This morning, as I was getting ready for work, I grabbed a box of tissues to take with me.
And this made me mad.
I am a public school teacher.
Everyone knows that teachers have to pay for many things out of pocket -- but what does this look like?
Every district and school is different, because every district has its own money that it can choose to spend in its own ways.
I have taught in several different districts and three different states, so I can tell you that each one has its own quirks.
In some districts, class size is not valued. In one district where I taught, I had classes of over 40 students in the 6th grade. The school was so overcrowded that we had to share classrooms -- some teachers "floated" from classroom to classroom, using other teachers' rooms when they were on the prep period. Yet we had more ample time for curriculum planning for our teaching team, and we had more technology than any district I've worked in since.
In other districts, the physical building is neglected. In one district where i taught we had a severe problem with mice. On Fridays, the custodians would set those traps that make the mice stick. On Monday, you'd open the classroom door and smell that rotting stench of death. So Mondays were usually about airing out the room, getting the custodians to clear out the dead mice . . . yet at the same school we had the best support services of any place I've ever worked. We had our own full-time speech therapist, our own Occupational Therapist, our own Physical Therapist, a full time Social Worker, and two counselors. This was not a special school, it was just a regular middle school.
In my current district, neither the physical building or class size is neglected. Our classes are capped at 28, and our facilities are sparkling clean everyday. So where does this district cut corners?
TISSUES.
Last year we were informed that the school would no longer provide tissues for teacher classrooms, because it was cutting too much into our budget for supplies.
what else?
PENCIL SHARPENERS
The building we're in does not have pencil sharpeners installed into the classrooms. So the school had been purchasing electronic sharpeners for each room -- which was expensive and ineffective because the sharpeners would not last long with so many kids using them. So we were told this year that no more sharpeners would be provided.
I go to Target or Office Depot regularly, scouring the office supplies shelves for manual pencil sharpeners. I keep them in a basket on my desk -- and they disappear. The kids pick them up. so there's always inadequate sharpeners or a lack of them altogether.
So today, as I grabbed a box of tissues from my house, and I made sure to pack the new pencil sharpeners I bought, I wondered if the Senators that slashed the recovery plan ever have to supply their own tissues and pencil sharpeners. Since they think the money for school reconstruction was too generous, I am curious if they have visited some of our crumbling schools, if they are asked to provide their own office supplies. Can't you just picture 9-house McCain getting himself over to Staples to buy himself pencil sharpeners? Can't you just see Mitch McConnell opening the windows of his office to air out the stench of rotting rodents? Can't you just imagine what Senator Coburn would say if he was told to share an office with another Senator due to "overcrowding"?
I supported the recovery plan initially because it included a lot of spending that signaled a new direction for our country. School reconstruction is a part of that new direction.
Senate Republicans were able to force cuts in the plan that included all the pieces that I thought were innovative and promising: in addition to school reconstruction, there was laying broadband, making our health records electronic, and money to rescue states that are in fiscal crisis.
If states don't receive relief, then I am pretty sure my job is on the block.
I guess I'll be buying tissues for myself then.