On my political soap box

This is your warning. I'm going to get up on my political soap box so if you don't want to hear it, I advise you to leave now. With that being said, here goes nothing.

Today the Ohio Senate passed Senate Bill 5, a bill that I, as a current and future educator, am strongly opposed to. I don't know all of the logistics of the current bill, but the biggest factor of it angers me as an educator. Under this bill, public employees are no longer going to be allowed to do collective bargaining. What this means for me as an educator is that I can kiss my union goodbye. Public employees will no longer have the ability to negotiate their contracts and their benefits, such as health care, retirement plans, vacation time, and sick days. Under this same bill, educators will no longer be paid on a salary scale based on their degree and the number of years they've worked, but instead will be paid on a merit scale, meaning that districts will be paid by their test scores. The lower your test scores, the lower you're paid district wide. It's not fair to those teachers who bust their asses to make sure their students excel while other teachers sit back and don't care because they know they're getting paid regardless of how much (or how little) work they put into their jobs.

On top of Senate Bill 5 in Ohio, there is a current national bill in the House of Representatives that the House majority just recently passed. H.R. 1 is calling for cuts of $10.6 billion for fiscal year 2011. This bill will eliminate the elementary and secondary school counseling program, which is funded at $55 million. It will also include cuts to other crucial programs such as Pell Grants and Tech Programs.

What does this mean for me? It pretty much means I'm screwed. As the whole world knows, I'm working towards a Master's in School Counseling. If they cut the elementary and secondary school counseling program, then that means my degree is pretty much obsolete. Does this mean UC is going to give me my money back if my degree is now going to be non-existent? How the hell am I spending three years of my life working towards a degree that I may not be able to use in the next couple of years? Had I known about this, I would have chosen to pursue my Master's in something else. Instead, I chose education because it's what I'm passionate about. I know teaching itself isn't my passion but counseling is. I chose school counseling because I love the education field and I want to make a difference in the lives of students who are experiencing problems such as child abuse, alcoholism, and other issues that make them at risk for dropping out of school and not going to college. I want to be that advocate, the person who shows them they have options. I love everything about education. I just know teaching isn't my passion.

I don't understand these legislators who think that my job isn't important. How can they think an English teacher can do my job?? If I have to have a license to do what I want to do, then how are you going to sit here and tell me you can cut my job and just have a teacher handle the scheduling and testing? When are they supposed to have time to teach if they're worrying about testing and scheduling? It's no wonder then that our students aren't passing tests and making the grade. Their teachers are being asked to do jobs that aren't in their job description and not being given enough time to actually teach. This is why my job is crucial. I handle the testing, the scheduling, and the mental health piece of the student's day so that the teachers can do what they're hired for-to teach.

I admire all the things that teachers do and all the experiences they go through in the classroom with their students but I don't think it's fair that my job is one of the first put on the chopping block simply because the teachers are supposedly capable of handling what I will have spent three years and two national exams being certified for. It's not right and it's not fair.

Educators, we need to take a stand and oppose these pieces of legislation that are attempting to step on our toes and threaten our jobs. I'm not going down without a fight. I haven't busted my ass for two years to get to this point where I'm simply a year and an internship away from a job that I'm passionate about. I didn't waste all of this money on a degree that will become obsolete because legislators think they know what's best for our districts and our students. It's time we make a stand and be the voice that our students can't be. We need to fight for our jobs, our districts, and our students. I'm not going down without a fight. This isn't over. If we don't take a stand, the education system in America is just going to continue going down the drain. It's time to fight to take our schools back and give our students the education that they deserve.