With more students enrolling in Wisconsin public schools, the state should maintain an adequate amount of teachers and keep them around long enough to reach their full potential as educators.
This should be a top priority in order to keep the Wisconsin education system strong and the future promising.
During my time off this summer, I was able to see my beloved former high school English teacher for the first time in several months.
As we were catching up and discussing the usual topics, like how college was treating me and what I was even going to do with my life, one of her comments stuck out to me.
“Teaching just isn’t what it used to be,” she said, following an excited announcement about her upcoming retirement.
The fact of the matter is teaching is not the most glamorous or rewarding job on the market.
Who doesn’t remember that one punk kid in high school who always gave the teacher a hard time? So yes, teaching can suck. But it is one of the most essential careers in ensuring the potential of the nation’s next generation.
Cliché or not, students are society’s future, but Wisconsin is experiencing a mass exodus of educators out of the public school system.
In the last nine years, more than 3,000 public school teachers left their jobs while student enrollment increased.
With experienced teachers approaching the endangered species list, the increasing enrollment numbers are leading to crowded classrooms and inadequate learning environments. As a result, the overall quality of education will begin to steadily decline.
That definitely doesn’t sound promising.
Education should take priority in the state’s budget, or it should at least be taken into account more than it is now.
According to the Wisconsin Budget Project, Wisconsin’s national spending per student dropped from 13th place in 2005 to 21st in 2013.
Education better equips people to handle the responsibilities that come with being an adult, so it’s no coincidence areas with lesser public education systems often have higher crime and poverty rates.
Undoubtedly, the game-changer in the battle for quality education is the teachers. It’s no mystery even the greatest curriculum can’t teach itself. In order to provide good education, schools need passionate teachers who know how to effectively communicate the course material to students. Teacher like this only develop from years of experience in the classroom.
The solution to stopping the decline of public education quality, then, is to draw new teachers into the system and figure out how to keep them there long enough to realize their full teaching potential.
Part of this solution might include putting more funding back into the system for benefits. These benefits were once a big attraction to public employment.
Walker initially made cuts to this area to balance the budget, but can’t the state dig up a little extra money to put towards the education system?
I know it’s not the most ideal solution because that funding has to come from somewhere, but a benefit increase would in turn increase the incentive to pursue a career as an educator in the public school system. It would also encourage teachers to hang around long enough to gain priceless teaching experience that has lately been so scarce.
To be honest, I don’t know what the best solution is. I’m just a student myself. But I do believe quality education can only result in a brighter future and keeping great teachers in schools should be a top priority.
Phil Michaelson ([email protected]) is majoring in biomedical engineering.
