Opinion

JUSTIN PARMENTER: For teachers, May 16 about more than paychecks

Sunday, May 13, 2018 -- None of us got into education for the money. We teach because we love North Carolina's children, and we want to see them succeed. Unfortunately, our General Assembly's misplaced priorities not only create difficult working conditions for our teachers, they create unacceptable learning conditions for students that have lasting impacts on student behavior and achievement.

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Classroom
EDITOR’S NOTE: Justin Parmenter is a seventh grade language arts teacher at Waddell Language Academy in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County school system.

Classes with so many children that some have to sit on the floor. Other classes taking place in closets. Blind students who can’t get books in Braille.  History textbooks with George Bush as president.  Kindergarten classes with 30 students and no assistant.  Teachers forced to stop class to attend to special medical needs because there’s no nurse on duty.

Welcome to public school in North Carolina.

As the number of teachers planning to come to Raleigh for the May 16 “Rally for Respect” passes 10,000, efforts by some to discredit the uprising by characterizing teachers as money grubbers have intensified.

However, the fact is, it’s not really about the paychecks.

Granted, North Carolina’s teachers would love to be able to quit their second and third jobs and spend more time with our families. We’d love to see our principals compensated fairly instead of facing $20,000 pay cuts because of standardized test scores.

But none of us got into education for the money. We teach because we love North Carolina’s children, and we want to see them succeed. Unfortunately, our General Assembly's misplaced priorities not only create difficult working conditions for our teachers, they create unacceptable learning conditions for students that have lasting impacts on student behavior and achievement.

Those misplaced priorities include lowering NC’s corporate tax rate to the lowest in the country and giving up $3.5 billion in potential revenue each year.

These just some of the non-paycheck-related reasons teachers are coming to Raleigh on May 16:

CLASS SIZES
Since school year 2008-09, North Carolina’s population has increased more than 10%. Over the same period, we’ve lost nearly 7,500 teacher assistants due to state budget cuts, and we now have fewer teachers per student. The enormous class sizes teachers face cripple their abilities to differentiate, manage behavior, and provide quality instruction to children.  Teachers report classes of 30 kindergarten students with no assistant, children forced to sit on the floor because there aren’t enough desks, and upwards of 40 high school students crammed into bug and mold-infested trailers. These conditions are unhealthy and demoralizing. Just as importantly, they prevent the relationship building so critical to effective teaching and learning.
STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES
Last month the legislature’s House Select Committee on Safer Schools found that budget cuts had resulted in student support services staffing ratios that do not adequately provide for students’ social and emotional needs. Ratios for school counselors, psychologists, social workers, and nurses are all far below what is recommended. Our students’ academic success hinges on their social and emotional health, as does their safety. Teachers in Raleigh on May 16 will demand the General Assembly act quickly on the House committee’s recommendation to increase the number of support services personnel.
SCHOOL SUPPLIES & TEXTBOOKS

Since 2008-09, the General Assembly has cut allotments for textbooks by 38 percent, technology by 45 percent, and school supplies by 54 percent (numbers are per student and adjusted for inflation). Teachers are stuck teaching classes without textbooks, purchasing their own supplies, and begging parents and community members to make up the difference for what state lawmakers don’t provide.

Our students are the future of North Carolina. They deserve textbooks and novels. They deserve to be socially and emotionally healthy.  They deserve class sizes that will enable their success.

To provide those conditions, our General Assembly must make education priority Number One in our state. On May 16, thousands of teachers from all over North Carolina will be descending upon Raleigh to demand that state lawmakers do just that.

We won’t be abandoning our students that day. We’ll be standing up for them.

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