Open Letter to Esteemed Members of Government in the State of Delaware
Fellow blogger and teacher Mike McKain sends along this letter:
Open Letter to Esteemed Members of Government in the State of Delaware:
In these dark and dismal financial times, it is with great understanding and concern that I write to you on the critical topic of education in the state of Delaware. As a teacher in the Seaford School District, I know first hand the importance and struggles that our youth and, consequently, their teachers face on a daily basis. It is with this in mind that I write to urge you to protect our vulnerable youth, their teachers, and education as a whole from suffering the consequences of our state’s fiscal strife.
I know education represents a huge portion of our state’s budget and understand that some programming cuts will be necessary. As a teacher of social studies, I understand that some sacrifices are necessary in troubled times and indeed welcome the opportunity to fulfill my civic duties. That said, the current budget proposal includes an 8% cut to education funding, translating directly to hundreds of teaching positions lost across the state with a particularly difficult burden falling on the poorest of districts, including Seaford, Laurel, and Woodbridge.
The consequences of such cuts would be catastrophic to both the students who these districts serve and to the state of education in Delaware as a whole. Disenchanted young teachers, many of whom have recently completed ever-improving college programs and thus have strong backgrounds in both content and modern educational theory, will flee the state or leave the profession entirely as job security is ordinarily one of the few financial benefits to teaching. With a large number of retirees expected in the next five years, this could leave a vacuum in critical content areas in districts statewide. Moreover, in poorer districts such as Seaford and Laurel, these cuts will take away middle class jobs and families, presenting further challenges to already struggling local economies.
Perhaps most alarming about the proposed cuts is their potential impact on students, who represent the future of our state and the reason teachers practice their art in the first place. With cuts at each school, class sizes would balloon, after school programs that provide extra help would be eliminated, and mentors would be lost. Students would lose opportunities to develop personal relationships with teachers, which often serve as a guiding beacon through graduation and help to keep troubled youths on track. Achievement would inherently decline on DSTP and all other indicators; increasing numbers of children would be left behind as teachers struggled just to manage classrooms and implement assessments.
Such immediate consequences would be felt for years and possibly generations to come. Unemployed teachers would draw on the state, collecting unemployment and requiring other government assistance to provide for their young families. This would also further diminish the income tax base long term; a teacher who loses his or her job is initially trained or prepared for few other positions in the professional world. Increased student failures and drop outs would further depress struggling communities, in all likelihood raising crime rates or, at the very least, increasing the burden on the state as another generation of undereducated and unprepared youths enters the workforce.
While we in the education field sympathize with the financial emergency Delaware currently faces, taking from our children, our future, will in no way improve the situation in the long run. Indeed, it is the surest way to drive the state into depression and our communities into abysmal failure. Education brings with it the hope for a better tomorrow; increased student learning and achievement corresponds to better days ahead, to a new morning in Delaware and across America. A “small” 8% cut, translating to hundreds of critical teaching jobs, only leads us down a dark and dangerous path for our youth and, consequently, for our future.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Michael D. McKain
Teacher, Seaford School District
Open Letter to Esteemed Members of Government in the State of Delaware:
In these dark and dismal financial times, it is with great understanding and concern that I write to you on the critical topic of education in the state of Delaware. As a teacher in the Seaford School District, I know first hand the importance and struggles that our youth and, consequently, their teachers face on a daily basis. It is with this in mind that I write to urge you to protect our vulnerable youth, their teachers, and education as a whole from suffering the consequences of our state’s fiscal strife.
I know education represents a huge portion of our state’s budget and understand that some programming cuts will be necessary. As a teacher of social studies, I understand that some sacrifices are necessary in troubled times and indeed welcome the opportunity to fulfill my civic duties. That said, the current budget proposal includes an 8% cut to education funding, translating directly to hundreds of teaching positions lost across the state with a particularly difficult burden falling on the poorest of districts, including Seaford, Laurel, and Woodbridge.
The consequences of such cuts would be catastrophic to both the students who these districts serve and to the state of education in Delaware as a whole. Disenchanted young teachers, many of whom have recently completed ever-improving college programs and thus have strong backgrounds in both content and modern educational theory, will flee the state or leave the profession entirely as job security is ordinarily one of the few financial benefits to teaching. With a large number of retirees expected in the next five years, this could leave a vacuum in critical content areas in districts statewide. Moreover, in poorer districts such as Seaford and Laurel, these cuts will take away middle class jobs and families, presenting further challenges to already struggling local economies.
Perhaps most alarming about the proposed cuts is their potential impact on students, who represent the future of our state and the reason teachers practice their art in the first place. With cuts at each school, class sizes would balloon, after school programs that provide extra help would be eliminated, and mentors would be lost. Students would lose opportunities to develop personal relationships with teachers, which often serve as a guiding beacon through graduation and help to keep troubled youths on track. Achievement would inherently decline on DSTP and all other indicators; increasing numbers of children would be left behind as teachers struggled just to manage classrooms and implement assessments.
Such immediate consequences would be felt for years and possibly generations to come. Unemployed teachers would draw on the state, collecting unemployment and requiring other government assistance to provide for their young families. This would also further diminish the income tax base long term; a teacher who loses his or her job is initially trained or prepared for few other positions in the professional world. Increased student failures and drop outs would further depress struggling communities, in all likelihood raising crime rates or, at the very least, increasing the burden on the state as another generation of undereducated and unprepared youths enters the workforce.
While we in the education field sympathize with the financial emergency Delaware currently faces, taking from our children, our future, will in no way improve the situation in the long run. Indeed, it is the surest way to drive the state into depression and our communities into abysmal failure. Education brings with it the hope for a better tomorrow; increased student learning and achievement corresponds to better days ahead, to a new morning in Delaware and across America. A “small” 8% cut, translating to hundreds of critical teaching jobs, only leads us down a dark and dangerous path for our youth and, consequently, for our future.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Michael D. McKain
Teacher, Seaford School District
Labels: Education
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