Let’s get the facts straight on public school funding
By Scott DiMauro, Ohio Education Association President
As a high school social studies teacher, I was always struck by what the then-future US President John Adams said during the criminal trial following the Boston Massacre: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
The fact is that Ohio’s public schools serve nearly 90 percent of students in our state. And, despite recent claims that attempt to twist the truth around public school funding in Ohio, the evidence is clear: More work must be done to finally fully and fairly fund our public schools, so that every child – regardless of where they live, what they look like, or how much money their parents make – can receive the excellent education they deserve.
The fact is that Ohio’s public schools are funded from the same line item in the state budget as private school vouchers. The last state budget did provide “record funding” for that line item, as indeed, anytime there’s an increase, that would set a new record. As noted in recent news coverage, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce doesn’t yet know how much the state’s new universal voucher program will cost this year. But, with the explosion in the number of wealthier families taking public taxpayer dollars to pay for private school tuition for students who were already attending private schools in the first place, it is clear the state’s spending on the universal voucher program will far exceed the original budget estimates.
So, the fact is, when it comes time to pass the next state budget in 2025, that leaves less money in that line item for Ohio’s public schools. Exactly how much less and how will that impact public schools? It’s unclear. But, the uncertainty around those questions is causing school districts across the state to hold onto larger reserves to weather future state funding shortfalls, and in some cases, has prevented districts from feeling comfortable spending down the soon-to-expire federal pandemic-relief money that is currently inflating some of the figures. In the end, that uncertainty is hurting our students, as money that should be used to recruit and retain public school educators, address students’ mental health needs, and make up for lost ground remains unspent.
The Fair School Funding Plan, when fully implemented with updated formula components, should remove that uncertainty. Based on years of work and input from stakeholders across the board, the Fair School Funding Plan, which the state began phasing in in the FY 2022-23 budget, is meant to accurately account for how much it costs to educate a child and how much a local community can actually afford to pay toward that. And, it provides a predictable funding model, so school districts can accurately plan ahead. If the Fair School Funding Plan is fully phased in in the next state budget, as it was always intended to be, Ohio would finally have a constitutional school funding formula for the first time since the state supreme court started telling the legislature to stop chronically underfunding our public schools and truly fix the problems back in 1997.
Our lawmakers need to fulfill Ohio’s promise to our kids and commit to fully adopting the Fair School Funding Plan. They need to ensure that public tax dollars spent on private school vouchers come with the same academic and financial accountability as the dollars we spend on our public schools. They need to focus on providing the supports and resources our students need to succeed in a 21st century economy, because in Ohio, public education matters.
Fear and Power: What Really Drives Issue 1
By Julie Holderbaum, Minerva EA/OEA
A teacher tells his students that phones are not allowed in class. One day, a student points out that the teacher is often on his phone. The teacher replies that the rule doesn’t apply to him, only to them.
A student turns in a research paper a day after it is due. The student knows that 10% will be deducted from the final score, which is the teacher’s late work policy established at the beginning of the year. However, the paper is returned with 50% deducted from the grade. When the student questions the teacher, the teacher simply says that she changed the rules.
A teacher decides to allow students to vote on whether to have homework assignments during the school year and 59% of the students vote not to have homework. When the teacher shares the results, a majority of the students rejoice! But then the teacher announces that since the NO votes didn’t reach 60%, homework is going to stay.
Any credibility these teachers had would be damaged at best and quite possibly destroyed by these actions. Not following their own rules? Changing the established, fair policies to much harsher ones? Eliminating majority rule? These teachers would be viewed by their students as hypocritical, manipulative, and untrustworthy…which is exactly how we should view the Ohio legislators who support Issue 1.
Ohio Legislators are failing to follow their own rules
In December 2022, the Ohio General Assembly voted to eliminate August elections in most cases. But now those same lawmakers argue that the rule they enacted doesn’t apply to them; it only applies to small, local elections.
Why the change of heart? Because a grassroots group of Ohio citizens has submitted petitions to get an amendment on the November ballot that would protect reproductive rights in Ohio.1
Many Republicans, who hold a supermajority in Ohio, do not want to see the citizen-based reproductive rights amendment pass in Ohio. Look, reasonable people can have reasonable disagreements on reproductive rights. But changing the rules to rig the democratic process is not what Ohioans want, and that is exactly what corrupt politicians did when, in spite of banning special elections in August less than a year ago, they put Issue 1 on the August Special Election in an effort to preempt the November election and make it more difficult for a citizen-based amendment to pass.
