When I was first hired to teach at my current district in Michigan eleven years ago, we had 72 teachers on staff. We now have fewer than fifty. I teach in a rural area and the loss of manufacturing has driven many families away.
Michigan's state funding mechanism, however, is accelerating the decline. Most school funding in Michigan is based on sales tax revenue. As you may have noticed, people aren't buying much right now. And what they are buying is increasingly found on the mostly tax-free internet.
The result is that Michigan has been forced into regular mid-year budget cuts in recent years. This means that local districts are forced to cut budgets AFTER the school year has started. Already this year, we have had two mid-year cuts. We expect another mid-year cut in January.
Of course, once the textbooks and pencils are purchased, the only thing to really cut is staff. Several years ago, our local union was able to avoid cuts at the holidays by offering to trade pay for jobs. We voted overwhelmingly to give back pay in exchange for some job security. The benefits of that deal were, of course, temporary.
My district also suffers by receiving only the base minimum level of funding in Michigan. Michigan puts a price on each student's head, based on funding levels present in 1994. That was the year in which Michigan voters passed the current system of state funding. The end result is that students in wealthy Michigan districts are worth roughly twice as much as students in my classroom.
Predictably, my class sizes are large. My personal class average is above 30. My largest class is 36. Most electives and advanced classes have been eliminated through the years. A new state curriculum has hastened this process.
In anticipation of the January cuts, my district has just offered a mid-year buyout package for veteran teachers. If teachers don't take the buyout, teacher cuts will be made.
In January, these buyouts/cuts will create a cascade of teacher and class changes for students. Some students will simply lose their teachers to the unemployment line. Others will have new teachers as more veteran teachers bump into new positions based on seniority. Classroom management will suffer.
I teach writing. And I expect that my writing classes will be merged with reading classes. I will need to create a new combined curriculum half way through the school year within the same month that my wife and I expect our first child to arrive.
But this is really not new to me. I was hired just early enough to have enough seniority to survive in my district. However, I can never keep the same position. After ten years of bumping, I have taught between 35 and 40 different classes. Each time I am pushed into a new position, I need to learn new curriculum. I want to be an excellent teacher, but I find it difficult to achieve this with all of the changes.
Today, we had a staff meeting which outlined some of the upcoming cuts. Let's just call it a little "Happy Thanksgiving!" from school administration. Of course, I'd rather they tell us as soon as possible rather than sit on the information.
I know that there are many school reform efforts percolating in Washington. I so much want to achieve better student performance. I know that the nation depends on it. But right now, I just want to survive.
Note: I don't want this post to sound entirely negative. Here is some good news. I am commissioner of a high school quiz bowl league and I coach a high school team. Last night, I drove my team to East Lansing to play on Quizbusters, a public TV program on WKAR. We won our match.