It’s been a while since I watched a full hockey game, but I still remember marveling at the endurance of that special unit, the penalty killers. Facing a 5 on 4, or even a 5 on 3 situation, the coach would unleash his toughest crew, the players who could keep the opposition scoreless for a lung-aching two minutes. The best defensive lines could do this a few times a game, but even they wore out eventually.
My educator colleagues and I have been operating in penalty kill mode since the school year began, and unfortunately there’s no sign that relief is coming anytime soon.
While people with a lot of power in Harrisburg are still squabbling over money this week, many schools all across the Philadelphia area will be heading back into regular session without adequate staffing.
Plenty of people (including students) have written about this shortage. When I worked at a public charter school in South Philadelphia the state’s budget cuts left us first without a Dean of Students, then without a librarian, then without a library, then sans paid substitute teachers, then without paid assistant sports coaches, then, then, then…
You get the picture.
But unfortunately lots of people who aren’t connected to public schooling don’t get this picture, or at least they don’t see the underlying and real need to pump more resources into public schools in the Philadelphia area. When the number of people who are suppose to be caring for and about students continues to be whittled away, those who are left can’t help but feel the strain.
A quick anecdote: a week before winter break, a guidance counselor at the high school where I work came a-knocking during homeroom. She’d gotten a call from the parent of a student with a Learning Disability who’s in one of my general education classes. This parent had complained that her son wasn’t receiving the needed attention in my class, mainly because I was busy with other students. I agreed with this assessment, and said I would try something different with this student. At the beginning of the year a special education teacher had been assigned to this particular class to help assist students with IEP’s (Individual Educational Plans, to those not in the know), but I hadn’t seen him in my classroom in over a month.
I told the counselor this. She arched an eyebrow.
“So where is he? Is he showing up?” she asked.
I shrugged my shoulders in response. “I think he’d like to be around, but frankly he’s continually covering for other teachers who are out, or for the longer-term subs.”
Both the counselor and I knew what was happening: with teacher shortages (budgets) and substitute shortages (tough to lure them to our school—more on that another time), this teacher was being used like a building substitute. He wanted to help, but he couldn’t.
He didn’t have the resources, aka the time. And the school didn’t have the resources to make time for him, aka the money to hire another caring adult.
I need to help surround my students with the resources they need. And that doesn’t translate into me getting paid more (though that wouldn’t be unwelcome!), it translates into more backup, more people. In schools, more “resources” for me = more caring adults involved in students’ daily routines.
And people are expensive, I get that. However, if we were serious about giving each kid in the country a decent and nurturing environment at school, I think we could scratch together the dollars and cents to make it happen. The problem lies in the will, or maybe in the awareness first and foremost.
It’s tough being stuck in penalty-kill mode, as even a clueless hockey fan like me would know.
Interesting penalty killing analogy Joe. I actually really enjoy watching penalty killing in hockey because the game has to be pared down to its essentials. And the best “penalty killing” team-mates are usually put in. I take this as a positive reflection on your own teaching strengths–that you are trying to get the most out of the least number of resources, and working to promote the best and most essential elements of teaching–helping your students learn.
Thanks Joe!
Hey Elaine,
Sorry for the slow reply. It’s been a while since I’ve watched hockey, but I thought the comparison apt. Moreover, it’s not terribly healthy (for anyone) to stay in that mode all the time. Thanks for reading!
Thought provoking piece. Now where are you thinking the money should come from?…I’d be very interested in hearing your thoughts on this.
Hey Marna,
Apologies for the (very!) slow reply. It can’t come from property taxes. I think it has to be centrally-funded (federal? state?). Speaking with people from other countries, they can’t understand why we have this system of funding. I think it makes sense historically, as it’s a holdover from pre Brown vs. Board of Education. But that doesn’t mean it has to remain like this.
Thanks for the question and for reading!
Hey Joe,
I was curious to see how high school property taxes were in Harrisburg, so I looked up a property across the street from the high school: http://dauphinpropertyinfo.org/view/RE/09-096-003-000-0000/2016.
Their property taxes for schools would have been about $2,500 based on the millage. For a house worth about 170,000, that amounts to a real property tax rate of about 1.5%. That really isn’t so high: http://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-compare-your-property-tax-rate-database-20151111-htmlstory.html
Chicago stands at about 2.1% right now, and there are lots of places with much higher rates. In the richer suburbs, they set their rate as high as 4% of property value. These are areas where the school spends like $25,000 per student on instructional spending. So, I’m not quite sure why you don’t think that local property taxes could be increased to fund local schools? Is there a political argument that says that Harrisbergians don’t want to pay more for their local schools?
Hey Rob,
Thanks for responding.
I don’t think that raising local school property taxes in a town like the one where I teacher would be effective. Moreover, I don’t think that this is a way to equitably fund public schools. So it’s not quite a political argument, it’s more of an ethical argument I suppose.
If the houses in a White town are valued much higher than those in a Black town, and there are fewer businesses in the Black town than in the White, then the tax base in the Black town is going to be smaller.
The reasons that those houses in the Black town are valued “less than” and the businesses are fewer are both due to a history of racial housing discrimination and White Flight.
These are historical realities that we cannot deny.
I also think this comes down to the question of, what kind of public school system do we want? What we have right now works very well for some, and very poorly for others. And those “others” are usually the racial and cultural other, as well.
On the other hand, maybe you agree with James Baldwin that there’s a big conspiracy (or at least lack of moral feeling) in America, and that we indeed have a system to education that is exactly what we wanted all along: http://zinnedproject.org/materials/a-talk-to-teachers/. In the past I thought this idea was ludicrous, but I’m beginning to change my mind.
Thanks again for the conversation, and for reading!
-Joe