Big Cuter says that my post on the subject is incomprehensible to anyone who is unfamiliar with Arizona politics. There's a post coming on "the curse of knowledge," which Steven Pinker defines as writing while being unable to appreciate the fact that everyone else doesn't know all that you know on a subject.
Bottom line, I thought, and still think, that Prop 123 is one step in the war on public education being waged in Arizona. Doubt me? The supporters of Prop 123 talk about "government schools" instead of "public schools" .... that's the problem in a nutshell.
So, I thought we should all vote against it, because we don't give in to bullies.
Then, I talked to the real stakeholders: the teachers in the classroom.
I heard about no raises for years. I heard about health care premiums soaring next year. I heard the desperation in their voices as "It may not be perfect, but the District says I'll get a 3% raise next year if it passes, and that way I won't take a pay cut as health care costs rise."
It's a bad solution. It's also the only way anything at all will get done. It is not a long term fix. It's a bandaid placed on wet skin in a thunderstorm; it's not a real solution but it remedies an immediate catastrophe.
Those who care about Arizona, about its future, about the direction the Republican leadership is dragging the state, those people are adamantly opposed to Prop 123, as was I. Those who are in the trenches, who are teaching 27 kids with no aides and no translators, who are dipping into their own pockets for marbles and stickers and glue and books, those people deserve that 3% raise right now.
It's a conundrum, denizens. It really is.
Can I tell you how angry it makes me that there is so much waste and yet our school budgets are continuously being cut? I feel for Arizona because even though I live in one of the richest counties in the nation, we too feel education cuts. It's infuriating when many of the other counties in our state have full-day kindergarten and we don't. Our school leadership says it's because we lack space for our growing county, but when I see how much waste goes into other projects in our county and full-day kindergarten is not made a priority, I get very, very angry. Teaching is one of those jobs where people should be paid very well; instead they get crap pay and even have to spend their own money for supplies for their rooms (even in a county such as the one I love in).
ReplyDeleteI would like to see all teachers paid well, no matter where they live. And education be more important than wars and defense budgets. We have our priorities so screwed-up and that's why the US is so behind other countries.
I'll get off my soap-box. I know I'm preaching to the choir. ;)
Megan xxx
I'll sing with you any time!
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That should be live in; not love. ;)
ReplyDeleteYou can't fund today on the backs of tomorrow. What happens then? More of this generation unwilling to pay its own costs? A lot of people have gotten no raises. In fact, a recent article said the American people have had no raises in 16 years. I still think this was a bad deal and using desperate teachers to get it through is how they do these things :(
ReplyDeleteI know. I agree with you. It is a conundrum. I have no faith that anything will change at all, with the passage of Prop 123 or without. The issues are so muddled, the advertising so desperate, and the kids are the ones being short-changed. And Gov. Ice Cream vows new tax cuts in the next budget year.... thus triggering those lower sales tax revenues, thus triggering the "we don't have to pay this" clause.
DeleteIt's awful. You are right; the teachers are desperate and pawns and it is despicable behavior on the part of "the grown ups" in Phoenix.
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I love that word "conundrum". Not as it pertains to this case, of course...but I used it in context yesterday when I hooked into a tortoise at the nature pond. See the video I posted on my FB of the ordeal & you'll hear me use it loud & clear. :) #conundrum
ReplyDeleteI did. I laughed!
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