Written by Marianne Mansfield
What sense of entitlement is it that leads people to think they have the right to disparage teachers in the public education system? Not just critique, but to debase the teaching profession which debasement is usually accompanied by some sort of personal attack like, Teachers are slackers, they wanted an easy job, and they don’t care about kids.
I put my question to a veteran teacher once, and she explained that, “Since practically everyone has had experience with the system, it makes them think they are experts.”
Here’s the corollary I’ll append to her theory. Those who are the loudest critics of the public education system are those who had the worst experiences as they went through it. Perhaps they were poor students, or gifted students, or perhaps they’d had a horribly memorable time with an inferior teacher, or administrator. For whatever the reason, those who are the most vocal are those for whom it all boils down to their own experience.
As a former educator, I hear you. I worked in six different school districts during the course of my career, and I saw some truly bad practice. I saw children whose needs weren’t being met. I saw some children treated unfairly, and some children who, despite everyone’s best efforts, were so far out the door that even the best teachers were forced to give up on them.
But, those instances were few and far between, their number being swamped by the efforts of dedicated, professional staff who constantly sought better ways to reach the students in their care.
So, when I read that the Superintendent of Utah, Brad Smith, compared teachers who rallied for better salaries to children crying on Christmas morning for one more present, on behalf of Utah teachers I was outraged. The Superintendent has since apologized for his remarks, but for too many educators, including this one, it was too little, too late.
And then, I read that North Ogden Republican Representative Justin Fawson in caucus said the message he gets from educator groups is they’re incompetent and need funding to become competent. Well, yes, Mr. Fawson, that’s exactly what educators are saying. When classrooms are overcrowded, and educational funding in Utah continues to lag far behind that of most other states, is there any surprise that the efficiency and effectiveness of the system itself in impacted? That almost goes without saying, doesn’t it? Duh…
So, let’s look at what the Legislature did, and did not accomplish during this session.
First, SB 97 adjusts the state property tax to raise an extra 75 million dollars which will be applied to the Weighed Pupil Unit (WPU) in each district. Essentially, this results in a 3 percent increase in per pupil funding in districts across the state. While it does not raise the level of the WPU to pre-recession status, it is a significant and well placed increase. By adding it to the WPU the legislature has allowed individual district personnel to make the call on how the additional funds should be allocated.
SB 235 is more disturbing to me. It requires districts to identify under-performing schools, to “rescue” them. There is no doubt that struggling schools need help. What is beyond bothersome is that per SB 235 that ‘rescue’ comes in the form of outside consultants. Once again, the logic goes that by substituting the thinking of persons unfamiliar with the dynamics of a given system, the system will somehow spring to life and begin churning out Rhodes Scholars. This idea has been around for years and has met with mixed results at best. What it accomplishes, though, for the legislators is it allows them to effectively pass the buck. Now they will be able to blame the ‘outside consultants’ instead of the staff of the under-performing schools. Mission accomplished. Now under-performing schools are someone else’s nightmare.
There were several other bills which appear, on the face, to have been well thought out, and pointed in the right direction. HB 198, Strengthening College and Career Readiness, SB 196, Math Competency Initiative, both important for our region of the state. HB 335. This bill requires Southern Utah University, and our own DSU to offer engagement activities for young students in STEM related courses of study. STEM is the acronym that stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. It makes sense to me that if we want an educated work force in southern Utah, we need to nurture those young people who express interest in these fields.
Finally, however, there was a little noticed bill that made me laugh. HB 447 codifies a longstanding statewide policy that parents must opt their children in to sex education classes. Just to make absolutely sure those students don’t hear anything in class that they haven’t already been exposed to by social media.
So, this legislative session looks like a mixed bag for public education. Some gains, to be sure, but there still exists a widespread lack of faith when it comes to the skills and dedication of the majority of our state’s teachers.
That saddens me. Come on, people who work as hard as teachers do didn’t get into the profession because it was a cushy job in which they would make boatloads of money. The overwhelming majority care about their students and how they learn. Let’s acknowledge that as a starting point for next year’s legislative activity.
Marianne Mansfield has lived in Southern Utah since 2010. She and her husband followed their grandchildren to this area fromMichigan. In her former life she was a public school educator. More than half of her career was spent as an elementary principal, which is why her response to most challenges is, “This isn’t my first rodeo.” She grew up in Indiana, and attended Miami of Ohio,Ball State University and Michigan State. She is a loyal MSU Spartan and Detroit Tiger baseball fan. She has been writing fiction and opinion since her retirement in 2004.
