GUEST EDITORIAL: Teacher pay is just one aspect of funding our future

NB ’98 grad Nick Guy, “The same problems we face in Florida public ed are just as real and an issue in Ohio.”

https://www.heraldtribune.com/opinion/20200117/guest-editorial-teacher-pay-is-just-one-aspect-of-funding-our-future

By Nick Guy

On Monday I boarded a charter bus at 5:30 a.m. with a group of retired educators, other advocates/parents, and one local teacher who is dedicated to caring for some of the most vulnerable students, physically and cognitively, in Sarasota County.

“If you’re reading this, thank a teacher.” This was just one of the messages we crafted on large signs during our journey. By the end of the event we’d see thousands of messages that all boil down to one central theme — fund our future.

Our destination: the “Take On Tallahassee” rally to flex our First Amendment might by marching and assembling on the steps of the old capitol building. Capitol police estimate the crowd was around 15,000.

Our goal: joining the thousands of other current and former teachers, support staff, school board members, administrators, parents, grandparents, students, concerned citizens, and just about anyone else realizing the one-sided, two-plus decades of education policy must improve, and the newly minted legislative session is where to begin.

Since taking the legislative reins around the turn of the century, the constant and current majority has Florida racing towards the bottom nationally in teacher pay (46th), plummeting in teacher retention, and stagnant on per pupil spending (45th).

Our state has the money. Lawmakers continue to make the active choice not to invest in education. Public school funding has been given new life as a revenue stream it was never intended to be, thanks to a growing movement to privatize public education.

Title IX of the Florida Constitution states, “Adequate provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education.” Sending tax revenue intended for public schools to religious or private schools — schools that can deny students with disabilities, fire teachers or remove students based on their sexual orientation — clearly runs contrary to this provision and our humanity. Not exactly a high quality education.

Most media outlets have cited teacher pay as the lone reason so many traveled long and far. It’s much bigger than just that. It’s also about paying non-instructional and support staff a livable wage. It’s about ceasing the continued assault on local control. It’s about collaborating with educators on mandates. It’s about funding those mandates. It’s about finally committing to fixing a broken system.

This is no longer a political issue; it’s a moral one.

The tip of the spear in recent days materialized somewhere many would have never imagined a few years ago. But today that story is much different.

Polk County’s leap to the forefront was developing long before Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran’s legal arm of the Department of Education sent a threatening email intended to intimidate the approximate 1,200+ Polk staff preparing to head to our capital. When reality kicked in and his ability to fire them was exposed as nonexistent, it ignited something across the education spectrum. Polk’s enthusiasm was contagious.

So enthusiastic was the education community in Polk, a rally was held in Lakeland the same day by those that couldn’t make it to Tallahassee. Around 550 people showed up. When the 13 buses from Polk arrived in our capital, their group walked into a crowd erupting with applause and chants of “We are Polk.”

I spoke briefly with a few teachers and leaders from Polk asking how they built such a strong movement. Having school board members that support and defend public education helped. Having union leaders organizing school to school helped. Having parent-teacher organizations and other community groups actively support them helped. But the secret sauce was something we slightly lack locally: They communicated and worked towards the clear goal of fixing the problem, not attacking each other.

Imagine if there were 20, 30, dare I say 60 other Polks organizing in Florida. Imagine the generations who would benefit if this were achieved.

Monday was powerful and inspiring. How that translates into action and accountability in the relationship between us and our elected officials is yet to be determined. If we value those who value our children, we’ll remember this Monday every Monday until the first one in November.

When we rise that next day, the legislators and school board members will get their version of a standardized test from voters. Will they pass? Will you?

Nick Guy is a business analyst with Cognizant’s healthcare technology solutions division, former middle school teacher, and 2018 Sarasota County School Board candidate.