During this school year, I have heard many people talk about the lack of hope that exists in our profession. We see so many people leaving the profession, legislators who have turned their backs on us, and a Governor who acts as if we don’t even exist. People are arguing over vouchers and many other things that, quite frankly, distract us from what is most important: keeping our students safe and improving student outcomes. There is even talk that students are just not making progress. Let’s be honest, the metrics used to show those outcomes have increasingly become more challenging. It’s equally difficult to believe that our state, with billions of dollars in surplus, refuses to allocate any of it to our schools. This should be considered criminal.

A few weeks ago, I found myself feeling really down about this situation. But I learned that I can’t control that, even with the fact that we could use the money in my district to boost teacher salaries and acquire the much-needed, yet super expensive, resources. Instead, the Governor and some legislators have decided to play politics with children. However, even as I became discouraged, I was reminded of why I do what I do. The reality in my district is that we must improve, and we’ll have to do it without the funding that is rightfully ours.

I believe they should be helping us, not trying to undermine us. We have many needs, but we are blessed with great students and staff members who care about our students and want them to succeed. So, my personal call to action has been to give my all each day and push to find grants or other resources to help fund the things we desperately need. Public schools are the backbone of our communities, and we can’t allow all these distractions to take us away from our goals or our vision, which is to develop confident learners and leaders who excel in all endeavors.

So, educators, let’s keep pushing hard and maintain pressure on our legislators to do the right thing. We can do this!