Finding Hope When You're Hopeless

Our meeting yesterday was just as grim as I expected. Well, perhaps worse. Leading the ideas for how to trim $2- $3 million from our district budget was a 10% pay cut OR firing 42 teachers. Those would be the easiest things to do - the biggest bang for the buck so to speak. Other ideas required making cuts in many, many, many, many areas - and even then it was difficult to amass the needed dough.


If anyone tells me that Idaho values education, I will either laugh in your face or punch you in the nose. When state legislators vilify educators and make cuts that directly impact the classroom - well, that is NOT supporting education. Proposals have been made to put a one year moratorium on state demanded initiatives and testing that is not required for federal funding. Both ideas were shot down. Superintendent Luna refuses to abandon his "pet projects" for even one year; despite the fact that these programs cost the taxpayers millions and have very little benefit to the children in the classroom. I find it ludicrous that children must go without textbooks, supplies, teachers, etc. so that they can be tested. There is something extremely WRONG with that thinking.


The most heartbreaking part of the meeting came afterward, when I went back to school. Our new PE teacher (age 24) was standing in the hallway looked utterly bereft. You see, she had just found out the day before that she has degenerative disc disease. That's a pretty hard thing to face at 24 - but it was made all the worse by the fact that she got to see her job elimination posted as one of the solutions.


So, what will schools look like next year? I hope Idaho parents are in for a shock, because they are going to get one. We have been told to expect classrooms with 40 students in them. Programs will be cut. Schools will no longer be subsidized by caring teachers. After a 10% pay cut I will not be able to devote the thousands (yes, I just did my taxes and that's the truth) of dollars from my own pocket to make up for a lack of funding. Our district has already notified parents that all school communication will be done electronically. If you don't have the internet, you are going to be clueless. Sorry. We've also decided to spend one hour a day working with the lights off, as that will save $100 per classroom. We haven't bought new textbooks for years, we already have our paper allowance so limited that we are barely able to copy the required tests for students, but our state continues to tell us to "spin straw into gold."


When I think about young people going into education, my heart aches. They will be teaching in a very different world from the one I worked in. My advice to them would be to change majors and find another vocation.


There is talk of trying to clear the decks of older teachers by offering a Rule of 85 for one year (teachers could retire if their age and years of teaching equals 85). I would be one of the people who would qualify. The package would have to equal that offered by our current Rule of 90 (in order to provide an income that one could actually live on) in order for me to consider it. Should I go for it, I would still have to find employment elsewhere in order to pay for insurance etc. One thing would be certain though - once I retire, our family will be leaving Idaho. So, Marsha, while you're house hunting, you might want to keep your eyes open for us as well.