Listen to teachers about how to improve schools

We all want our children to receive the skills they need to be successful in a rapidly changing world. It seems straightforward that more time in the classroom would yield better educational outcomes, so why are teachers opposed to the recent 180-day mandate? As an elementary teacher in Santa Fe, I would like to offer a more rounded perspective for those not working directly in a public school classroom.

Schools are human systems dealing with little humans, and for decades we have been dramatically under-resourced. Schools are not production lines where more instructional days yield improved outcomes, especially with current levels of stress impacting families and teachers alike. What happens instead is burnout, absenteeism and sickness for both educators and students.

Today’s children are coping with more pressure than ever, and teachers, attempting to address each child’s emotional, social and intellectual needs, are united in trying to explain that we need a better student-teacher ratio. At the very least, all Title I schools should be given a dean of students or assistant principal to help lower the student-toadult ratio. Title I schools are high-need areas and need more support, more well-trained adults and more resources as well as social workers, nurses and the kind of wrap-around services provided in community schools. These are the basic specifications necessary for an effective educational system. Lengthening the year is simply further stressing an already precariously stressed system.

Hundreds of surveyed teachers in 2023 led the National Education Association New Mexico to identify class size and staffing as critical issues in its list of educator priorities. It advocates for two main objectives: 1) restoration of funding to ensure sufficient staff, including highly qualified teachers and support-service professionals, and 2) enactment of laws prohibiting blanket class-size waivers and deceptive class-size averaging loopholes. This would help first through sixth grade teachers in my school a lot because we have an average ratio of 23-to-1, even though Greatschools.org lists the ratio at 15-to-1.

If the challenges described above don’t suffice to explain burnout, another reason to not add more days is that we are already experiencing severe teacher and substitute shortages. My school had a sixth grade teacher vacancy for the first half of this school year. Twenty-four students across the hall from me had no teacher for months. The other two sixth grade teachers sacrificed planning periods helping a revolving door of subs or split this class between their classrooms, bringing another 12 students in with their groups of 25. Their dedication to the kids is the exemplar of most teachers I have taught alongside in my 20-plus years in education.

You might ask, how many such teacher vacancies could there be in Santa Fe Public Schools? Surely that is the exception, not the norm. As I write this, on the district website there are vacancies for 91 teachers, more if you count educational assistants and part-time positions. In terms of the substitute shortage, when a teacher is out sick at my school, the class frequently must be split, sending small groups of children to other classrooms because there are simply not enough substitutes.

So why are teachers exiting a profession most of us love? Teaching is an incredibly demanding job that is not nearly well-enough compensated. This school year, 250 hours were already added to teachers’ load with no pay increase. Retaining our quality teachers is already a problem. If you want to help our children, make our schools more humane. Listen to those of us working directly in the schools.

At the very least, all Title I schools should be given a dean of students or assistant principal to help lower the student-to-adult ratio.