Teachers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your pain!
Strikes can help ensure class cabinets are fully stocked
n the run-up to a new school year, I was proud to contribute $100 to the parent teacher association at my son’s school for classroom supplies. It seemed an uncontroversial ask — of course I wanted his class to have the supplies they needed for the year. And for those who can easily afford it, this sort of donation, or, at some schools, the purchase of the supplies themselves, can seem entirely innocuous.
But why exactly are parents paying for paper and pencils? You know, those things schools should have in their supply cabinets. Unfortunately, school cupboards across the country are bare — or at least underfunded.
“Between 2005 and 2017, public schools in the U.S. were underfunded by $580 billion in federal dollars alone — money that was specifically targeted to support 30 million of our most vulnerable students,” says a new report published by the education advocacy nonprofit, the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools. The research report, “Confronting the Education Debt,” provides an overview of how state and federal governments subvert programs designed to address poverty; reduce revenues through tax breaks; and divert fiscal resources from public schools, burdening black and brown children who make up the majority of public school students.
The adage that you can do less with more doesn’t hold up when it comes to education. There are bigger budgetary issues behind school supply drives. If districts don’t have enough money for pencils, teachers’ salaries will eventually join glue sticks and permanent markers on the need-to-buy list.
“It’s increasingly clear that the school district has a very different set of priorities than you do,” said Tacoma Education Association president Angel Morton, speaking to a crowd of mostly teachers at a rally on September 5 in the high school’s gymnasium, according tolocal newspaper The News Tribune. Teachers in Tacoma and Puyallup, Washington, went on strike on the scheduled first day of school to increase the pressure on the district to agree to their terms Continue reading: Teacher strikes: Teachers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your pain!
