Making Do

This week, I got caught up in politics again. The State Superintendent's announcement of a bill to reroute instructional supply money was one of those things that I just couldn't let go. I spent a lot of time speaking and exchanging emails with elected officials related to this bill in addition to my communications with you as well as my contacts via social media outlets. I have very strong feelings against this bill and I want to do all that I can to voice my opinion that it is bad for schools, bad for teachers and bad for students in the end.

In my discussions, I found myself several times mentioning that teachers and schools currently do not have enough money, but we usually find a way to "make do." "Making do" was a phrase that my grandmother used often. She grew up as the second of seven children to a sharecropping family that found ways to make do every day. They were poor, but because they had always been poor, they didn't know much different. Several years ago, she wrote down her experiences into a book that serves as a chronicle for my family as well as a description of life in poverty.  The central message is that while they suffered from all of the regular ills of families in poverty, they had one another and did always find a way to feed and care for the family.

Teachers, no matter where, become masters of making do. While there are times when some of you do ask for things beyond the normal classroom supplies, I usually learn about your needs when I see a problem or hear about it second hand. Your own reluctance to ask is a symptom of working in a job that regularly understands that there are financial limitations. Instead of asking, you make do. Just like in my grandmother's story, you learn to use the human resources around you to support yourself and the work that you do instead of tangible materials.

In my talks with one senator yesterday, he mentioned several times that education is 56% of the state budget and that much money needs some clear oversight as to what is being done with it. In Greene County, 100% of the state instructional supply money goes to schools. The county adds a considerable amount of money to that because what the state sends is not enough. We hear a lot of rhetoric about wasteful spending from legislators that make claims against schools in general based on "things they hear" from different people. I was clear with those that I spoke with yesterday about what we do with our funds and how you make great teaching happen.

Teachers are caught in the middle of this argument (and ironically were never consulted for the bill). Instead, they should be the ones given the input and voice on this matter. It is their pockets that extra items are paid from. It is teachers that make do when they have to. For that, I want to say I appreciate you. No matter what the outcome of this or any other bill may be, thank you for making do for all students.