PUBLIC SCHOOLS

 

I am ready for the weaponizing of public school issues in political ads to be over, and as a public school teacher who was at parent/teacher conferences until 7 pm where parents very much have the opportunity to weigh in on their children’s education, I’d like to put some facts out there.

1. Curriculum standards are set by the state-not the school and not the teacher.

2. Parents very much have a say on their child’s education.

A. They vote for school board members.

B. They can communicate with school board members regularly.

C. They’re invited to speak publicly at school board meetings.

D. If you are concerned about a book assigned in class, you can request an alternative. I am required to include this information in my syllabus every year.

E. If you are concerned about books in the library, you can contact the school library with your concerns, and your child won’t be allowed to check out those books.

F. What you should not expect to do is restrict books and content from everyone’s else’s child. Those families have rights too.

3. You have the option to homeschool or register your child at a non-government school. You do not have the right to demand that everyone else pays for that through vouchers.

4. Speaking on vouchers, vouchers based on per pupil expenditure and your taxes would not cover most private schools, so you would be responsible for the additional tuition. Upper middle class and above, can handle that. Perhaps middle class families can as well. Such a move would leave the most vulnerable students left in even more severely underfunded schools which is essentially segregation all over again and a bigger divide between the have and have nots.

5. CRT is a legal theory that is taught to law students; it is NOT, never has been, k-12 public school curriculum. Someone is sowing fear and division, and we’re being played.

6. No one is planning on firing white teachers.

Please consider my sincere plea to remember this as you vote. I believe strongly in the service my coworkers and I have dedicated our lives to, and our children are relying on you to see through the hype and the mud-slinging.

You have a voice as you always have.

I’m sorry to be so political, but this is eating me up and breaking my spirit. Shannon McA. Schoolteacher.