San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Blame Texas Education Agency for unsafe classrooms
Recently, one of our local teacher associations filed a grievance against North East ISD, citing complaints that teachers are being forced to work in unsafe conditions. We would argue that another institution, the Texas Education Agency, deserves a lot more blame than school districts.
We are more than nine weeks into the school year, one that was meticulously planned and then replanned as information and guidelines from the state changed, seemingly daily. And now, here we are in the last week of October, and almost all students who want to be back in person are now on campus, and life is humming along, with COVID-19 precautions in place, in an almost normal way.
Thinking back to late August — the stressfulness of figuring out distance learning, the many technical difficulties, constant Wi-Fi issues, and how difficult it was to balance work and schooling — one thing stands out the most: Teachers are incredible. Their ability to manage a classroom with dozens of personalities and needs is always impressive, but being able to do so through a screen, with countless distractions is something that, in our opinion, deserves unending admiration and praise.
As kids have phased back onto campus and these sacred spaces are slowly, but surely, coming back to life again, teachers have done what they do best: adapt. What we’ve seen and experienced has been nothing short of remarkable. Districts have worked hard to be flexible and meet the needs of both teachers and students as best and as safely as they possibly can.
North East ISD has modeled exemplary decision-making in the most impossible situations. Its job is to prioritize and value the education of our children, and district officials have found a way to do just that, even in a pandemic. It is not risk free, and it’s not even as low risk as we’d like it to be, for the sake of our teachers.
Teachers associations play an important role in our public schools and we have worked together with them on advocacy issues and hope to do so again in the future. But, in this specific situation, it must be stated that we do not disagree with the grievance, only to whom it was directed. It should have been filed against the Texas Education Agency rather than NEISD. TEA is what’s standing in the way of our schools receiving the necessary support and resources to resolve any safety issues they are facing.
We need to remember what happened this summer, when Texas received $1.3 billion from the federal government to be used for education. Local districts immediately began making plans for how their allotment would enable them to equitably provide virtual instruction and safely open inperson learning. Unfortunately, the districts never received their money.
The commissioner of education, Mike Morath, saw fit to keep the money to supplant the cost of education due to the decline of revenue in the state’s budget. This decision to supplant rather than supplement has had far-reaching consequences for our local schools. Our districts have had to dig deep within their budget limitations to find ways to fulfill their duty to our children and protect teachers without help from the state.
Furthermore, Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton and Commissioner Morath keep throwing up roadblocks to safe and equitable learning environments. They have stooped to extorting our schools for political gain by threatening to withhold funding if the districts would not reopen according to their timeline.
From requiring in-person learning to taking away power from local health authorities to decide when it was safe to reopen, state leaders forced our districts to spend the summer making plans, scrapping plans and making new plans right up until the start of school.
If you know a superintendent or a district administrator, join us in sending them your messages of gratitude. If you know a teacher, shower them with appreciation. It pains us that our teachers feel at risk, all for the sake of our children. They deserve more love and respect now than ever.
If there are grievances to be filed — and we believe there are plenty — they should be sent directly to Morath. Abbott and Paxton have elections coming up in 2022, and the commissioner is appointed by the governor. So if you’re frustrated with how things have been run this year, take it to the ballot box.