How can we believe anything the Duval County School Board says?

The Duval County School Board is looking to trim their budget. I find this very disingenuous after looking at several recent decisions on their part.

First they voted to invite over one hundred Teach for America teachers to Jacksonville. In case you didn’t know it TFA takes non education majors off of elite college campuses gives them a five week access course and then dumps them in the nations struggling schools, where they are supposed to stay for two years. Lets forget all the problems with this model and let’s forget how we have local teachers looking for jobs but how can we forget in these tough budget times that TFA is paid a 2400-dollar finders fee per teacher they send here. The school board says the funding provided to TFA comes through a grant but how is this different from a finder’s fee?

Then the School Board, without public discussion voted to hire three more public relations positions at a cost between two and three hundred thousand dollars. These people won’t be in the classroom, they won’t be providing instruction and the minimum salary they start out with will exceed but a healthy margin what a fifteenth year teacher gets. We could hire five art teachers for the same ammount of money and they would have a more important impact too.

I believe the county needs money. I am in the schools and I see the needs going unmet but how can I in good conscious support this boards search for funds in these trying times when they allocate what little money we have to above. How can I believe anything they say?

Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher