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True story, and this will be a thread. I’m a teacher at a middle school in Texas. My school is broke, my district is broke, I’m broke. So, last month I go in person to the state capitol in Austin with my little empty bowl to ask for gruel.
Am in a state rep’s office, and the chief of staff grills me on how much teachers pay out of pocket for supplies, on average. I explain that an average is hard to pull out of a hat. Max to report to IRS is $250, and that’s the only place we report that kind of spending to
“Ballpark” she wants to know. Okay. I explain factors like teaching in a wealthy suburb with a monied PTA vs. small rural, elementary science teacher vs. HS band, etc. Then I tell her my own needs and costs. Not hard, I have over a decade of stories.
“It’s not just the dollar cost” I tell her, “I’m exhausted from being endlessly nickel and dimed by my employer, and exhausted from the part time work of constantly fundraising instead of, you know, *teaching*. I don’t want a grant, I want my school to have a decent budget.
She heard my abt having to write a written request for scotch tape, about the time I asked for pencil top erasers and got a lecture on where to buy erasers, where to write grants for supplies like erasers, and questioned on why I didn’t just have them use pens
Then she said, “I don’t mean to be harsh, but if there’s no money for supplies, WHY ARE Y’ALL SPENDING MONEY ON COMPUTERS”
I had to explain about it being 2019 and the kids needing, you know, to exist in this century. “What about cursive?”she asks. I reach into my tote bag and pull out an essay, in cursive. “I teach English AND coding. These are not opposing ideas”
Turns out, her line of questioning was because the legislator, Goldman, wanted to start a non-profit to personally donate school supplies
Me:But, he could just *vote* for either of the school funding bills??”
Chief of staff: “you know, offer grants. There are lots of grants and funding sources available if teachers would just look
Me:”Wouldn’t it be better for me to concentrate on kids, and the funding bill to pass
Chief of staff: “you know, offer grants. There are lots of grants and funding sources available if teachers would just look
Me:”Wouldn’t it be better for me to concentrate on kids, and the funding bill to pass
She read letters from my students about conditions in the schools they attended, and kept shaking her head. “So sad. But what can he do?” Me: VOTE FOR THE BILL BECAUSE HE IS MY ELECTED LAWMAKER
Chief of Staff: But what can he doooooo?
Me: Vote for the..because...lawmaker..bill..
Chief of Staff: so frustrating
Me: He’s in the legislature
Chief of staff:”what can he do”
Me: Vote for the..because...lawmaker..bill..
Chief of Staff: so frustrating
Me: He’s in the legislature
Chief of staff:”what can he do”
And then I died, right there, and came back to life, and disintegrated into a pool of tears, and then reanimated as a ghost of my former self, drove back to Fort Worth, and went to school
Teacher colleagues: How did it go?
Me: I tried
Kids: How did it go?
Me: I tried so hard
Me: I tried
Kids: How did it go?
Me: I tried so hard
The end. Thank you for all your Donor’s Choose donations to teachers, but call your legislators, run for office, fund schools.
PS: real life example of a coding/robotics teacher who needs, you know, computers. Help out if you can!!
Never had a tweet get big attention before, so not quite sure what one *does*. If you live in Texas, school funding bills are still on the table. Call your rep! wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home Otherwise, I have a very English teacher-y podcast on books and culture.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lad…
