What happens to teachers and teaching when Republican austerity extremists gain control of a state ?
Stephanie
Keiles
A little
background. I didn't figure out that I wanted to be a math teacher until I was
28. As a kid I was always told I was "too smart" to be a teacher, so
I went to business school instead. I lasted one year in the financial world
before I knew it was not for me. I read a quote from Millicent Fenwick, the (moderate)
Republican Congresswoman from my home state of New Jersey, where she said that
the secret to happiness was doing something you enjoyed so much that what was
in your pay envelope was incidental.
I quit
my job as an analyst at a large accounting firm determined to find my passion.
I floundered for a while, and then eventually got married and decided I would
be a stay-at-home mom, but only until my kids were in school. Then I would need
to find that passion.
I was
pregnant with my oldest child, sitting on a sofa in Stockholm, Sweden, when I
had my epiphany: I would be a math teacher -- a middle school math teacher! I
thought about it and it fit my criteria perfectly. No, I wasn't thinking about
the pension, or the "part-time" schedule, or any of the other
gold-plated benefits that ignorant people think we go into the profession for.
Two criteria: I would enjoy it, and I would be good at it.
Nine
years and four kids later, I enrolled in Eastern Michigan University's
Post-Baccalaureate teacher certification program, and first stepped into my own
classroom at the age of 40. I was teaching high school, because that's where I
had my first offer, and I was given five classes of kids who were below
grade-level in math. And I still loved it.
I knew I
had found my calling.
After
three years, I switched districts to be closer to home and to teach middle
school, where I belonged. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven! I was
hired to teach in my district's Talented and Gifted program, so I had two
classes of 8th graders who were taking Honors Geometry, and three classes of
general 8th grade math.
This
coming year, I was scheduled to have five sections of Honors Geometry -- all my
students would be two, and sometimes three, years advanced in math. I was also
scheduled to have my beloved first hour planning period, and I was excited to
work with a new group of kids on Student Council. It was looking to be a great
year -- and I'm still walking away.
My
friends, in real life and on Facebook, know what a huge supporter of public
schools I am. I am a product of public schools, and my children are the
products of public schools. Public education is the backbone of democracy, and
we all know there is a corporatization and privatization movement trying to
undermine it.
I became
an activist after Gov. Rick Snyder and his Republican goons took over Michigan
and declared war on teachers. I am part of a group called Save Michigan's
Public Schools. Two years ago, we put on a rally for public education at the
Capitol steps that drew over 1,000 people from all over the state with just
three weeks' notice and during summer break.
I have
testified in front of the Michigan House Education Committee against lifting
the cap on charter schools, and also against Common Core. I attended both NPE
conferences to meet with other activists and bring back ideas to my compadres
in Michigan. I have been fighting for public education for five years now, and
will continue to do so.
But I
just can't work in public education anymore.
Coming
from the Republicans at the state level and the Democrats at the national
level, I have been forced to comply with mandates that are not in the
best interest of kids. I am tired of having to perform what I consider to be
educational malpractice, in the name of "accountability."
The
amount of time lost to standardized tests that are of no use to me as a
classroom teacher is mind-boggling. And when you add in mandatory quarterly
district-wide tests, which are used to collect data that nothing is ever done
with, it's beyond ridiculous.
Sometimes
I feel like I live in a Kafka novel.
Number
one on my district's list of how to close the achievement gap and increase
learning? Making sure that all teachers have their learning goals posted every
day in the form of an "I Can" statement. I don't know how we ever got
to be successful adults when we had no "I Can" statements on the
wall. (sarcasm)
In
addition, due to a chronic, purposeful underfunding of public schools here in
Michigan, my take-home pay has been frozen or decreased for the past five
years, and I don't see the situation getting any better in the near future. No,
I did not go into teaching for the money, but I also did not go into teaching
to barely scrape by, either.
As a
10th-year teacher in my district, I would be making 16 percent less than a
10th-year was when I was hired in 2006. Plus, I now have to pay for medical
benefits, and 3 percent of my pay is taken out to fund current retiree health
care, which has been found unconstitutional for all state employees except
teachers. And I'm being asked to contribute more to my pension.
Financial
decisions were made based on anticipated future income that never materialized,
for me and for thousands and thousands of other public school teachers. The
thought of any teacher having to take a second job to support
him/herself at any point in his/her career is disgusting to me, yet
that's what I was contemplating doing. At 53, with a master's degree and twelve
years of experience.
If I
were poorly compensated but didn't have to comply with asinine mandates and a
lack of respect, that would be one thing.
And if I
were continuing my way up the pay scale but had to deal with asinine mandates,
that would be one thing. But having to comply with asinine mandates and
watching my income, in the form of real dollars, decline every year? When I
have the choice to teach where I will be better compensated and all educational
decisions will be made by experienced educators? And I will be treated with
respect? Bring it on.
So as of
today I have officially resigned from my district, effective August 31, which
is when I will start my new job as a middle school math teacher at an
independent school. I am looking forward to being treated like a professional,
instead of a child, and I'm pretty sure I will never hear the words, "We
can't afford to give you a raise", or worse (as in the past two years),
"You're going to have to take a pay cut." I am looking forward to not
having to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on classroom supplies. And the
free lunch, catered by a local upscale market, will be pretty sweet, too.
I will
miss my colleagues more than you could ever know, especially my math girls and
my Green Hall buddies. It really breaks my heart to leave such a wonderful
group of people. In fact, it's pretty devastating. But I have to do what's best
for me in the long run, and the thought of making more money and teaching
classes of 15 instead of 34, and especially not having to deal with all the BS,
was too much to refuse.
I will always be there to fight for
public education. I just can't teach in it.
August,
15,2015
Reposted
from the Huffington Report
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