Many people are looking at the Trump Administration’s dismantling of the Federal Dept. of Education as the panacea to fix the glaring problems in the nation’s education system.
In fact, some will be downright disappointed if their state does not take up the mantle left by the federal void.
Streamlining the process and directing federal dollars at education instead of funding another bureaucracy will ease some problems; however, there are some challenges that were present before the department, and they won’t cease because more money is thrown at them.
A recent study in the form of a poll by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE), with 70% being classroom teachers, reported feeling burned out, and a quarter reporting a major teacher shortage at their school.
Teachers also listed violence or the fear of such as a major factor in why many are leaving the profession or never pursued that track of learning at all. Teachers, in both public and private schools, not only fear an armed assailant materializing out of the shadows, but have to constantly deal with troubled or even mentally ill students disrupting learning with their behavior.
The perks in insurance and enjoying summer days off are much less of an enticement; teachers just starting out find they can make as much if not more waiting tables than teaching, and many of them do even after obtaining their masters degrees as a supplement.
We stand with PAGE in calling for teacher pay to be raised to be commiserate with that of other young professionals, but there is much more to be done.
School safety needs to be priority number one, not only in having protections in place for unknown threats, but also for those that show up in class, pencil in hand, everyday.
We must not forget it was only 1999, some 26 years ago that Richmond County teacher Linda Gail Hendrick was viciously attacked with long-scissors by, then-14-year-old David Drayton. Hendrick never recovered and died after languishing in a coma for eight years.
Drayton was a walking time bomb, and everyone was aware, but the system left them hamstrung. Because of the rules and Drayton’s status as a “special needs” student, administrators were forced to integrate him into the classroom making anyone in his powerful grasp a potential victim.
This means the states and governors such as Bryan Kemp need to work vigorously to fill in the gaps. Once the Trump plan for the DOE makes it through the winding court system, assuming it survives scrutiny, then the money found in savings should go directly into funding solutions that will lead to greater recruitment of teachers as well as their retention.
