Last Friday, I threw caution to the wind and skipped two classes to attend the TEACH Town Hall Meeting in Roussel Hall. Unfortunately, I was left wanting for honesty and frankness after the panel ended.
There are few things I care more about in the world than public education, and recently, it is an issue that has struck especially close to home.
Someone very close to me – who asked not to be named because of their precarious job situation – is facing an almost-certain layoff at the end of the school year. This person is a fantastic, young, energetic and caring second grade teacher at a public school in Texas. Their degree is in primary education, useful only in an elementary school teaching situation and close to worthless in any other profession.
Because of widespread budget cuts made by the Texas government to public education programs, thousands of young teachers will be unemployed by the end of the spring semester.
Budget cuts in education programs are not just a problem in Texas, either. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities said in a February 2011 article that 34 states and the District of Columbia made substantial cuts to their K-12 public education programs. The article also says Colorado cut public school spending by $260 million, or around $400 per student.
Opinions about cutting education budgets aside (how will we ever solve our financial problems if we don’t raise smart, educated children?), I am amazed at the audacity of the TEACH Town Hall panelists to say to a group of students that going into education as a profession is anywhere close to a good idea.
Young teachers in Texas are scrambling to find other teaching jobs, only to find closed door after closed door. Even in private schools, which don’t rely on state funding, the competition for the few open teaching positions will be cutthroat. I can only imagine the situation is the same in most states around the country.
I am outraged that the question of budget cuts was hardly even addressed at the meeting. President Obama’s initiative to encourage students to go into teaching as a sort of service to their country is doing nothing but setting bright, promising students up for complete failure.
I don’t doubt that there is a serious lack of dedicated educators in the public education system. As a public school student for my entire grade school life, I’ve had less-than-stellar classroom experiences because of uninterested teachers. However, until state and federal governments can work together to make necessary budget cuts in areas other than public education, there is simply no room for an influx of new teachers.
I think teaching is one of the noblest professions a person can have. I’ve been extremely blessed with teachers who inspired me, guided me and mentored me in ways that completely changed my life. It is a crime against our children that state governments are allowed to cut so much money out of the education budget, and it is an emergency that deserves much more attention than it is getting.
However, until the infrastructure issues are properly addressed and fixed, it is absolutely irresponsible and reprehensible for anyone to look a group of students in the eye and tell them to go into a field that absolutely cannot support them.
Melanie Ziems is a mass communication senior and web editor for The Maroon. She can be reached at
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