What a week it has been in the NC education arena. I am deeply saddened that instead of investing in the educational future of our children and the dedicated educators who teach them, our state leaders have chosen to deeply cut the funds set aside for that purpose. To me, that is an area that should never be touched when it comes to cuts, but respected to the point where the state re-allocates the funds from other areas. As an educator, I am saddened that teachers are not respected in the professional arena. That is evident in the fact that the state assembly is cutting Master's pay for those that have taken that extra step to become a skilled master in the art of teaching. As a parent, I am worried about the teachers who will be teaching my children. I want those teachers to be highly qualified to teach by having as much education in the art of teaching as they can have. But with no extra pay to possibly help pay for the student loan that enabled those professionals to gain that mastery, I fear that this will deter many fine teachers from striving to become better teachers by furthering their own education in the art of teaching. As a school librarian, I have the honor of working with all of the educators in the school and I see what a difficult career choice this is for all of them. But they all do this because they love to teach, not because they want to get rich. And for this administration to not only NOT reinstate our yearly salary grades, but continue to find avenues to cut is demeaning. Those positions that were cut (teacher assistants) are the positions that help keep our schools afloat by providing needed teacher and student support. Teachers are teaching/supervising children for 7 1/2 hours a day then spend time after hours planning for their lessons for the next school day (yes, each elementary teacher has to plan English Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies lessons daily). All of this on a salary of $30,800 for beginning teachers. No pay raises, no cost of living increases, plus most supplies are bought by the teachers for their classroom, especially if they are a beginning teacher. As a school librarian, I have even bought books for my library out of my own pocket due to the lack of funds. You do what you have to for the students because we want to see them succeed. But we have families to support also. So yes, I am very saddened at the turn of events in NC education. I may not have the support of our government, but I have the support of my students, my colleagues, and my student's parents. That is why I teach---I love what I do and I love our students. And yes, WE ARE PROFESSIONALS! Please NC, treat us as such!
