SOS!!

So for those in the technology world, there are a lot of little abbreviations like LOL (laugh out loud), ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing), etc that people use in facebooking and texting...one I've started to use a lot is SMH (shaking my head). Yep, I've been SMHing a lot the past couple of weeks as the Texas Legislature has reconvened and started to talk about this severe budget crunch our state is facing. First up on the chopping block are BILLIONS, yes that's right, BILLIONS of dollars for public education, libraries, and other fundamental pillars of a democracy.

Now what this means for local school districts is disturbing. Last night at the Dallas ISD school board meeting, it was announced that if the budget cuts go through as currently discussed, that could mean a potential $253 million cut out of a $1.2 billion budget for our district. Right now they are looking at cutting 3,100 campus employees and 800 non-campus employees. WHAT???? That's almost FOUR-THOUSAND PEOPLE!!! There are only roughly 10,000 teachers in the district! And we're just talking about the Dallas district alone...not the other large districts in the Metroplex that will be affected, as well as districts across the state. If this is not a serious crisis for our state and for our country, I don't know what is. Not only is this a drastic hit to the local economy, but the challenge that will remain for the teachers who keep their jobs is staggering. Classrooms are crowded to the brim already and teachers are fighting to keep up with the needs of an ever-changing and diverse population of students, more and more of whom are English language learners in Texas and require more intensive instruction than we can possibly provide as it is. Just as the topic of public education is beginning to make its way back into the national conversation, just as we are starting to recognize the inequities and the inefficiencies of our current system, we are talking about cutting it to the bone even more??

I have mentioned in previous posts that I didn't necessarily think that pumping lots more money into education was the answer and that we currently have resources to work with....but I never thought we needed to go the other direction. I also mentioned that I thought there are teachers who don't need to be in a classroom, but eliminating 4,000 of them in one chop is not going to help the situation. This is seriously scary to me. Not just for the reason of job security for myself, but for the sanity of the teachers who will keep their jobs and for the poor quality of the education we will be providing to our future leaders. I don't understand.....it seems so obvious that one of the best ways to build a strong economy is to build a strong education system. I don't understand how giving millions of kids a sub-par, crappy education is going to benefit our country in the long run. I don't understand how laying off thousands of professionals who will have absolutely no where else to go is going to strengthen our state's economy. About the only business that is going to be booming in twenty years is the prison industry with this kind of dis-investment of the public education system.

But we've got to do more than SMH....we need to contact our representatives and voice our concerns and let them know that education is worth investing in. We need to fight for our schools, for our teachers, and most importantly for our kids....we can't just sit passively by and let this happen. I don't know what to do but we've got to do something....nothing good can come out taking a hacksaw to education.

Yeah, this is more than a SMH moment....this is an SOS!!!