Youth address state education funding problems
Low teacher pay also among issues area students tackle at town hall
Students living the reality of underfunded schools in Yuma County came together Friday to discuss the statewide issue at the Yuma Youth Town Hall held at Arizona Western College.
The underfunding of education in the state will be the topic of the statewide Town Hall that takes place next month in Mesa.
The event, in its sixth iteration, brings together about 140 to 150 youths from the Yuma Union High School District to discuss a topic that affects them, said Linda Elliott-Nelson, vice president for learning services at AWC.
It ensures the youth voice has a forum, Elliott-Nelson said, because their voice is essential.
“It’s important because they’re talking about both their present and their future. What is the quality of education they will be receiving? How will we be able to keep quality teachers in our county? And they’re also looking at what type of quality education can they expect for their siblings or their children, in the fu--
ture,” she said.
Addressing low teacher pay, teacher retention and recruitment has been an ongoing discussion in Arizona public education for the past several years, as well as Arizona’s unequal tax credit for tax incentives and empowerment scholarships for private schools.
Taxpayers and corporations are allowed a much higher tax deduction if they donate to private schools than if they donate to public schools. The adult town hall held a few weeks ago addressed all of the abovementioned topics, in which moderators and attendees also weighed in on the public’s perception that private and charter schools are better than public schools.
“There were several issues, another one was the social stigma between the private schools, public schools and charter schools,” said San Luis senior Sisto Felix, who attended the adult town hall earlier in October.
He noted that Rep. Charlene Fernandez’ address to students earlier in the morning touched on that topic and the expansion of the empowerment scholarship accounts now embroiled in the Arizona courts system.
“So we’re just (stuck) with that stigma that people think that private schools and charter schools are a lot better than public schools. (The Legislature has) just applied more and more money on other (types of) schools,” he said.
Felix said that funds for public schools should not go to private or charter schools.
“It is ‘public,’ that is in the title, that is who we need to help,” he said. Yuma High senior Andrea Luna, who also attended both town hall events, said those points are very important and should be addressed, because students are directly affected by who’s standing at the front of the classroom, and when positions are eliminated, it is more challenging for student and teacher to stay on top.
“It’s affected them a lot in the ways of extra-curriculars have been cut back, and then resources, so when we’re talking in my group, we have several students from San Luis High School, and they were saying that their classes are too big, like their student-to-teacher ratios are just too big,” Luna said.
Felix said that the next generation of leaders is already following the topic.
“As they say, the next generation is our future and so I believe that we have a very, very important role because we’re the ones who are going to step up and take on this challenge ourselves.
“All the discussion materials are collected and compiled into a statement that will be presented to the South West Advocacy Town Hall, who in turn will present the position paper in Mesa.
Some principal goals from the students’ paper include:
• lower dropout rates among Yuma schools
• Help students with test prep for the ACT and SATs
• More critical thinking courses
• Qualified/motivated teachers
• More facilities to reduce class sizes
• Reduce stigma between affluent and lesser funded classes;
• Increase in teacher benefits;
Improving communication with students and the public is key, Felix and Luna said, to broach the topic on a larger scale.
“I think (students) should play a huge role because it’s involving them. Why should adults, like, way older than them, who don’t even go to high school, be deciding things for them who are the ones attending school?” Luna said. “They should be more active in this instead of being apathetic and laid back, and just know that they don’t have funding. They should take action. Be more informed, attend things like these town halls and know ways to improve it.”
“It was a huge success. You could just feel the energy in the room,” said Shelley Mellon, owner of R.L. Jones Insurance, who is a member of the YUHSD Governing Board and helped organize Friday’s town hall along with Elliott-Nelson.
“(The students) came up with some really creative ideas of how to fund education. They are sold on it. They are in the classrooms and know how much we need that.”