and 47th in instructional supply money for our students (your child). Teachers in this state continue and have continued to educate America's youth with less and less as each year passes and this coming school year will be no different. Our "new" budget wants to cut Teacher Assistants, teachers pay for their insurance, RAISE student class sizes and the list continues......now from my educator's side I am defensive, how dare someone who cannot balance "their" checkbook take from mine, how dare someone continue to expect, expect, expect more and more from me and take, take, take more and more away?? Why do I continue to see, in my opinion, UNNECESSARY road work continuing when some kids don't even have BOOKS to learn from??? I am very confused and ANGRY about the future in education not only for myself, my colleagues, but mostly for the CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!
So that is my educator's, defensive side.....this is my parent's, hurt side. Now that Bryson is getting ready to enter the big ol' scary world of school for the next 13 years...it is starting to hit home what all of these cuts will mean. Bryson will be going with me to Stony Point in Alexander County, where the school board continues to strive for small classroom sizes and putting Children First, which they have done an excellent job at....but with the "new" budget coming into play and others putting stipulations on the "budget" money it is becoming harder and harder each year for our small county to continue to keep up. This means that next year my child may be in a larger class, which means less one on one time and who knows what classes sizes will be by the time he is in 5th grade...could be 33 kids per class. 33 is ridiculous how can any student learn in a class that large, much less how can any teacher teach to that many students at one time???????? I don't have the answer, do you?? Does our state's lottery money hold the key????? I am very concerned and very upset at the fact that I am sending my child into his school career with people in our state legislature that could care less about any child that walks through the door of any school. I am very saddened to think of what his school career will look like if year after year our state continues to take more from my child, your child, OUR FUTURE LEADERS!
I plan on submitting this along with some MORE recommendations to our state legislatures on how to balance "their" budget problems....I hope that you will do the same. This situation is not pretty nor does it appear to be pretty for several more years to come and I just can't stop wondering at what point will our faithful, hardworking teachers finally hit their breaking points b/c of all of the pressures to be the best, but with less! How many more years will this continue before the education system in the State of NC crashes?
For those who don't have kids of their own or may have their kids in private or home school situations, this will catch up to you as well...sadly in some way. It is our responsibility to make sure that our kids get the BEST education possible and its not that they aren't b/c of teachers its b/c of those who have NEVER stepped foot in an elementary classroom since graduating elementary school 30 years ago!!!!!!!
I hope that you will take the time to let the WORLD know that WE are not going to allow OUR children to bare the burdens of OUR state's crisis!
Have a good rest of the week and GREAT weekend....with love Alysha!
