Something has to Change

My engagement photo with Mr. Lee. 1994.

In 1994 I was a brand new teacher. School was my way out of a poverty cycle as a student and again as a teacher.

That year I made in the low $20k range, but it changed my life.

My daughter was able to take dance and gymnastics classes. She went to childcare at the Y. We went to the doctor when we were sick, no question. Insurance paid. No question. We went on vacations to the beach and Disney and Six Flags. We enjoyed concerts and eating out at restaurants.

Another early 90s photo. I was a sophomore at MSU here. Already dreaming of life as a high school newspaper adviser, my dream job.

Low $20s was great back then.

My school debt was non-existent. When I started school, a full-time load was less than a thousand dollars. When I finished it was still less than $2500. My MA was paid for by my school district because I went to school for my content area. And after five successful years as a teacher there, I was given a continuing contract, a guarantee of a job as long as I didn’t break the teacher contract rules.

Today’s teachers often start with tons of debt. And even if they qualify for the debt forgiveness programs for public servants, they have to pay those giant loans for a decade and the interest grows on them the whole time too. and forget about continuing contracts. They’re like myths from the past.

Today’s teachers start with substandard insurance. If they get sick, or if their family gets sick, forget paying bills.

Vacations mean side hustles.

Staying in education means giving up on opportunities to earn more for many of our highly qualified educators.

I don’t usually put pay on the list of things Texas can do to make teaching better. But talking to my young teacher friends, I see it needs to be there.

There are multiple ways to do this. Better insurance and childcare credits would help tremendously. Frozen student loans with no interest would help. The security of a continuing contract could change everything. Contributions to an HSA would be nice.

Something has to change. We’re losing great teachers because they can’t afford to stay in education.

Please remember all of this as you vote in your STATE elections. There are pro-public education candidates out there. Vote for them.

I’m retiring this year! I’ve loved my career and I’m so thankful to my colleagues, my administrators over the years, my students and their adults at home, and both campuses I’ve worked at. And while I’m leaving the classroom, I won’t stop fighting for public school educators! Now, let’s vote Governor Abbott out of office before he kills Texas public schools.

Teach the Vote: Save Our Public Schools

When I first started teaching one of the best teachers I’ve ever known told me something that has proven to be true in ways I never imagined.

When I said I didn’t like to “be political” she said teaching would always be political and that there were forces at work trying to destroy the public school system because they wanted to raid the funding.

I didn’t believe her in 1994, but by ‘99 I saw she was right. Back then it was Pearson and the high cost of testing and curriculum for the tests and retests. I still didn’t understand the full truth of what she saw.

I didn’t understand that banks were starting for-profit charters and moving into states while pulling funding from schools. I didn’t know hedge-fund operators were donating huge amounts to politicians to change the rules. I sure didn’t expect the state to give billions to private investors while cutting funding to our state teacher pension and insurance fund. I didn’t realize then that the push to make public education teaching a drive-through profession was because without a large,vocal group of seasoned public educators, politicians could raid funds all day long and few would know or care.

Flash forward to two decades later.

What that teacher underestimated was how apathy toward voting in the education profession made it easy for politicians to do the billionaires’ bidding, leaving school districts struggling while for-profit charters flourish with no or little oversight.

So here we are. On Feb. 20 early voting starts for the Texas primaries that will be held March 6.

Teachers must stand up and say no more.

We must vote for our students and our schools. We must vote for ourselves and our futures. We must vote for our retirees.

This election is a battle in the war on public education. It’s not about party. It’s bigger than that.

If you want to know how to fight back, a good place to start is the Texans for Public Education site. There’s a list on the site of the public education friendly candidates running for office.

Public education is a bedrock of our democracy. It levels the playing field for all students when it is allowed to.

And when career educators—not just teachers but our staffs, counselors and admin as well— work their full thirty years or more, public schools are stronger.

Both traditions are under attack.

Voting can change that.

The teacher who told me teaching is political was right. We can’t afford to ignore that truth. If we do, our students suffer and our profession will cease to exist.