The biggest way that I see a lack of funding and a lack of support for education impacting my students is the teacher shortage and high teacher turnover.
Teaching is a high-stress job I would say. Many teachers are leaving the field, therefore we’re constantly hiring new teachers, or hiring emergency certification teachers.
We also have an extreme shortage of subs, and then we end up with two classes in a classroom with one teacher—you know, that’s like 50 kids. It’s crazy.
Sometimes that can create unsafe environments, or specifically a lack of special ed teachers or a lack of special education assistants.
[This results in] students being unable to access their education because they don’t have the kind of support that they need.
At the high school level, a lack of certified teachers sometimes means that we don’t have teachers certified to teach those highest level classes, those students literally don’t have access to the same advanced level of classes that students in a neighboring district might have.
We have increased the demand for students and teachers, and I think we need to take a step back and see how we can provide more support so that our students are more prepared and that our teachers are more prepared.
