I listen, sometimes on a daily basis, to people open their mouths and spout off about money for education. I know I pay a lot of money in property taxes which are supposed to fund the schools in my district. I also know I live in a rich area, which amounts to lots of property tax money, which creates good schools. I also know money comes in from other government entities like the state and the federal government.
I always thought this was suppose to equalize the schools which were in an area that was not so wealthy, so all the students would receive a good, quality education.
When I became a teacher, I found out just how wrong I was. I found out that many of the supplies which I took for granted when I was a student and then a parent, are a struggle for many to have in their classrooms. When you must make sure you have pencils and paper just to start; you have students whose families cannot even provide those simple things; you have needed expensive things that are not anywhere to be found, your expenses go up considerably.
Everyone wants to talk about schools and how students are behind. They want to throw teachers under the bus for low test scores or falling attendance numbers and then, to top that, they want to withhold money when a school district makes a decision in the best interest of the school and community. That is always held over school boards as the end all of the discussion. "Do/don't do it or your money will be withheld.
What money? What would you deprive us of if we don't do as you say? Most schools don't have supplies enough to prevent teachers from having to spend out of pocket. How about trying to figure out a way to not use as much to help conserve supplies when we have all this money?
What about big ticket items like computers? I teach at a school that is not 1/1 and I hate to break it to the ignorant folks who have no idea what teachers go through, but students cannot type a paper on a phone.
I watch teachers post wish lists for beakers for science class and maps for history classes. I am big on posting for classroom sets of books for my students. What? You mean you want me to teach from the textbook. Okay. Can you provide enough copies for all my students? Use the online textbook? Okay, how about computers so we can? It seems for every problem we experience as teachers, the powers who control the money have answers that don't play in the real world of schools.
Oh, no textbooks? Use real world lessons so the students can learn to think for themselves. Really? Okay, but don't mention slaves, or religion; leave politics out and don't vary from this or that standard. Video? Not allowed unless it has been pre-approved by your boss to watch for violence or a curse word and don't even try to use a National Geographic video on Africa. There may be a topless woman in a tribal scene. Documentaries? Only short clips. We want you teaching, not watching movies.
There is an excellent organization, Teach Rock, which has lesson plans for free. It is an awesome resource. There are many organizations which help with free resources. As a history teacher, I use many of these to help create more interesting lessons that the students fall in love with. But I need computers to get there.
A history teacher, Charles Best, began an organization to help teachers get resources they need that are not paid for by their school districts. The idea came to him when he was trying to copy Little House on the Prarie for his students to read. I have had 18 projects funded through Donor's Choose. 18 projects for things that the schools needed. Things that there was no money for. Most of mine were books. Classroom sets of books. The results in most cases were improved reading scores.
What on earth would happen if schools were actually funded as they need to be? What would happen if a teacher needed a classroom set of books and all they had to do was ask? How nice would it be if we all really did have computers we could use when we needed to? That paper and pencils were not having to be paid for out of pocket? How far could we go?
So you tell me: where does the money go?
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