In 2011, the Legislature eliminated more than $5 billion in
finances from public education and shed approximately 25,000 employees. The
state's loss of education funds, grown class sizes, and lack of moral among the
teachers has now become one of the most addressed problems in the state of
Texas.
Although, many teachers are refusing to give up hope on the
education system others are finding themselves confused on what to do next with
their lives. Students are being crowded into classrooms with a teacher that are
not getting paid for the time and focus that they are expected to produce. It would be safe to say that with the increased amount of
"attitude" among growing children, in some cases the lack of
stabilities in homes and the need to feel "popular" can cause stress
to a teacher's life. With all considered teacher's unexplained drop of morale
can be traced to far more than just state budget cuts. All the budget cuts do
is tell the teachers that they need to put up with more stress.
Many are fighting both sides of the argument on what to do
with the state's education funding and teacher salaries but there are no real
decisions or solutions being produced. Many republicans are trying to come up
with a solution that does not raise taxes or touch the state's "rainy day
fund" of some odd $6.5 billion. Texans are concerned with the education that their children are receiving and yet also do not want to increase their taxes. Texans need to face the evidence that the state's representatives are not going to touch the money that is set aside for emergencies to fund education; therefore, alternatives are going to have to become a reality to many. An easy solution would unfortunately at this point be to pay the higher taxes or come up with alternate suggestions.
Although now that the teacher salaries and education funds are being addressed many should take the time to address the teacher morale. Gary Dworken, a University of Houston professor, has and is currently collecting data that shows teachers in 2002 were half as stressed as they are today. He points out that teachers are having to deal with a lot more than just pay cuts at this point. It would be unwise to point out that the more than 5% of children in alternate schools, for misbehavior in the regular school systems, help in this area.
Texans and even more so those that are parents need to really consider their children’s futures and what impact their decisions today can truly make on them.
Both my mother and my father have been elementary school teachers for about twenty-ish years so I personally agree with Politically Texas in her blog post titled "Public SchoolTeachers Needing a Miracle." I agree that teachers do not get paid enough for the enormous amount of work they put in to their jobs. Teachers are the ones who mold and shape the minds of young people. Teachers can either make or break a child’s love for learning. Teachers deserve so much more than what we give them. On top of already not giving them what they truly deserve, we are going to cut education funds and make class sizes grow? I find this completely unfair. I have noticed personally that my parents are becoming more and more tired and worn down when they come home from a day of teaching. They tell me that being a teacher is incredibly emotionally rewarding by having children look up to them and love them. They also tell me though, that I should do something with my life that is emotionally rewarding but also financially rewarding as well. My parents are incredible people and I look up to them every day for what they do, but they have had to worry about money for their entire lives.
ReplyDeleteI believe that education funding is incredibly important and if it means we have to raise taxes, maybe that’s something we should think about doing or at least come up with another, better, way to get more education funding.