Many school systems throughout the country are forced to lay off teachers, and other personnel, to balance their budgets. The economic downturn has cut tax revenue and school systems feel there is no choice. To those who saw public school systems as bloated bureaucracies with lots of people making full-time salaries for nine-month years, this is the comeuppance for public schools they’ve been waiting for.
For many parents, and other public education advocates, these are days they had hoped would never come. Unfortunately, in many cases, those chosen to be laid off are the teachers last hired. Not too long ago, at least in the state of Georgia, they were begging professionals in other fields to get into a special program to become public school teachers. Yes, there was a teacher shortage not many years before the great recession. Now, some of the folks who did that are unemployed.
Because of teachers union rules, likely those teachers making the most money are the ones who will stay. Perhaps school systems could look into incentives to get some of the veteran teachers to retire and keep some of the newer, younger teachers. There is anecdotal evidence that some of the best teachers are the ones losing their jobs. When tough decisions are made based on seniority and other hard-and-fast rules, good people ultimately pay the price.
ECONOMIC TROUBLES WON’T HELP OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM
We NEED to beef up our public education system. We’re getting left in the dust, particularly in math and science education, by other countries. Regardless of what you think about teachers and public education, these layoffs ultimately hurt our efforts to make our schools great again. That isn’t to say there’s no room for better efficiency in public education. There are school systems maintaining schools that aren’t full – heating and cooling empty rooms.
What will our schools look like in five years? Ten years? Will there be more private education, home schooling and less public education? Will we see kids get into the best schools by lottery, while those not so lucky are stuck in sub-standard schools, with too few teachers?
Hardly anyone would argue that the education system has needed changing. President George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” act was an attempt to bring accountability to schools. But, it has received mixed reviews, and mixed results. Teaching kids just to succeed on certain tests is not education. These teacher layoffs certainly won’t help kids do better on those tests.
It’s going to take some real innovation to get a beefed-up education system with fewer resources. Private schools, home schools and other alternatives to public education will grow. Some would argue to get government out of the education business, and turn it over entirely to private enterprise.
But as long as you have the word “private” attached to it, a school will have the ability to choose the students it wants, and reject others. What happens to those children who are rejected?
To those who wanted public schools to get their comeuppance, stop cheering and start thinking about what we do next. To public education advocates and employees, these are brand new times. You have to help make tough, not sentimental or self-serving, decisions. Also, some of those hard-and-fast rules may need tweaking if we are going to keep the best teachers.
Let these tough times educate all of us. Let’s see who can innovate, who can teach us at this teachable moment.
Peter
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