It’s no secret by now that changes are happening in the North Carolina education system. As part of a sweeping overhaul of public schools across the state, North Carolina teachers have seen their benefits slashed, numbers reduced and a whopping $500 million drained from the public education budget.
In the last few months, 2,800 jobs have been cut from education, 850 of which were teaching positions. This is in a state that already is 41st nationally for teacher salaries and 44th in per capita spending on public schools. Clearly, the funds for education must exist. We’re hardly even spending any money on it as is.
Unfortunately the funds do exist, but they’re simply being relocated to the ever-controversial Teach for America (TFA). Approved for 2014 is a $5.1 million surge in funds to place more TFA members in North Carolina’s lowest-achieving schools. Previously, state funding for Teach for America topped out at only $900,000, making this increase a substantial one for the program.
[quote]No 22-year-old is prepared to deal with the demands of teaching a special needs student after five weeks of preparation, let alone an entire classroom of them.[/quote]
In principle, Teach for America seems like the perfect solution to North Carolina’s education woes. Earnest, passionate 20-somethings setting out to touch the lives of our nation’s most underprivileged students? What’s not to like?
The reality is a little murkier and a lot more problematic. The issue comes down to a matter of preparation. Only a fairly selective 12 percent of applicants are accepted into Teach for America, but after that, standards drop fast. A standardized five-week training program is all that’s necessary for placement in the country’s most difficult classrooms: rural, urban, bilingual and special needs rooms.
No 22-year-old is prepared to deal with the demands of teaching a special needs student after five weeks of preparation, let alone an entire classroom of them. Five weeks is not enough to prepare for students with illiterate parents, students surrounded by violence or even students who just don’t want to learn.
[quote]Teach for America should remain a resounding Plan B, especially for increasingly desperate North Carolina students.[/quote]
These students are the ones who deserve our attention, not recent college grads who want to help out the underprivileged of our country, and not teachers who will teach until their two-year contract is up and then move on with their lives. North Carolina students deserve professionally trained, committed teachers who have made teaching a career, not just a summer job.
But North Carolina legislators have put our students on the back burner. They’ve put a $6 million Band-Aid on a $500 million problem, at the expense of hundreds of North Carolina teachers and thousands of students.
Applicants to Teach for America no doubt have only the best intentions, and the children whose lives they touch will certainly benefit. But the only thing that truly matters here is who will benefit more: a few hundred 22-year-olds with bachelor’s degrees in hand, or thousands of poor and at-risk students across the state. At The Pendulum, we tend toward the latter.
North Carolina lawmakers need to remember there’s more at stake in this decision than the state budget. The lives and futures of their constituents are affected with every decision they make. The decision to cut half a billion dollars from trained educators and redistribute a fraction of it to well-meaning but underprepared college grads is one that could reverberate for decades.
[quote]With this decision, North Carolina lawmakers have shown irrefutably that providing a quality education to every student is not a priority for them.[/quote]
For Elon University students approaching the end of their time in college, with eyes set on making a difference in the world, don’t be discouraged by our take. Teach for America undoubtedly makes a huge difference in schools across the country every day, and in districts where truly no other teachers might step foot.
But Teach for America should remain a resounding Plan B, especially for increasingly desperate North Carolina students. We need more qualified, dedicated teachers, especially ones bold enough to work in the areas they’re needed most. And the teachers who choose to dedicate their lives and their careers to the education of our children deserve to be respected and repaid for their work.
As the United States slips further and further behind more rigorously educated nations, providing a quality education to every student regardless of race, location or class should be our top priority. With this decision, North Carolina lawmakers have shown irrefutably that it is not a priority for them.
But responsibility for the future falls on us as college students, as well. These four years are the time to decide what your future will hold, and what kind of change you’re going to make in the world.
So, if you’ve got the guts, plunge back into the world we so desperately escaped when we came to Elon. Back to the bathrooms with sinks at your knees, and into raging seas of hormones and unrequited love. Take the school bully down a few pegs, and just maybe set a kid on the right track for life. Whether you’re with Teach for America or trying to make it on your own, as long as you’re teaching North Carolina students, you’re part of the solution.
But more importantly, if you’re spending your career going back to middle school, you’re a whole lot braver than we are.