NC teachers need more resources and respect from lawmakers

Growing up, we had only three television channels. I used to watch Dan Rather on the “CBS Evening News,” who once said, “The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth.”

For me, that tug and push and poke came from Mr. Newsome, my fifth-grade teacher at West End Elementary in West Virginia. He instilled in me the belief that I could be anything I wanted to be. He dared me to dream. He showed us, like most teachers, that the difference we make goes well beyond the classroom into the community. I would feel bad if I didn’t say what a difference Ms. Moore and Ms. Cassady at Williamson High School made in my life. They helped me understand my passion for reading and gave me the self-confidence through drama club to not only stand up in the classroom every day, but also to talk about the tremendous impact public schools and educators have on our lives and communities. I’m a 30-year teacher because of them.

National Teacher Appreciation Week is May 8-12. Just weeks away from the end of the traditional school year, this is a great time to recognize the impact teachers make on students’ lives, just like Mr. Newsome, Ms. Moore and Ms. Cassady for me. However, I think the best way to honor the contributions of teachers is to acknowledge the high level of skill and professionalism that teaching requires and provide the resources our educators, students and public schools need to be successful.

Too often we think we know what teachers do, but we don’t really know because we are not listening to those who teach. We rely on teachers to educate children, but if we listen closely they can teach us about what is going on in schools. More often than not, what we will hear them say is that they are successful at teaching when students and educators have all the tools they need to be successful. Unfortunately, that is not happening in many public school classrooms in North Carolina. Textbooks are over a decade old; in some, former President Barack Obama is listed as a senator from Illinois. We continually ask for parents to cover the cost of the basics like paper and pencils. And now most educators turn to GoFundMe pages to cover students’ needs.

North Carolina is 43rd in the nation in per-pupil spending. The state’s track record on this key education investment measure is dismal, and we continue to fall further behind. In 2011-12, North Carolina was more than $2,300 behind the national average and now we are more than $3,000 behind. Of North Carolina’s per-pupil expenditure of $8,898, more than $5,000 comes from the state, yet we spend about $30,000 per year on an inmate. Are these the right priorities? Our students deserve better.

Also, some of our elected leaders continue to focus on massive tax cuts for corporations. We should be focusing on classrooms, not boardrooms. So during National Teacher Appreciation Week, thank educators for the difference they make in our lives. The biggest difference we can make in theirs is to ensure their students have the schools they deserve so they have every opportunity at success.

This story was originally published May 7, 2017 at 3:04 PM with the headline "NC teachers need more resources and respect from lawmakers."