Ohio Legislators are changing well-established, fair policies.
Proponents of Issue 1 say its purpose is to defend the Ohio Constitution against frequent attacks of special interest groups. What legislators are really trying to protect is their own power and take freedoms and rights away from the citizens of our state. When Ohioans made it clear that we are willing to exercise our rights to try to amend the Constitution when legislators fail to represent our values, the legislature put an issue on the ballot that would make it difficult for citizens to ever again affect a change in the Constitution.
It is already extremely difficult for a citizen-led group to get an amendment to the Constitution on the ballot. There are multiple steps that require signature gatherers to obtain certification from the Ohio Attorney General, the Ohio Ballot Board and meet signature thresholds both at the statewide level and in 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties. Since 1913, only 71 citizen-based amendments have made it to the ballot, and of those, only 19 were approved by the voters. This is most certainly not an overused tactic to change the Ohio Constitution.
If Issue 1 passes, instead of meeting the signature requirement in 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties to move a proposal to the ballot, the threshold would need to be met in all of Ohio’s 88 counties, giving a single county the ability to thwart the will of the remaining 87. Issue 1 also eliminates the 10-day period petitioners have to gather more signatures if not enough of the original signatures meet the requirements. These harsher demands make getting a citizen-led proposed amendment to the Constitution extraordinarily unlikely and cede all ability to amend the Constitution to deep pocketed special interest groups (some of whom may not even be in Ohio) and the Ohio General Assembly.
Ohio Legislators are ending majority rule.
In the unlikely event that an amendment makes it to the ballot, Issue 1 would require that 60% of Ohioans must approve an amendment in order for it to pass, as opposed to the current standard of a simple majority, 50% + 1. (Ironically, Issue 1 only needs a simple majority to pass). Majority rule has been the default threshold for victory in Ohio elections for more than 100 years, but fearful of losing their power to ordinary (and organized) citizens, the legislature decided to change what determines a winner mid-game, handing the ability to veto the will of the majority of voters to a minority of the vote. Issue 1 is an attack on our voting rights, plain and simple.
It’s crucial to remember, however, that Issue 1 is not about abortion.
Issue 1 is about all citizen-proposed amendments to the constitution, not just one, as Secretary of State Frank LaRose says. He stated (rather disrespectfully, I would argue): “(Issue 1 is) 100% about keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution. The left wants to jam it in there this coming November.”2 Jam it through? Is that how he views Ohio citizens who exercise their democratic rights by following the legal (and lengthy) process to make changes to the state constitution?
Let’s be real. The move to protect reproductive rights is simply the catalyst causing our legislators to fear losing their unilateral power.
They’ve managed to largely protect their own power by gerrymandering the state, but citizen-based amendments to the constitution represent a threat that there is no easy way to quell, short of changing both the rules that have been well- established for years, and the rules they set themselves less than a year ago.
Regardless of the outcome of Issue 1 in August, the reproductive rights amendment is heading for the November ballot. I urge you to base your vote in November on your feelings about abortion and reproductive rights.
But I beg you, don’t base your vote in August on your feelings about abortion and reproductive rights. Issue 1 has nothing to do with that. Issue 1 has everything to do with an already powerful legislature trying to further silence their constituents. Their gerrymandered supermajority affords them the ability to pass a myriad of laws with impunity, but that’s not enough for them. They want to take away one of the only guardrails we have left as citizens to determine the future of our state when one party gains a trifecta of dominance in our state government and stops listening to the desires of we, the people of Ohio.
It’s worth noting that the egregious consequences of passing Issue 1 would impact BOTH parties.
Republicans and Democrats alike have the same rights to get a proposed constitutional amendment on future ballots, about any number of issues. Issue 1 makes this more difficult, regardless of the political leanings of the citizens who begin the process.
I wonder if the legislators who support Issue 1 are more afraid of losing power or of the Ohioans who refuse to remain silent and allow the legislature to set the course for our state without our input?
