Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
We inform. You decide.
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Lots of news can get lost in the shuffle these days, but I hope this piece won’t. Beginning late last month and stretching past the first week of March, teachers across West Virginia went on strike to demand better salaries, benefits and a stop to charter-school expansion, among other demands.

Throughout the two weeks, teachers and staff in West Virginia refused to go to work in protest, forcing each county to shut down its schools for the duration of the strike. Photos of teachers handing out bagged lunches to students who rely on free and reduced lunches surfaced on Twitter during the strike, making it clear the teachers did what they could to help their students while protesting.

That’s truly the bottom line. Good teachers use their powers to help children and teens, yet we live in a country that undervalues their dedication and leaves their work both unappreciated and unthanked. As a nation, we say we love our children and want to create a better world for future generations. How can we do this if we don’t support the people who see and educate our kids, peers, friends and family most days of the year?

This is why we have to listen when our teachers have something to say. Too often teachers have to resort to silence (“No one listens to us in this bureaucratic system, anyway”) or else create a national scene to get the attention they deserve (as is the case in West Virginia and potentially in Colorado). What if we had listened to their calls for help — for increased funding, for better insurance, for more classroom supplies in public schools — when they first voiced these concerns?

We ask so much of our teachers without providing them with the means to carry out those interests. We demand teachers know every last detail about their students and cater to each of their needs, even though this country has been experiencing a teacher shortage as recently as last September. Our politicians say we don’t have the money to increase teacher pay, though now we insist we can train and arm teachers to prevent the next mass shooting. The hypocrisy and ineptitude of some of our elected officials never ceases to amaze me.

The teachers’ strike in West Virginia worked. Last week, The Nation reported their successes included “defeating an expansion of charter schools, killing a proposal to eliminate seniority, and scuttling a paycheck-protection bill,” defending their unions from further weakening and effectively securing a higher raise.

I, for one, am happy and proud these teachers and staff could take a stand for the issues that matter to them. I also feel a sense of overwhelming disappointment that we have already let down our teachers so badly they have to strike for days on end just to have their concerns taken seriously. This reflects poorly on our national priorities. Before their demands were met, we had told an extremely important, nurturing and impactful part of our workforce they weren’t worth the solutions to the problems they raised. This just isn’t OK.

Honestly, think back to some of the favorite teachers you’ve had throughout your life: the ones who made even the driest of assignments feel like little adventures, the women and men who went the extra mile to help you learn grammar and spelling, the people who had themselves and possibly even families to support through their jobs as teachers. These people deserve respect. They deserve to be valued — and to know they’re valued.

We don’t do enough for our teachers, not even close. But we can change that. We can listen to them. We can thank them. And please, please, let us remember, when our politicians don’t do as we wish, we can vote.

Mia Gettenberg is a UF criminology and philosophy senior. Her column focuses on education.

Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox
Support your local paper
Donate Today
The Independent Florida Alligator has been independent of the university since 1971, your donation today could help #SaveStudentNewsrooms. Please consider giving today.

Powered by SNworks Solutions by The State News
All Content © 2024 The Independent Florida Alligator and Campus Communications, Inc.