It’s graduation week in Howard County. What a joyous time for students and families. Think of all the inspirational messages and good wishes we see and hear as each school ceremony approaches:
You did it!
You’ll go far!
The sky’s the limit!
Dream big!
Believe in your dreams!
Your hard work paid off!
You can be whoever you want to be!
We’re so proud of you!
Graduation ceremonies have speeches, and music, and time-honored rituals. Students, families, and public officials gather with teachers and school administrators to “make it official.” Thanks and kudos are given to the many teachers who guided and challenged the graduating students along the way.
Yet, as we gather as a seemingly united body, those teachers have been receiving very different messages.
You’ll have larger class sizes!
Reduced materials for teaching!
Stalled negotiations for fair pay and a livable contract!
Your position may be eliminated where you love to work and you’ll be arbitrarily assigned someplace else!
Congratulations, teachers of 2024. Your students have crossed the threshold and a world of possibilities awaits them. As for you, well…
Friends, we can’t keep taking the best from the professionals who open up doors for our kids while repaying that dedication by treating them like widgets or cogs in a factory. Every year that we allow this to continue means another year that we are taking more out than we are putting back in. Think strip mining. Or fields that have been planted and planted until there are no nutrients left in the soil.
Think about what it would mean if the well runs dry.
We can’t possibly have all those lovely graduation ceremonies with students so full of potential if we drive away the very people who have brought them to this point. The promise of public education is inextricably linked to the labor of educated, highly trained, experienced and continually learning educators.
When we invest in teachers we are investing not just in today’s students but also in all the ones who will come after them. Our kids see how we treat teachers. When they graduate from high school, glowing with all the future holds for them - - why would they choose to be treated like that?
The logical consequence of shortchanging teachers today reaches into tomorrow. And the future of public education is damaged and diminished.
This afternoon at four o’clock at the George Howard Building there’s going to be a Rally for our Educators:
Join the Howard Progressive Project, Columbia Democratic Club, Young Democrats of Howard County, HCEA, Living Wage Howard County, and other partners as we rally in support of our teachers and school staff, who face next school year with no contract, shrinking wages, and rising class sizes. Send a message to our elected officials that we must work together to fund our schools and ensure the teaching corps that our students deserve.
It’s a difficult time of year to get people to come out. Why is it so late in the school year? Because teachers haven’t been offered a fair contract. This could have been settled much earlier in the year. How? By valuing teachers at the negotiating table the same way they are lauded at graduation ceremonies.
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