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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums25-Year-Old Textbooks and Holes in the Ceiling: Inside Americas Public Schools
Broken laptops, books held together with duct tape, an art teacher who makes watercolors by soaking old markers.
Teacher protests have spread rapidly from West Virginia to Oklahoma, Kentucky and Arizona in recent months. We invited Americas public school educators to show us the conditions that a decade of budget cuts has wrought in their schools.
We heard from 4,200 teachers. Here is a selection of the submissions, condensed and edited for clarity.
Rio Rico, Ariz.
Michelle Gibbar, teacher at Rio Rico High School
Salary: $43,000 for 20 years of experience
Annual out-of-pocket expenses: $500+
I have 148 students this year. The district skipped textbook adoption for the high school English department, leaving us with 10-year-old class sets, and we do not have enough for students to take them home. Our students deserve better. Our nation deserves better.
As I near retirement age, I realize I will retire at the poverty level. The antiquated myth of the noble, yet poor, teacher must go. I am passionate about my subject and my students. I am not passionate about living paycheck to paycheck.
-more-
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/25-year-old-textbooks-and-holes-in-the-ceiling-inside-americas-public-schools/ar-AAvVWHC?li=BBnb7Kz
pandr32
(11,588 posts)lovemydogs
(575 posts)The filling of fat cat and corporate pockets with money that should have been used to educate our young.
Our kids have paid the price for our selfishness. We don't want our taxes raised by a dime per year to pay for education, maintaining our schools or paying for teaching materials.
We are fine with rats running the halls, furnaces not running, over full classrooms, out of date books held together with duct tape, ceilings literally falling down on our kids. ect.
But, ask the taxpayer to pay a dime extra to help, ask our congress to stop the barebones cuts so their fat cat donors can get fatter tax cuts and that is just too much.
We have fallen from one of the top countries in education to the bottom of industrialized nations.
This is our shame.
sinkingfeeling
(51,457 posts)CrispyQ
(36,478 posts)A bumper sticker I once saw, & we are paying that price right now.
notdarkyet
(2,226 posts)Greatest fear of the ruling party was an over educated, underemployed group, because they would think and revolt. China, Germany, USSR, all killed off intellectuals in the beginning, to tamp down revolt. Education is not valued by kleptocracys.
CrispyQ
(36,478 posts)until people get too educated & then they vote democratic.
Back in the 80s, the GOP started focusing on filling board of education positions & here we are with Betsy DeVos as our SoE.
The damage done is already substantial.
dembotoz
(16,808 posts)it......
sort a drove the point home.....
Mariana
(14,858 posts)Is there a reason the old spelling book wouldn't be adequate for teaching spelling? If it had been a science book, that would be different matter altogether.
dembotoz
(16,808 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)and their propensity to vote republican, but I'm not holding my breath