As educators, we must be vigilant in using our voices to advocate for change when laws are manipulated to reflect personal agendas instead of the will of the people. With the recent expansion of universal vouchers, the state will spend billions of dollars, with little oversight, funding private and charter school tuition and homeschooling for families, regardless of how wealthy those families might be. Furthermore, the legislature has stripped power from the elected State School Board and given much of the decision-making authority in education- related issues to an appointed partisan official.
With legislators making moves like this, we can ill afford to lose any of the tools we have as citizens to make changes that better reflect the interests of Ohio’s educators, students, and families.
Ohio legislators who support Issue 1 might well be motivated by a fear of losing power. But there is great power in losing the fear of standing up to those who ignore our interests.
Fear, I predict, will fail. Because just like the teachers in the scenarios above would quickly lose credibility, our legislators are playing games that will cost them the trust of Ohioans.
Join me in voting NO on Issue 1 this August and send the message to politicians and their special interest backers that we, the people of Ohio, will fight for our freedom and right to determine the future of our state.
1 The full text of the proposed amendment can be found here: https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/getattachment/cf27c10f-b153-4731-ae9e-e3555a326ed9/The-Right-to-Reproductive-Freedom-with-Protections-for-Health-and-Safety.aspx
2 https://signalcleveland.org/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-august-vote-on-issue-1/
A Teacher’s Brain Following Yet Another School Shooting…and Yet Another Misguided Response by Legislators
By Julie Holderbaum, Minerva EA/OEA
Another school shooting? 19 students killed? And two teachers?
He bought the AR-15s legally, just days after his 18th birthday? And bought another weapon just a few days after buying the first, with a high-magazine clip? Doesn’t anyone besides me see that there should be a red flag in some system somewhere that signals local police to check this person out?
Would it have made a difference in this case? Maybe not…but we will never know, will we?
Is this for real? Is a local group really raffling off an assault rifle as a fundraiser for a youth program? Are they really asking kids to sell tickets for an assault weapon when kids were just slaughtered with the same type of gun, to the point of needing a DNA sample to be identified? I’m not sure if there is ever a right time for that sort of fundraiser, but less than a month after Uvalde?
And now the legislature passed what? A bill to LOWER the number of required training hours to 24 for teachers to carry a weapon in school? Didn’t my daughter need 50 hours of behind-the-wheel training just to get a driver’s license? Why would a teacher, who is not in the field of law enforcement, need so few hours of training to carry a gun in a school?
How would that even work? Would it be a hand gun? Locked and loaded in a drawer somewhere? Is a handgun going to be any deterrent to a person carrying an assault rifle? Would I have time to get to it if I needed it? And how would I know I needed it? A loud noise in the hall? Would I get my gun and peek my head out to see if action is needed? Would eight other teacher heads be peeking out in my hallway, guns drawn?
If nothing was wrong and we grabbed our weapons in error, would the students in our classes be traumatized by seeing their teachers with loaded guns?
Or has this lockdown-drill-school-shooting cycle become so normalized to them that they wouldn’t even be phased at seeing the same people who teach them their ABCs or pre-calc wielding a dangerous weapon? And if so, what does that mean for the future of our country?
And what if the threat wasn’t in the hallway, but in my classroom? One of my students? Even if I could get to my gun, would I have the ability to shoot one of MY kids? Knowing he suffers from depression and can’t use our school resource mental health counselor because of insurance issues? Knowing his past experience with abuse? Knowing that he has not felt seen or heard or loved at home in years?
Could I shoot that kid?
And if I did use my gun, even if I saved lives, could I live with myself? What would the repercussions of pulling that trigger have for my own mental health? Would I ever be able to look at my students the same way again? Would they ever be able to see me in the same way again?
What if I hesitated? What if more were hurt because I struggled to pull the trigger? How could I ever teach again? How could anyone trust me again? How many lawsuits would I face because I didn’t act fast enough?
If trained law enforcement officers hesitated to enter Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, what makes anyone think teachers would be comfortable entering a spray of gunfire and endangering themselves? Especially with only 24 hours of training?
On the other hand, how many lawsuits would there be if I leapt into action, misread a situation, and shot an innocent person?
