teachers

Save Our Schools is an ongoing philanthropic initiative operated and managed by a local civic organization and a collaboration of community stakeholders for the purpose of providing emergency funds and resources to schools. The fiscal challenge facing our nation is having a significant impact on North Carolina Schools. The impact we are experiencing in the marketplace has trickled down to a reduction in public services.

Our schools are now being forced to make dramatic changes in their budgets, which will result in deferred maintenance, a deficiency in teaching resources, and the loss of educators. In the end, we are hurting our children. While there are parents, individuals, and organizations who are working hard to support our schools, it is clear that there is a need for more.

Recently, an alliance of community leaders and socially responsible companies committed to launch a unified effort to “Save our Schools”. This effort will utilize entrepreneurial creativity and proven strategies to deliver emergency funds to our NC Schools.

The lives of educators are getting more difficult, a-gain. The program of death by a thousand cuts undertaken by the NC General Assembly (GA) continues unabated. The latest, and not well known, cut involves the increasing difficulty of creating a legal school schedule. You, gentle reader, might not recall that school calendars are not created with the principle goal of educating young minds, but rather to maximize the profits of the coastal tourist industry.

Can you have student loans forgiven if you are a teacher?

From a comment by a teacher on another thread.

That shows he [Stam] has no idea about what is going on in the schools. In my county we haven't bought new ones [text books] in several years. My school doesn't have enough books in my subject to distribute one to each child so we just use them as needed in the classroom. Now of course textbooks should never be the main focus of instruction but they have their place and without them, or enough of them or enough of them that aren't falling apart, instruction does suffer.

This short video, in a time of gross and gratuitous teacher bashing, tells it like it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsOVK4syxU&feature=player_embedded

All my opinions notwithstanding, one thing must be understood. I do not think I am right about very many things. I do not have the secret to world peace or the answer to world hunger. But I do know this: Our headlong rush into free market mania is a dangerous game for our culture and our children.

It's estimated that teachers spend an average of $493 out of pocket on school supplies for their own classrooms, with some spending $1,000 or more of their personal finances just to get by. As education budgets face major shortfalls in the recession, out of pocket expenses are expected to increase significantly, merely adding insult to injury.

America's teachers are professionals that have dedicated their talents to the very future of this great nation - our children - and they deserve our support and appreciation for all they do.

When I pay my taxes, I don't usually say thanks to the tax collector, but maybe I should. I live in the most amazing country in the world, where a public education is provided for all. Where firemen come when a house or building are burning or maybe my pootie is caught in a tree. Where the police will protect and the court will serve justice for me. Where brave men and women put their lives on the line to defend and protect me. I know I can count on all of this because of my taxes.

We have a lot going on today in North Carolina as you all know. You can feel the excitement in the air. We aren't accustomed to our primary being so important to those outside our state and getting the attention here in North Carolina that we've been getting. Now let me say first of all that I'm pleased that I don't have an opponent in today's primary so I can relax a bit. However, I can't help thinking as I watch what is happening that it isn't nearly as important what happens today as is what happens tomorrow.

As I watch what is happening here on the ground...