This IS an emergency

I fly fairly often, both in state and cross country. On a recent return from Washington, D.C., I had an early morning flight which was delayed for several hours. I was tired and as soon as everyone was aboard the plane, I closed my eyes and tried to relax. The flight attendants began their routine with the seat belts, oxygen masks and flotation devices. I smiled, thinking of a comic I once heard who asked if there really was anyone who does not know how to buckle their seat belt. The routine was developed by government regulators and corporate elites who have never actually done the job they are regulating and with a condescending attitude toward those doing the job. After all, flight attendants just serve you drinks and tell you to buckle up, right? I was on a plane with a landing gear which did not lock and was expected to collapse as we touched down. I saw another side to flight attendants as those professionals coolly moved about the plane preparing people for a crash landing. Heroics were again on display as the flight crew safelyevacuated the passengers from the plane that recently went down in the Hudson River. So be nice to the person serving you on a plane. In an emergency, they will be the one who saves your life.

This penchant of regulators not listening to practitioners is rampant in public education. While I was in Washington, D.C. the Senate was debating the stimulus package passed by the House. Some of the money would go to education. Because of shortfalls in state revenue across the country, educators are being laid off. Many could lose their jobs at the end of this school year due to a lack of funds, not a lack of students. The federal stimulus package was supposed to help. The Senate deadlocked and it looked like they were cutting education funds, which means they would be laying people off while they say they are creating jobs. Ideology trumps peoples’ lives. I don’t recall any flight attendants or classroom teachers being elected to the Senate, or being asked to develop help for the economy, but if there were, peoples’ lives would trump ideology.

At the start of our legislative session, a group of educators and their district administrators gathered across from the capitol building in Olympia urging legislators to listen to them. Calling themselves the Twin Harbors Coalition, they tried to educate the legislators not to “cut the solution” in dealing with the current economic crisis. Speaker after speaker called on legislators to “first, do no harm.”

The response from Olympia? A group of legislators from a committee that was formed for the sole purpose of addressing our education funding problem decided to drop the ball. Ignoring the funding issue and deliberately excluding educators, they introduced a bill that neglects funding and touts education restructuring that amounts to little more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, and would cut funding and teacher pay. We already underfund our schools. Washington is 45th in per pupil spending and we pay our teachers significantly below the national average. There is no fat. Additional cuts are into flesh and down to the bone. If the goal is to increase class size, chase educators out of the profession, and diminish the quality of public education in Washington, they are right on target.

I understand this is an emergency. Who do you trust your children to in an emergency? A professional who dedicates his or her life to them, or …? I trust my children’s education to the professionals.