If we were required to actually carry our guns with us at all times, could I ever concentrate enough to teach effectively? How can I teach my students that words can change the world, that literature can move souls, that the power of a well-turned phrase can penetrate the hardest of hearts… while carrying a gun?
How’s that for a mixed message? Words have power, but guns are faster? Is that what we want to teach?
Beyond sending mixed messages, could I ever teach without constantly worrying about my weapon? About who is looking at it oddly today, about turning my back on anyone, about helping one student at her desk while my gun is about 2 feet away from the hands of the student in the desk next to hers? Would I have to keep one hand on my weapon at all times? As a TEACHER?
Surely I wouldn’t be required to carry a gun, though, right? I already check my classroom door multiple times a day to be sure it’s still locked; I already weigh the options of teaching with my door shut and locked for safety from shooters to teaching with it open to allow for more airflow and safety from COVID; I already jump at every odd sound or unannounced lockdown; how much worse would it be if I knew multiple people in our building were carrying guns?
This legislation won’t just affect the mental health of our students, will it?
I’m so tired of hearing that “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”; if that’s true, why were weapons not allowed at the recent NRA convention in Texas? How could a room full of good guys with guns be a threat? Shouldn’t that be the safest place in the world? Why aren’t more responsible gun owners fighting for universal background checks, for a raise to the age limit to buy certain guns, for red flag laws, for a required waiting period before possessing a gun after purchase?
With so many Americans in favor of at least some reform to gun laws, are legislators who refuse to advocate for safer gun laws just afraid of losing their jobs? Afraid that without the money of the NRA and other pro-gun lobbyists they won’t be able to fund a successful campaign? That they would lose their power, their position, their ability to provide for their families? But don’t those same legislators force educators to live with those fears every day, knowing that if we teach about racism or other sensitive topics in the wrong way, we could lose our jobs thanks to their laws?
If they think we can’t be trusted to discuss elements of America’s troubled past or the current events of the day in a responsible manner, why would they deem us responsible enough to carry a gun in school?
When will our politicians put people over power? When will they set aside pride to work with the other side? When will the safety of our communities take precedence over an election?
If the politicians currently in office aren’t willing to make changes, is the blood of the victims of the next shooting on their hands….or on ours?
If this isn’t the time to persist in our efforts to persuade responsible gun owners to join the cause, when is?
If this isn’t the time to promise our children that we will do more than pause to remember the victims and pray that this never happens again, when is?
If this isn’t the time to preserve the sanctity of our classrooms as places of learning, belonging, and growing, when is?
If this isn’t the time to pursue real action by promoting politicians who run on a platform of actual changes to the law, when is?
If this isn’t the time to protest, when is? Aren’t the protest signs true? “The power of the people is greater than the people in power?”
Isn’t the truest form of political protest voting out those who have made empty promises but not practical efforts at positive change?
How many days until November?
July 2022 Ohio Schools
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April – May 2022 Ohio Schools
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OEA denounces House Bill 616
“These politicians are continuing to use race and sexual orientation as wedge issues to score cheap political points, and they should be ashamed of themselves,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said. “Rather than persisting with these disingenuous attacks on educators and public schools, we need pro-public education policies that enable students to think critically about the world around them and empower them to be proud of who they are, regardless of where they come from, what they look like, how they express their gender identities, or who they – or their parents – love.”
“House Bill 616 represents yet another example of how a national network of extremists is seeking to hijack the education conversation in our state to control a political narrative and distract Ohioans from the real issues facing our public schools,” DiMauro added. “The architects of this bill, who have decided to copy and paste some of the most damaging parts of Florida’s ultra-divisive legislation, are targeting some of Ohio’s most vulnerable students and families and setting Ohio up for a Florida-like showdown with the businesses our state leaders have been working so hard to attract.”
“Why would Ohio want to follow in Florida’s footsteps after it forced a showdown with Disney, one of the state’s biggest employers?” DiMauro questioned. “HB 616 is exactly the kind of legislation that could send Intel and other major employers running, hurting our students’ future job prospects for decades to come.”
HB 616 would also have a serious chilling effect on Ohio’s education profession, which is already facing a recruitment crisis. At a time when it has become increasingly difficult to attract new educators to our classrooms to ensure the adequate staffing levels our students need to receive a world-class education, Ohio lawmakers are sending exactly the wrong message to the state’s education workforce. “Our students and educators cannot be pawns in these ongoing political games,” DiMauro said. “House Bill 616 would have grave consequences for Ohio’s children, public schools, and wider economy. We all deserve better.”
