After the teacher’s strike, Midwest teachers reflect on the state of education in their states and what they think the future will hold.
It looked like the red sea. Thousands of bright red t-shirts swarming around the Indiana Statehouse, united under one goal — better treatment of teachers. On Nov. 19, 2019, the Indiana teacher’s strike generated attention from news sources state wide, and added more fuel to the conversation about public education standards in the United States.
This strike is just one of many in recent years. States like West Virginia, Colorado, and Kentucky have all participated in state-wide teacher walkouts in 2018 and 2019.
Out of all the states, Indiana ranks last in growth of teachers’ salaries over a 15-year period, according to a study by Statista. And compared to 2010, teachers in Indiana received a pay cut of 9.7% in 2017, according to a study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Jon Carl, a teacher who has been teaching in Southern Indiana for 25 years, says that he does not feel respected as a teacher within his district.
“Somebody’s in your room, telling you what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong every two weeks on schedule. It’s a whole bunch of little things.”
Someone comes into the classroom and evaluates the teachers in the district every two weeks to make sure they are teaching the way that the district wants them to, and to make sure that they are living up to the standards that have been set.
This on top of being lumped into ‘one size fits all’ boxes, no matter how long they’ve taught or how much experience they have, teachers like Jon get lumped in with new teachers. Jon says he wants less evaluations, less people taking control of his classroom, more freedom to teach in his style.
Jon did not participate in the teacher’s strike, but he knows many people who did. He says the event was inspiring to him, and made him want to get involved with his local teacher’s union again.
“Seeing that many educators come together made people feel like they’re not on this island in their classroom,” he says.
Jon used to be part of his local union, but left because he believed they had little to no power. He also didn’t like when they would send out announcements that made it seem like they made an improvement, when in reality Jon felt nothing was being done.
He thinks that when it comes down to it, the biggest thing missing in the education system is a lack of respect for public schools. Jon says public school teachers today have a noble job. They see it as their responsibility to educate everyone, regardless of class or academic standing. He wishes the system would acknowledge this.
Jayme Cowling, a teacher from Carmi, Illinois, has been teaching for 20 years and says that she has the best relationship with her district and her school.
She didn’t want to be a teacher when she first went to school. But after having positive experiences teaching Sunday school class and helping out at a daycare, she felt like she was being called to teach.
Jayme says she loves how motivated kids are. How loving, forgiving, and willing to learn they are. She knows how much influence a teacher can have in their lives, so she takes that responsibility very seriously. Now, she says she wouldn’t do anything else.
She says that the hardest thing about teaching is accepting the home life of her students.It’s also hard for her to work harder with so few resources, and deal with the abilities of the students and what happens at their homes with their families.
Her school tries to help out as much as they can. They have hygiene kits available for all students who may not be getting proper hygiene at home. Jayme herself always has wet wipes for students who may need them to freshen up, and she keeps a stash of ponytail holders for little girls who come to school with unbrushed hair that keeps falling in their face.
Aside from physical items, Jayme makes sure her kids are getting the emotional support they may not receive at home. She makes sure to tell her kids she loves them, because she says it may be the only time they get to hear it.
Jayme also says that she has so many more responsibilities than she did 20 years ago, her school doesn’t have an art teacher, so she has to not only teach all the academic curriculum, but make sure her students are learning artistic skills as well.
Although Jayme says that teaching in the state of Illinois is not an ideal situation, she stays because it’s where her family is, where her roots are.
“Thank your teachers, respect your teachers, and support your school,” Jayme says.
In regards to the money, Illinois may not be much better than Indiana. Jayme has a retired friend who gets 75% of her paycheck, but says it feels like more because she does not have to spend money on all of the extra things she used to have to buy for her classroom.
Jayme says the biggest thing educators need is more funding. She feels like she could do so much more if she just had more resources, and she says she feels spread thin with things as they currently are.
Krystalyn Botzum is a teacher working in Kentucky who used to work in Indiana. She spent a few years in a public school in southern Indiana, but when the school consolidated and she was laid off, she moved to a private school in Kentucky.
She says that she finds the private school teaching harder than the public school teaching because there is more that they have to fit into a shorter amount of time because they go to Mass once a week.
She also has things that she has to teach, but aren’t part of the state curriculum, like the religious aspects that her school requires. Krystalyn became a teacher because she couldn’t see herself doing anything else.
Because private school teachers can’t be part of unions; Krystalyn works on her own. She says she wishes she knew beforehand that being a teacher is a balancing act. You have to balance your teaching with everything else that the school requires.
Miranda Minnick, freshman, is an education major here at Ball State who has always been interested in teaching. She has always known that she wants to help children, to teach them what they need to know to be good citizens.
Miranda also really likes that she is able to double major in elementary and special education. She is planning to stay in Indiana for at least the first few years, but she is willing to see what the future holds. She wants to go to Maine since they have great school systems and a better governance system, but accepts that she cannot change the future.
Miranda says she’s scared of what the future holds for teaching, because in her opinion teachers are very underpaid and end up using much of their salary in supplies for their classroom. However, she says she has hope for the future.
“If you think about it, education is the start of it all,” she says.
According to Miranda, if teachers are paid more, then they can better teach their students, which will lead to more children going to college and getting better jobs. The economy will improve, and the children that grew up with this great educational system will go on to teach the next generation. This is the future Miranda wants.
“It’s all a big domino effect,” she says. “We’re just waiting for the first domino to fall.”
