Teachers – America’s Frontline Soldiers in Social, Medical and Political Issues

 

“This is a five-alarm crisis. School staffing shortages are not new, 

but what we are seeing now is an unprecedented staffing crisis across every job category.” 

National Education Association (teachers’ union) President Becky Pringle

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (a Democrat), responding to the severe shortage of teachers in her state, has volunteered to serve as a substitute teacher in Santa Fe. Meanwhile, recently elected Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (a Republican) has set up a special tip line in his state for parents to report schools that are teaching their kids “divisive” critical race theory. In July, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (a Republican with an eye on a White House run) banned public schools and school districts from requiring student to wear mask… this in addition to a ban on vaccine mandates. Far from being aberrations, the actions taken by DeSantis and Youngkin reflect parallel orders and policies across most states with GOP governors and/or legislatures.

Not only are public school teachers (as well as their schools and school districts) in these states facing discipline, defunding or discharge for teaching even historically accurate lessons that touch on any aspect of America’s checkered racial past (and present), but teachers are being asked to face serious COVID risks from teaching unmasked and unvaccinated (and untested) students. As teachers are resigning in droves, the burden on those who remain amplifies. Many of the teachers who remain also simply do not teach normal courses on social studies, history or government anymore.

Public school budgets have been pared down to a point where teachers are reaching into their own pockets to supply their classroom required supplies, from erasers and chalk to textbooks. As school attendance falls, because of many children whose parents no longer trust the public schools, a number of school districts automatically reduce funding proportionately. Even as many school buildings suffer from extreme “deferred maintenance” and shortages of computers and other basics, as classrooms become even more over-crowded, public-school budgets continue to fall.

A significant proportion of Joe Biden’s stalled “Build Back Better” legislation – unlikely to pass with required GOP congressional votes under a failed understanding of productivity investments versus raw expenditures – would have enhanced public education and brought workers back into an impaired work force with better childcare alternatives. This shortsightedness exacerbates this impairment that has sent pay scales soaring, tanked our supply chain and pushed inflation through the roof. Oh, and childcare tax-credit support under COVID driven legislation has since expired. This inadequacy particularly slams underpaid teachers hard.

Indeed, where parents can find decent childcare, it is both expensive and carries with it the possibility that the attending children will face greater exposure to a possible COVID infection. Omicron seems to feast on the very young and unvaccinated. The next variant could be even worse. With anti-vaxxers and GOP policies embracing eliminating any mask or vaccine mandates where they have control, childcare and public education have become sacrificial lambs, political pawns with devastating consequence. As the Chicago teachers’ strike illustrated (pictured above), teachers simply do not trust their administrators or the politicians who control school issues.

One K-8 special-education teacher in Chicago, reflecting on her own experience in this teacher-unfriendly environment, explains her own frustration with COVID risks and childcare realities: “I think that whatever I take on next might be in curriculum development or advocacy. At this point, not knowing when I’ll have access to childcare, it is nearly impossible to think of me going back to a classroom where children rely on me. The only opportunities I’m [seeking] out are remote [or part time] because I need to deal with the fact that my kids could be home at any moment for two weeks.” The January 27th FastCompany.com. Historically, childcare has fallen disproportionately on women, making this one more anti-woman vector in an increasingly right-wing vision of America… one that seems to define the self-appointed legislative body nominally called the “Supreme Court.”

As teachers and teachers’ unions grapple with the severe practical, legal, social, medical and constitutional questions shoved onto their shoulders, these issues will dig deeply into collective bargaining, political lobbying and efforts toward teacher recruitment and retention. They are already spilling over into the judicial system and will probably waste tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in litigation costs. Money that should have been spent to improve American education, which, by international standards, has fallen from a global first to 19th in a fairly short time. 

So much of America seems consumed with spending money to fight “culture wars” than in educating future generations. We are still importing STEM-educated immigrants, who are finding the United States decreasingly attractive, because our educational system simply is unable to meet demand. What’s worse, as we make teaching even more stressful, we’re going to have a lot fewer teachers to fight those culture wars anyway:

“The country’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association (NEA), released a new poll [on February 1st] that it conducted to gauge the amount of stress on their members’ shoulders right now. The results suggest that a full-on, sector-wide breakdown could be on the horizon. The survey shows that 55% of teachers now say that because of the pandemic, they’re going to leave the profession sooner than they’d planned. When the NEA asked the same question last August, the number stood at only 37%.” FastCompany.com, February 1st. If America has been decreasingly competitive in the past, you ain’t seen nuffin’ yet!

I’m Peter Dekom, and we seem to have left way, way behind the notion of respecting teachers and providing them with both a solid and safe environment to prepare our future generations.