It’s fitting that tonight is Halloween as the Duval County school board is just hours away from potentially playing the grim reaper to 18 teachers careers, voting whether to let them go or not. As they are thinking about their decision I wonder if they will consider that just a few years ago the district was so desperate for teachers that it was recruiting for them in Canada, India and in the business world.
I wonder if they will have the foresight to know that if the economy ever turns around they won’t be able to find enough qualified applicants to man our classrooms. Why would young teachers want to come here when they could go to other states that actually care about education and respect their teachers?
Things will be even worse if the school board votes to rift teachers during the middle of the year. Everyone will now know what many teachers already believe and that is the school board thinks of them as little more than easily replaceable cogs.
Peoples livelihoods hang in the balance and furthermore at this point these teachers will have no shot of finding teaching positions in the greater metropolitan area, something they may have been able to do had they been let go five months ago when nearly 300 other teachers were given pink slips.
The school board may be able to save some money in the short term but in the long run if they make this decision they will lose much more than that.
Duval County school board and superintendent obviously does not care about teachers and their impact on the lives of children.
ReplyDeleteThey keep laying of teachers and hiring more administrators. They also waste money on everything imaginable. All of a certain, teachers--young teachers that is--are the scapegoats.