At one time, being a legislator meant supporting education on all levels. Education affects everyone so to be popular politicians elegantly and with fire and brimstone, staunchly supported something in which everyone participates - schools. Everyone seemed to want to be THE educational legislator, champion for our children's education, supporter and teleporter of higher education.
So what is going on now that teachers are suddenly bad buys for making elaborate salaries in Wisconsin. Teachers have suddenly become the enemy! Weren't we fighting for better teacher pay just a couple days ago?
Higher education is taking cuts of 10 to 30% in most states with constituents advancing with brooms and rakes protesting the high cost of college education. Weren't parents just recently aggressively pursuing their students to attend high priced colleges with high retention rates and bragging when they got there? People proudly displayed bumper stickers that read: My child and my money go to <whatever high priced college>.
So, what has happened seemingly overnight?
The reality of accumulating large amounts of debt. I recently talked to a colleague with a recent Ph.D. and he said with his wife's and his college loans, they will never be able to purchase a house. Whoops! Where is the American dream in here?
Another friend, a parent whose student has a teacher that should not be in the system but protected by the system, relayed that she is struggling to keep her child motivated to learn. Why are these people still in the system teaching?
It seems in over the year education has been the fair haired child. Guess we gotta figure out how to do what we teach. Listen to our critics, learn and improve the system.
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