Letter to Georgia Legislature: Help teachers help students and... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

Letter to Georgia Legislature: Help teachers help students and... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

Letter to Georgia Legislature: Help teachers help students and everyone wins 

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The Georgia General Assembly is about to meet in Atlanta. What will lawmakers do for education? jgetz@ajc.com

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By Maureen Downey

 DeKalb high school teacher Rita Robinzine, a 24-year educator, wrote this opinion piece directed to the Legislature, which is about to assemble in Atlanta for the 2014 session.

By Rita Robinzine

During the upcoming legislative session, the legislators, governor and state school superintendent should take the emphasis off of teacher performance as education reform and focus on helping all children of Georgia to get a good public school education. That should be their chief reform plan instead of continuing to pass legislation that has only served to frustrate teachers and caused them to leave the profession or lose the joy of teaching.  

 Help teachers help students.

The state has reduced the amount of funding that would normally go to the local school systems and have forced the local school boards to make up the difference. This is a difficult task for local school systems when property values have decreased significantly. When there is no money, then there are no resources, yet teachers are still expected to have all their students do well on state mandated tests or they are at risk of losing their jobs because their