Students caught in middle of fight
It was sad to see members of the education community having to hit the streets last week in protest of the state’s budget cuts. We feel their pain and wish the demonstrations weren’t necessary. Unfortunately, as the cuts continue, more protests could be in the works.
Recently, some students have become involved in the Sacramento-bashing, and while we defend the right of anyone in the country to take a stand—especially the young people who we don’t want to be apathetic—we doubt that a 6-year-old wearing a T-shirt with a political message can be taken seriously.
With $17 billion in lost revenue for California’s public schools during the recession, there’s no question that our kids are being impacted. We can only count the ways. But is it right to use students as ammunition in the fight?
When teachers and administrators protest state budgets, they’re fighting to protect their own turf as much as anything. And as the education debate drones on, the “don’t hurt our children” trump card seems to get played over and over again. It’s wearing thin.
By and large, students belong in the classroom, not in the middle of a complicated political fray about which they know little. A student only knows that his favorite teacher might be laid off, not that a long history of financial missteps by both the teachers union and Sacramento has led to the current state of affairs.
The blame for education budget cuts shouldn’t be placed entirely in the legislators’ lap. CalSTRS, the California State Teachers Retirement System, has been taxing the system for years. And the teachers union, until recently, has rarely seen a year without salary and benefit increases of some kind.
If the Democrats and Republicans in Sacramento—and local educators and union leaders—cannot come to terms over how to allocate school funds, that’s one thing, but please leave our young people out of the fight. Students shouldn’t become pawns so that the power brokers can score