Hi,
I, along with Mr. Murphy, work at Franklin.
While I appreciate everyone who went to the protest, the kind of language used does not help unify us, but rather divides.
Specifically, to imply that if we didn’t go to the protest it means we don’t care is simply untrue, and very narrow-minded.
I care a whole lot about education, so much that I have my own blog devoted exclusively to it, (www.edu-truth.com), and have been published several times in the Seattle Times, including a guest column a couple years ago, on education issues.
And if you read that or talk to people, you find there is a lot more to the problems facing education than the same old whining about money.
Now, I am not pleased with our cut in pay, and I was interested in attending this protest. However, for more than one reason, I was unable to do so. I am sure many other teachers fit in the same boat. And we shouldn’t have to defend our reasons for not attending a protest, whether we agree with it or not. If you must know, my main reason is that I didn’t have a car that day, and my second reason is that I spend so much extra time at school doing extra unpaid work, that I used that extra time we had to catch up on some other things. And I have other reasons too.
None of which matters, because the fact remains, just because someone doesn’t go to one protest doesn’t mean they don’t care.
I’m interested in bigger issues that just money. Money comes and goes, and there’s never enough. Should we be paid more? Of course. Will it truly impact the quality of education? Probably not that much. Will “taxing the rich,” as you guys seem to think, be enough to pay for a fair salary for the thousands of teachers across the state?
No, it will not, and people who think this is true tend to also make implications that if we don’t attend one protest, we don’t care about anything.
The truth is, taxing the rich will not be enough. That’s why Gregoire is proposing a new sales tax. Are you for that too? Because that’s what’s going to happen. Just like on the federal level, there are two choices: Raise taxes on everyone, or cut spending.
Of course, there is a third choice, which is the best one: Do both.
But no one wants to do that. Even if we doubled taxes on the “rich,” however we define it, it would not be enough to cover all the spending that you and others want to fund. All the Bush taxes need to be expired, not just those on the rich. And the big spending programs need to be restructured or they will bankrupt us. This is an unavoidable fact.
But there are many other issues in education that matter a whole lot more than money, so it’s kind of funny to me when a money issue comes up, and only then do we hear from this group of teachers who are publicly silent on all the other educational problems, such as over-testing, one-size fits all curriculums, lack of discipline, over-reliance on seniority, charter school delusions, blame the teachers for everything mantras, and a host of other issues.
These things have far greater threats to the well being of our profession than a few hundred dollars a year—as important as that is too.
So, I thank you for standing FOR us at the protest, since many of us were there in spirit but had other issues to deal with on that day. And I think the legislators did notice. Especially because, I bet a lot of people wrote to them, even if they didn’t attend the protest.
in response, I mentioned some of the problems teachers are complaining about (the spending decisions in the hands of those who have no clue what to spend it on because they aren't involved with students directly). Money is a big issue. The IAs especially are making only $32,000 a year maximum and many of us are working more than one job. I did mention that Seattle (I can't speak for other districts) does spend way too much on tests and ARE over testing. It seems every time I read the bulletin at school it announces yet more testing. I wrote to the spt. about it but received no response. This was after I attended a town meeting about education where the spt. was there answering questions. Despite having my hand up, I was never called on. The spt. asked everyone who didn't get a chance to speak to write down their questions on a form provided and she would get back to us. I wrote down my concerns about being in a time of crunching numbers and cutting services to students, why was so much money still being spent on testing. As I said, she never responded. This was about six months ago. But to respond to another comment you made, some teachers from my bldg went to the protest in Ballard. But most didn't attend. I asked before and after to several co-workers who all had better things to do. Many of them are apathetic. Some don't even vote. And I also ask them if they write their elected officials and many of them don't. I do constantly on other issues besides education. So that's why I felt too many teachers were being apathetic.