February – March 2022 Ohio Schools
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A Typical Teacher’s Brain in an American Public High School on Any Given Day
By Julie Holderbaum, Minerva EA/OEA
Is Michael acting off today? Is he tired or just depressed? Should I pull him out into the hall and ask him if he’s okay or would it be worse to draw attention to him? Should I call home? Have his grades been slipping? Did he do the assignment that was due for me today?
Does Becky have her cell phone in her lap? Why isn’t it in the slot with the others? Is it worth calling her out on it? Right now or later, privately? Either way, do I want to risk setting her off when she’s been doing so well and we seem to be forging a tentative relationship? Is it a big deal if she isn’t actually using it? Has she been using it and I just haven’t seen it happen?
Why isn’t the Chromecast working? Why would it work last period and not this period? Is the internet down?
Why are we either freezing or frying? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to regulate the heat in our own rooms?
Will I be accused of teaching divisive concepts if I lead a discussion about why we are not going to say the N word out loud when we read Of Mice and Men? Will the kids go home and tell their parents what we talked about? Do kids still do that? Do parents still ask? Is this book worth the battle it might lead to or should I just teach Fahrenheit 451 instead? Wouldn’t that be ironic? Isn’t this exactly what those who scream about CRT being taught want? For teachers to fear the repercussions and give in to temptation to just teach “safe” material instead? So that the status quo will keep on keeping on and generations of kids will continue to grow up in the dark about so much of the ugly side of America’s history? Is it worth the fight this might bring? Well, it’s obviously worth the fight, but am I mentally and emotionally up for this battle, this year especially?
More importantly, will my black students be uncomfortable if their white teacher leads this discussion in class? I know enough not to ask a Black student to speak on behalf of an entire race, but would it be okay to privately ask a Black student how they would feel about this book or that sort of discussion?
Should I grade these 45 quick 10-point responses first or 25 longer essays? Go back and forth between the two? Am I fair to every student when I don’t grade an assignment all at once? Do I grade the first essays harder or easier than the last ones?
Why do I feel guilty when I take points off for not capitalizing “I” or proper nouns? Why don’t they click on the squiggly lines and fix their typos/spelling/grammar errors when the computer is literally marking them for them? Why are they still making these basic mistakes when we have gone over them so many times? Do they just not care about their grades? Do they even go back and read my comments and look at why they lost points? Is this an academic issue or a motivation issue or a self-worth issue? Do we need to do more lessons on catching these mistakes or do I need to talk with them about the importance of the impression of themselves they put out into the world? Is it unfair for a student to earn a C for a grade when the content of their work is probably at a B or even an A level, but their spelling and grammar mistakes are so ubiquitous and egregious that they lose points on every assignment? Is it asking too much of them to CLICK ON THE DANG SQUIGGLY LINES?
Am I becoming the old cranky English teacher who nitpicks and loses sight of the big picture? Am I too tired for this job? Am I becoming too cynical? Are my standards too high? Haven’t I lowered them since I began teaching all those years ago, though? Should I have?
Should I work through lunch or head to the workroom? Will I feel better if I have a half-hour of adult conversation or if I get more of these papers graded? Do I need to make any hard copies of the handout for next period? Did I remember to upload the video and Google doc to Google Classroom for the kids who are absent?
Is that yelling in the hallway? What’s going on? Did one of you just call the other a bitch?
Why are the kids behaving like this this year? Is it COVID-related? Or just the stress of COVID plus all the other division and dissension in society that we are all contending with?
Does that kid who just smiled at me and said “Hey, Ms. H!” have any idea how much I needed that friendly smile right now?
Why is the office calling down that long list of kids? Are they getting quarantined and sent home? Wait, they don’t have to stay home anymore, but they have to wear masks now, right? Will we get a list of kids who are supposed to be wearing masks for two weeks? How will I keep track of that? How many more times can I say “pull your mask up over your nose” before I start inserting curse words into that sentence?
