Teacher Layoffs

Today, I read some troubling news. The Seattle city school district is announcing a whole bunch of layoffs.

Teachers. They are laying off Teachers now.

Now, I'm no expert. Really. But, I once read this somewhere, and it resonated with me: "If you don't spend the money on schools now, you are destined to spend the money on prisons later."

I believe that education is the long term way out of this economic crisis. If the United States is to take a top spot in the global economic competition, it will not be accomplished on the backs of the folks making minimum wage asking if I 'want fries with that burger'. It will be accomplished through innovation from educated people.

Of course, politicians don't want to think long term. They have elections to win in the short term, and those elections will be won by balancing the budget today. And if they cut projects like a tunnel that replaces the Alaskan-way viaduct, the supporters of that project will accuse them of not wanting to create jobs. They will run commercials to that effect when re-election time approaches, and people will be dumb enough to believe what they see on TV, and another politician bites the dust.

Of course, the reality is that the jobs they are creating are mostly bullshit middle-management jobs. Nobody ever talks about that. Oh, plus a few people will get 22 bucks an hour to stand on the highway with marker signs that tell people 'detour' or 'slow'. Those are vital positions. They will save the economy.

I guess I'm not really bitter about the tunnel. It will create jobs, and those jobs will put more money into the economy, and this is all a good thing. I'm just bitter that they can't find a way to save the job of probably the most important role in our society: the teacher.

I guess I just think that in this world we live in, a good teacher gets to:

1) Get paid a pittance
2) Have to worry about getting laid off each year due to elected officials that can't budget properly.
3) Probably get a 2nd job over the summer just to make ends meet.
4) Work as many hours as they have to in order that a kid can get a quality education, all the while dealing with inattentive parents that only talk to them when they have a complaint.

How very sad. How many more good teachers could we, as a country, attract if they were all paid well, had job security, and had attentive parents that actively partnered with the teachers in their child's education?

And how many of the kids would those good teachers affect? How many of those kids would go on to become pioneers, inventors, and leaders of the future?

I guess we will never know.