Proud to be an Arizona Public Teacher
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the state of Public Education in the United States. And Arizona is no stranger to this rhetoric. Traditionally a pro-charter state — Arizona ranks 4th nationally in the number of charters and 3rd in the number of students enrolled in charters (National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, 2017) — money is consistently funneled away from public schools and offered up to charters that seemingly pop up on every corner.
In a recent article on azcentral.com, Laurie Roberts shares several stats about the woes of public education in my home state based on a report from Wallethub. Arizona ranked 46th in terms of projected teacher turnover, 49th for highest pupil-teacher ratio, and 48th in lowest spending per pupil. These measures, plus 18 more, place Arizona as the “worst state to be a teacher.”
Numbers lie and tell the truth simultaneously. I’m not arguing data. What I’m arguing is that local news outlets need to think carefully about how they portray public education and teachers. I get it. Bad news sells. But at what cost? Robert writes, “Maybe you don’t think Arizona’s teachers deserve better. But surely our children do.”
If she believes in her own words, then perhaps she, and the rest of the media outlets, dedicate space to all the positive that goes on in our schools everyday.
Do I think teachers should be paid more? Absolutely, but at what cost? Do higher wages mean higher quality educators? Or do higher salaries invite people to the profession seeking financial gains rather than impacting the lives of children?
Do I think states like Arizona should allocate more funds per student? Of course I do. But a bigger pot of cash does not automatically equate to quality learning environments.
I’ve only taught in one state, in one district in my 20 years as a public school teacher. So my experiences are narrow, I admit. But perhaps my intense pride of being a teacher comes from working in a state that devalues my profession. It just means I have to work extra hard to impact change and affect my community. It means that nothing is given to me, that everything is earned. This is not meant to disparage those public school teachers who work in states that have higher average salaries or dole out more money per students. I’m proud of them. Not because of what they have, but because of what they do. Nothing ever will be fair across states, but that’s not the point.
The point is that people become teachers because they love children and they love learning. And if people are leaving the profession, maybe that’s not a bad thing. We need to do everything in our collective power to recruit, hire, train, retain the best teachers out there. But if people aren’t committed to the hard work that is teaching, then everyone involved benefits.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and continue this conversation.
