Today 5,000 teachers were pink slipped in in the Los Angeles public school district. FIVE THOUSAND. Add that to the 3,500 laid off last year and the 2,500 laid off the year before that. ELEVEN THOUSAND TEACHERS LAID OFF.
How does a school system already on it's last legs, already showing huge signs of failing, recover from that. How does this generation of children recover from that. Right now Angela has more kids in her classroom than I'm guessing the Fire Marshall would sanction. She has 39 kids in each of her classes. Just close your eyes and picture that. Thirty-nine sixth graders. One adult. Chinese history. How much learning do you think is happening? How much of the time is spent on discipline? How much individual help do those special education students get (and she has many, many special education students).
I don't care what your political leanings are. I don't care what you think about taxes or politicians or a woman's right to abortion or the death penalty. What I care about tonight is the fact that all of these teachers are being laid off. These wonderful, newly minted, excited teachers. And it's not just teachers. It's counselors and secretaries and assistant principals. There have been several suicide attempts at the local middle school lately. What happens when the counselors only work one day a week because they have to cover more than one campus?
This isn't the solution. Neither is cutting back on police officers or fire fighters. Shuttering libraries isn't good either. I have no idea what the solution is. I just know that we need to find it. We need to get good teachers, young teachers, back in the classroom. NOW. We need to stop firing teachers. We need to stop demonizing teachers. If you had to do their job for one day, how might you fare?
I pray things change though I don't know how much faith I have in the system anymore. But, all it takes is a mustard seed right? And you know what keeps me believing more than anything? Those teachers, like Angela and all the others I know, who go to work every day, despite being pink slipped, and keep trying to teach Chinese history to a room overflowing with children. They're doing their jobs. They're fighting. And at some point, somehow, we'll figure out how to help them. We have to...
2 comments:
Oh. My. God.
I just love the fact that when things get rough budget wise, the cut teachers. They don't cut their own paychecks in half, they just pink slip those that are practically raising the next generation. So, when in 5-10 years these kids are ready to enter college and they just can't make the cut, who is going to pay then? I am guessing welfare because that is the only way those without a proper education will survive. Those numbers just make me ill.
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