https://www.idahoednews.org/top-new...-unclear-what-that-means-for-their-education/ I'd be lying if I said this didn't concern me. I teach in Idaho. Due to declining enrollment, 6% of all districts state wide are having to close schools. The enrollment (and average daily attendance, which is Idaho's funding formula) is facing headwinds from private schools, charter schools, homeschooling, and online school (which...isn't that kind of home schooling?) 6% doesn't sound like a lot, but it's certainly 6% more than before. I'd also read recently about 20 schools in Seattle need to close for many of the same reasons. I'll be starting my 7th year of teaching in August. There's a lot I haven't been around to see. I wasn't teaching during The Great Recession. Maybe things were as bad or worse then with tight budgets all around. I wonder if I made a mistake getting into this profession. Starting a career over in my 40s sounds...almost insurmountable. I also, and this is just me, feel like hard right has been looking for this ever since they were forced to integrate schools. But that's just my opinion.
Great Recession was worse. I wasn't teaching then either, but, I was living in a very white collar city with large school districts and I saw the layoffs and supply shortages despite a growing enrollment. When property values dropped, the funding dropped and the state didn't do anything to compensate. The high school ran out of paper. Teachers were giving extra credit to kids who brought in reams of paper and begging for used ink cartridges to trade in for paper. The district froze/seized funds that were in club/team accounts too, which always stood out to me as wrong. This is different. Part of it was pandemic funding pushing off the inevitable, part of it is like you said, the shift in enrollment away from public schools, part of it is the funding formulae. In some places, it's shifting populations too. Especially in rural areas, I wouldn't be surprised to see mergers again like we had in the 70s/80s to shore up finances. It'd be great if we could get the powers that be to recognize that public education is a social service, not a business, but fat chance of that. On a broader level, there is no consensus for what the role of the school is anymore. Are we building good workers? good citizens? good thinkers? functioning adults? Those are all different goals. For what future are we to prepare the children?
Idaho is a beautiful place. Send some of your beautiful summer weather to Arizona. I guess you have to ask yourself why do you teach? . I find teaching to be the greatest job on the planet. Each year I get to start new and find fun and innovative ways to teach children. Each day all of us get to make 1 of 3 choices when facing challenges. This is in the best selling book called, "The Coffee Bean". 1. Be like a carrot. When a carrot is in hot water it weakens. This is when we choose to be overwhelmed by the problems out there. 2. Be like an egg. When an egg is in hot water it becomes hard. They are hard and angry to those around them due to the weight of their problems. 3. Be like a coffee bean. A coffee bean allows what is inside it to overcome the hot water to change it to something much greater. Which would you prefer? You always get that choice. You may not get to control what happens in Seattle, but you have a say in your school in Idaho. That counts for a lot. No one (except for parents) have more of an impact in your students' lives than you. How awesome is that?
