CommentsEDUCATION POLITICS---I am in tears right now after reading the article about how our teacher’s union, made up of everyday teachers would do anything to hurt or harm the education of children.
In my opinion, when you look at the roles of the people in charge of the decision-making that goes on in education, rarely will you find a teacher’s name on that list. Teachers are the ones in the trenches. We are the ones educating students every day. We know what works and what doesn’t work.
But we are rarely asked our opinions on every aspect that affect our daily job. People who didn’t even dedicate their life and many years of schooling to this profession are given more of a say as to what happens then those that are actually doing the work. No teacher has ever gone into the field of education for money or fame. It has always been the passion of education and educating young minds to be productive citizens in our society. That has been our driving force.
To say that our teacher’s union is somehow involved in a hostile takeover is ludicrous. Our union has always been in the forefront of fighting for students. I working environment is there learning environment. We have spent decades of making miracles with little resources. Attempting to educate children in underserved areas and children in poverty is a feat that should be commended. Teachers have had to deal with oversized classrooms in underfunded schools. How much money do we as teachers have to spend on supplementing supplies and instructional materials that our students need to be properly educated?
It is no coincidence that when 80% of our public schools were made up of black and brown students it seemed as though 80% of the funding disappeared.
For so long once the dynamics of the public school population changed the financial shift changed. The investment in the education of children changed. The funding and extracurricular activities arts in education changed. The use of technology in schools changed.
So, let it be known that in 2019 it is the year of change. It is the year the teachers are saying here and no more. It is this year the teachers have decided that we would change the amount of investment our society has given to the children in public schools.
So, if you want to call it a hostile takeover, then so be it. But we have drawn a line in the sand and we plan on changing the course of education as we know it. The charter school takeovers will change. The lack of accountability will change. The school to prison pipeline will change. The lack of educational resources will change. And a new commitment and reinvestment in the lives of public school children will change!
(Ebony LBatiste has been an educator in the LAUSD system since 1996.)
-cw
