Opinion: Budgets are a moral document, so we should fund our kids’ futures
I’ve been teaching in Asheville City Schools for 15 years, and I love my job. I love my students and my school — Isaac Dickson Elementary School. But working in public education is harder than ever these days. We are just emerging from a global pandemic, and it has compounded the effects of a mental health crisis. Students are experiencing greater needs than ever before. We want to meet these needs, but a staffing crisis is making it increasingly difficult to do so.
Many staff, including custodians, cafeteria workers, and instructional assistants, are being paid poverty wages, less than they could earn at other jobs in town. Asheville is the most expensive city in North Carolina to live in with lowest wages and among the most expensive cities in the country.
We face a dire affordable housing crisis. Our bills are getting bigger. Our work – helping children grow and learn – is our passion; but many teachers and school staff are being priced out of their jobs. We’re seeing a mass exodus of workers. Things are at a breaking point. At my school, we’ve seen these dynamics play out. Earlier this year, we lost several wonderful staff members: our Spanish teacher, a fifth-grade teacher, and our assistant principal all resigned within weeks of one another. Two months later, two teachers of exceptional children left, followed by a fourth-grade teacher, our lead custodian, and an instructional assistant. We lost a cafeteria worker a few weeks ago. This is a huge number of resignations in the middle of a year. We anticipate even more resignations at the end of this year, if nothing happens. In response to these crises, Asheville City Association of Educators has rallied the community with a coalition of teachers, school staff, parents, and students. We are calling on the Board of Education and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners to fully fund our three core priorities: paying all staff a living wage, keeping all of our pre-kindergarten programs open, and increasing the local supplement based on the high local cost of living. ACAE started a petition with these demands. We hand-delivered a copy of the petition, along with the signatures, to James Carter, chair of the Asheville City Board of Education, Superintendent Dr. Gene Freeman, and every board member at a board of education meeting in March. We want the Asheville community to stand behind these priorities. The school district is working on a budget proposal for the coming school year.
In the next few weeks, county commissioners will vote on how to fund the district. Budgets are a moral document, and we believe our officials need to show their priorities by funding what our children need. While we know the school board has the best interests of children at heart, too much of the discussion around the budget has focused on trimming services, with too little attention on how austerity will affect our students.
The school board should refocus its discussion on the priorities brought to it, and to work with the county to fund these priorities. The commissioners would be wise to be good stewards of public funds, but if resolving their concerns starves schools of funds, we desperately need to keep functioning into next year, it’ll only worsen the crisis for Asheville children. We urge the commissioners to address these immediate needs as a separate issue from their long-term concerns. I worry what will happen in August if these priorities aren’t fully funded.
High student needs, coupled with inadequate staffing levels, can make stressful working conditions even more stressful, and lead to even more resignations. At the same time, when we are inadequately staffed, student needs can be unmet, leading to greater challenges and even more students in crisis. A catastrophic feedback loop can result.
Prompt action to attract and, most importantly, retain staff is necessary to interrupt this loop. With the resources available in the Asheville community, we must be creative and work together to make our children a top priority. Our children need every school board member to make and vote for motions that support staff priorities, and for every county commissioner to vote for a budget that addresses these crises fully. We must join together – parents, students, school staff, and teachers – to ensure that every child has the teachers, custodians, cafeteria workers, and instructional assistants they need to thrive. We achieve these aims by stabilizing our workforce with higher wages, increasing local supplements, and fully funded Pre-K classrooms. Our kids can’t wait.
Daniel Withrow is president of Asheville City Association of Educators and a national board-certified teacher of fifteen years.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: David Withrow: Budgets are a moral document, so fund our kids’ futures