Do I have time to run to the bathroom between classes? Risk someone being in the single-stall teacher bathroom or go to the student bathroom further away? Is that crying in the next stall? Hey, are you all right? Do you need to talk? Which class do you have right now? Can I walk you down to the guidance office? (Will my class of freshmen be okay if I get there a little late?)
Can we settle down and get started, please? Where is your chromebook? Why isn’t it charged? Where is your charger? Why haven’t you borrowed one from the library then?
Is this email for real? Are they kidding with this? Another meeting? A new book study? This year of all years? Don’t we have enough to do? Can’t they just give us more time to plan or collaborate with each other on the ACTUAL work that needs done?
Am I getting sick or am I just exhausted? Is my throat sore from talking so much today or because I’m coming down with something? Will they be able to find a sub if I stay home tomorrow? What am I teaching tomorrow? Is it something I can adapt easily for a sub or will I need to come up with something new? How much will that impact my plans for the rest of the week? (Why can’t I be more of a Type B teacher?) Isn’t it just easier to suck it up and go to school with a cold? But what if it’s COVID?
Is that an email from a parent? Do I have the energy to deal with that tonight? Why are they emailing me so late?
Where is that info about the poetry contest? When was the deadline? How did I not know until now what a great writer Jane is?
Oh no, Michael didn’t do the assignment; is it too late to call home tonight or should I wait and call from school tomorrow? Do his parents work during the day? Do they support his use of he/him pronouns? Do I need to refer to him as Michelle when I talk to them?
Why am I watching the news? Is the legislature seriously going to try to pass that? Do they have any clue how that will impact teaching and learning? Why do the people with the power to address some of the problems always seem to arrive at “solutions” without asking educators for feedback? Don’t they realize that only leads to more issues?
Oh my God, another one? How many school shootings does that make this year?
Are all teachers as overwhelmed and exhausted as I am?
Does anyone care what teachers are going through in this country?
When is someone going to do something about it?
— Julie Holderbaum is an English Instructor and an Academic Challenge Advisor at Minerva High School, Minerva, Ohio.
Small Moments of Joy: Can They Keep Teachers in the Classroom?
By Julie Holderbaum, Minerva EA/OEA
On March 17, 2020, I wrote about what it was like to be a Type A Teacher in the uncertain times of the statewide school shutdown. I described how I was clinging to what I knew for certain: that this was an opportunity to refocus on the kids instead of standards or testing, and that our kids needed us more than ever.
As it turned out, the next school year was even more daunting. Some of you were still teaching through a screen, trying to make and nurture human connections with kids you had never met. In my district, we were teaching while wearing masks and sanitizing everything, in person every day but still trying to post as much online as we could for the kids who were at home sick or quarantined. And some of you were in what Dante would surely consider a special circle of hell, teaching online and in person at the same time.
Last spring, a year into COVID, I wrote about changing my perspective from doing everything possible to get the job done to doing everything possible to keep myself healthy and sane. I wrote that “We can’t possibly hope to produce flourishing students if we aren’t even attempting to flourish ourselves. Sometimes you don’t do what you gotta do to get the job done; you do what you gotta do so that you can keep doing the job.”
When the end of the 2020-21 school year came, the vaccine was widely available. My teacher friends and I celebrated mightily on that last day of school. We were looking forward to a well-deserved break and a return to normal for the 2021 school year. There was joy in the air.
Well. Here we are. Fall of 2021. Not much joy, is there?
COVID still rages. School leaders and teachers are forced to reconsider, once again, how we do everything, from teaching, to athletics, to dances, to extracurriculars, to parent/teacher conferences, to assemblies. It seems every day there is a new decision to be made.
Community support has waned. Parents are attending school board meetings, angry about mask mandates. Frankly, it is absolutely demoralizing to hear people berate teachers and schools for trying to do what’s best for kids, or even worse, accuse us of not caring about kids. We are fighting for the safety and well-being of our students and we are being browbeaten for it.
Politicians are debating what part of the truth we are allowed to teach our kids, accusing us of indoctrinating our students when we are merely trying to give them the whole picture. Isn’t it our job to teach America’s full history, not just the parts that make our country look good? We teach our students how to have a respectful conversation about difficult topics with people they disagree with in a safe space. What’s going to happen if our children don’t learn these lessons? We certainly won’t become a more inclusive, rational, respectful society, will we? And I’m pretty sure I know who will get blamed for that.
