Teacher layoffs not the correct answer
Now that Tennessee lawmakers are on the brink of leaving the state in economic shambles, we’re beginning to see the first glimpse of how desperate the situation really is.
Teachers are now on the chopping block, an unfortunate illustration of a financial crisis which is beginning to slip away from our elected officials. School systems in Tullahoma and Cookeville have already announced they won’t be rehiring non-tenured teachers back next year.
Here in Warren County, Director of Schools Dr. Jerry Hale remains hopeful such drastic measures won’t be necessary for our school system. But if state officials pass a bare-bones budget which cuts almost $3 million in funding from the local school system, Hale won’t have much of a choice.
When breaking it down, $3 million is an astronomical figure. If you figure the average school employee makes $35,000 a year, $3 million is enough to fund 85 positions. Eliminating those 85 positions, if that’s what school officials are forced to do to make up for the shortfall, would do considerable damage.
In Cookeville and Putnam County, it’s been announced 162 teachers are out of a job. In the city of Tullahoma, that number is 35.
Once again, we have to ask if we are moving forward or backward. The Better Education Program, established in the early 1990s, was intended to reduce class sizes and give our children a better chance for success. It wasn’t intended to have one teacher chase around 35 students.
When thinking about fostering a learning environment, one of the most obvious aspects which comes to mind is student-teacher ratio. We don’t want to herd our children through public schools like cattle. We want them to have individual attention as much as possible and that all relates back to more teachers and smaller class sizes.
Trimming government fat and making the state operate more efficiently is one thing. Firing teachers because lawmakers don’t have the nerve to initiate tax reform is another.
Gov. Don Sundquist, who has been frustrated at lawmakers’ lack of vision and cooperation over the last four year, said last week action must be taken. He said if lawmakers allow what is being called the DOGS budget to be passed, they should all be voted out of office.
The Standard full-heartedly agrees.
There’s a time to trim excess waste and a time to bite the proverbial bullet. The time to bite the bullet comes when you’re faced with tax reform or firing what would amount to thousands of teachers across the state.
Tennessee’s financial crisis has dragged on long enough. Frankly, we’re all tired of hearing the nonsense that’s coming from Capitol Hill.
If the options are firing teachers or implementing tax reform our lawmakers have no choice. And if they’re too dense to see the answer, the governor is right. Every last one of them needs to be voted out of office.