How Yuma can find, keep best teachers
Educating our youth is very much like growing a crop. For seeds — or children — to be successful, they need great soil (schools) and sufficient fertilizer (teachers) and plentiful water (money) to help it all come to fruition. Cut back the fertilizer and the crop will not meet its potential. And without enough water, seeds may not even yield anything to harvest. No crop can succeed without water.
Unfortunately, that’s what’s happening in our schools today. Educators are being asked to do more work with increasingly fewer resources. While they’ve succeeded so far, there’s bound to be a breaking point. Teachers in Arizona are the lowest paid in the nation — they earn a fraction of what comparable professions earn and yet they’re tasked with preparing our youth to be productive members of our community.
Finding — and keeping — quality teachers isn’t a challenge unique to our area. A statewide survey conducted last year found thousands of vacant teaching positions among 159 districts and charters, in addition to thousands of additional positions that are filled by candidates who do not meet standard teacher certification requirements. Society has so long de-valued the role, through low pay, little respect and everincreasing responsibilities. What’s more, a significant portion of our teachers are approaching retirement and it’s worrisome to see how few young people are choosing education as their profession. So much so that the number of bachelor’s degrees conferred in education dropped by 25 percent between 2006 and 2015.
In fact, the profession is so fraught with stressors — and so lacking in incentives — that one-in-five teachers do not teach longer than one year. That rate of turnover is hard on pupils, especially those living in high poverty and high minority areas. Not to mention the difficulty that school leaders face to hire and train new faculty to fill these open roles. The problem is acute for rural areas like Yuma County, where fresh young teachers from outside the area aren’t likely to want to relocate, and where existing teachers can be lured to travel just across state lines for higher pay.
But in the face of so many setbacks, schools in Yuma County are accomplishing great things. Despite its high poverty rate, San Luis High School has one of the best graduation rates in the state and boasts a high college-going rate, thanks to instructor and parent involvement. Leadership at Crane School District has developed unique math curriculum that is helping their students more fully understand mathematics. Programs like Ready Now Yuma and Summer Works in Yuma are improving the landscape and nonprofit efforts, such as “Stuff the Bus” are helping to support teachers.
Education is an issue that impacts everyone in our community, regardless of age or income. On Thursday, Oct. 5, Yuma will host the Southwest Arizona Town Hall, which will focus on education issues, including funding and teacher recruitment and retention. The public is welcome to join the event for presentations, a panel discussion, and group workshops to grow consensus on the issue. Recommendations developed at the event will be shared with participants of a statewide town hall. We want all recommendations to be reflective of the unique needs of our community, including educators and learners. To get the details, visit www. southwest arizona town hall. com.
What else can you do to aid local students? Whether it’s becoming a tutor, helping a neighborhood teacher or donating goods or funds, everyone can do something to support the great things happening in our classrooms. It’s also important to tell your legislator how you feel so that they can best represent your interests and improve education for all students.
Yuma County’s top product is our children. We should be doing everything possible to educate each one to prepare them for the future and ensure their success, as well as ours.
Julie Engel is the president and CEO of the Greater Yuma Economic Development Corp. Bruce Gwynn is a board member of Yuma Union High School District. Both are members of the Yuma Education Advocacy Council, a local collaboration between community leaders and Expect More Arizona to advance a shared vision for education in Yuma and the state. We all believe that every child deserves an excellent education — every step of the way. Together, we will elevate priority education issues to support educators, schools and students in our community and beyond. Find the Council on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ YEACAZ/.