Add to all that the Ohio politicians who want to give parents of K-12 children voucher money so they can leave public schools if they disagree with any aspect of their local district from curriculum to policy.
Joy, excitement, energy…school year 21-22, at least for me, has seen less of those than any other year of my career.
I know that my particular situation is a good one. I have great students who give me grace when I have a bad day. I have wonderful colleagues. The parents from our town who attended our school board meeting to oppose the mask mandate did not get violent and were not disrespectful. Our staff feels respected and appreciated by our administration more than many other teachers do around the state.
And yet, this school year, I’ve seriously considered leaving the profession.
The problem is, I’m an English teacher trying to work out a math equation: is COVID + increased disrespect from society + political agendas + the usual stresses of a teaching job equal to or greater or lesser than caring about the kids and the future + occasional moments of joy? Factor in decades invested into a retirement system and the importance of having good healthcare and the equation gets incredibly complicated.
I’ve thought about what has brought me to this point. Is it just the stress of COVID? Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve taught for two and a half decades in Ohio and still haven’t seen fair school funding be made a priority of our legislature. Maybe it’s because the legislature continues to show a disregard and distrust of what we teach and how we teach it. Maybe it’s because the Ohio State Board of Education just repealed an anti-racism resolution passed last year. Maybe it’s because even COVID didn’t derail the standardized testing and data train. Maybe it’s because my salary is still not commensurate with other equally degreed college graduates. And maybe I could deal with all of that if I only had five years to go before I could retire, but because of STRS changes since I began my career, I have twelve, and being the kind of teacher I want to be, one that I can be proud of, for 12 more years seems unfathomable to me.
I’m not alone. A recent study by NEA shows that 32% of teachers are planning to leave education earlier than they originally planned.[1] Something’s got to give, or we are going to lose a lot of good teachers.
Resilience doesn’t just mean adapting well in the face of adversity, being in a terrible situation and sticking it out. Resilience is elasticity; the ability to bounce back. If the current state of education in Ohio is one that is endangering my ability to bounce back, to retain the core of who I am, to be the kind of person I want to be, then it’s not a path I can continue on. Last spring I wrote that “I still have what’s most essential to being a good teacher: I still care about the kids.” This year, I’m wondering if caring about the kids means knowing when it’s time to put them in someone else’s hands.
I’m not quite there yet. But part of taking care of myself in this third year of teaching during COVID means not just getting through each day, but examining how I want the rest of my days to be, as a person, not just as a teacher. It means being open to the idea that I might not retire at the end of my working years from teaching as I had always assumed I would. I’m not quite at the end of my rope, but the end of my rope is fraying, quickly.
There is some comfort in knowing I am not alone. Just last week in an ECOEA meeting, colleagues in schools all around me discussed feeling the same way. In addition, Cult of Pedagogy dropped a new podcast entitled “Teachers are Barely Hanging On. Here’s What They Need”, and a Michigan teacher/writer I love, Dave Stuart Jr., wrote about the struggle of teacher burnout. So many educators are seeking solutions to the problems that plague us. We are fighting for our profession. We want to find the joy again.
And sometimes, we find it. Last week on Tuesday, I did not get one paper graded or lesson planned during the school day, but I left school feeling lighter and happier than I had all year. Why? I spent my planning period and some time after school having unplanned one-on-one conversations with students. One needed someone to listen, to acknowledge what he’s been through and to affirm that he was on the right path. The other needed a nudge to make a plan for moving forward, a little support and guidance and direction. Those conversations reminded me of why I chose teaching in the first place.
There haven’t been many days this year when I’ve felt that I’m in the right place at the right time, but on that day, I felt that I was right where I was meant to be.
I hope that the challenges of teaching this year are growing pains and that the struggles we are facing will lead to meaningful changes, because I need more days like that.
We all do.
— Julie Holderbaum is an English Instructor and an Academic Challenge Advisor at Minerva High School, Minerva, Ohio.
[1]“Educators Ready for Fall, But a Teacher Shortage Looms | NEA.” 17 Jun. 2021, https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/educators-ready-fall-teacher-shortage-looms. Accessed 11 Oct. 2021
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