I’m a school teacher. My mother was a school teacher. My wife is a school teacher. My in-laws are school teachers. Our family has been in Texas classrooms since the early ‘60s. My mother passed more than a decade ago but I hear her voice when I consider our schools today. Teachers used to say that “teaching is a calling.” I heard that voice in the form of a whisper, but a whisper that encouraged me to make one of the best decisions of my life. My mother used to say “if you’re meant to be a teacher there’s nothing that will keep you away from those kids.” Momma was right about that too and that isn’t just my experience, that’s my reflection of the teachers who’ve remained in the classroom for decades, forty years in the classroom in our most challenging communities.
Teaching is a calling. Decades ago we spoke about being teachers in those terms. There was an organization that promoted teaching as a career, the Future Teachers of America. There were state sponsored pathways to recruit fine young people to careers in education. None of this happens anymore. This is where we need to be. This is where we were until the Republican takeover of Texas.
Being a teacher is a phenomenal career, it is also real. It is authentic. People make it in the classroom or they depart. The ones who make it wouldn’t do anything else, despite being on the front lines society’s battles. The kids are worth the needless challenges and attacks we face everyday. The kids are worth putting up with overregulation and underfunding. The kids are worth idiotic administrators who rise into positions of “leadership” because they couldn’t hack it in the classroom. The kids are worth enduring ignoramus politicians and billionaires who profit from worthless curriculum and useless school mngt operators, and the extortion of children in the form of standardized testing contracts that inform educators of nothing we don’t already know but serve as a bludgeon to demonize schools and to misinform parents that schools are failing so parents rollover for privatization. The goal is the privatization of the system so that it can be extorted. This already happens in district takeovers by the state.
American public school funding costs nearly a trillion dollars annually. Privatizers steal from our kids for profit through charters, vouchers, standardized testing, management contracts, and bogus curriculum purchases like Bluebonnet. My mother used to say “they don’t care about kids they just want to get their hands on the money.” This statement is even more true now that public school kids are overwhelmingly black and brown. Charter schools, voucher scams, grading of schools, all of this is designed to demonize schools in order to siphon off more and more revenue meant for communities, schools, and kids. For people like Abbott and Morath, Dan Patrick, Ted Cruz, it’s about ending public education. Despite the fact that public education is enshrined in our most sacred document the Texas Constitution. These are not honest Texans, if they are Texans at all. Our state was better once upon a time. Pre-1994 when Texas was blue, when the legislature was blue. Those of us who’ve been around long enough know this.
Being a teacher is a life of sacrifice done out of love of others, love of one’s friends, love of one’s community, love of one’s family. There is NO higher calling than being a teacher. There is no more relevant calling in the service of Christ.
The Republican Party in Texas has worked against this mission for decades. Starting with George W. Bush and his testing boondoggle, the introduction of charter schools, vouchers, and now the most egregious of all the district takeover meant to enrich the billionaire donors and school mngt operators, to run teachers out of the profession, and to privatize public schools while profiting from the dismantling. These efforts are an affront to the Holy Spirit. These efforts hurt kids, they hurt communities. They are racist. They are opportunistic. The Republican Party in Texas and the men mentioned above are the money changers in the temple and the Pharisees on high.
Gina Hinojosa recognizes this and will stop all of this exploitation and extortion. Gina knows. Gina remembers how it once was when cared for our kids and our communities. Other Democrats recognize this too.
We need to save our schools. We need to invest in our communities. We need to protect our kids.
The Texas Republican Party expresses its evil in two major ways, both centered around racist impulses: immigration issues and public education. There are people who’ve long identified themselves as Republican who never considered the racism inherent in Republican policies for anyone who bothered to look, but it’s there and has been there since Nixon defined the Southern Strategy.
I’m a school teacher. My mother was a school teacher. My wife is a school teacher. My in-laws are school teachers. Our family has been in Texas classrooms since the early ‘60s. My mother passed more than a decade ago but I hear her voice when I consider our schools today. Teachers used to say that “teaching is a calling.” I heard that voice in the form of a whisper, but a whisper that encouraged me to make one of the best decisions of my life. My mother used to say “if you’re meant to be a teacher there’s nothing that will keep you away from those kids.” Momma was right about that too and that isn’t just my experience, that’s my reflection of the teachers who’ve remained in the classroom for decades, forty years in the classroom in our most challenging communities.
Teaching is a calling. Decades ago we spoke about being teachers in those terms. There was an organization that promoted teaching as a career, the Future Teachers of America. There were state sponsored pathways to recruit fine young people to careers in education. None of this happens anymore. This is where we need to be. This is where we were until the Republican takeover of Texas.
Being a teacher is a phenomenal career, it is also real. It is authentic. People make it in the classroom or they depart. The ones who make it wouldn’t do anything else, despite being on the front lines society’s battles. The kids are worth the needless challenges and attacks we face everyday. The kids are worth putting up with overregulation and underfunding. The kids are worth idiotic administrators who rise into positions of “leadership” because they couldn’t hack it in the classroom. The kids are worth enduring ignoramus politicians and billionaires who profit from worthless curriculum and useless school mngt operators, and the extortion of children in the form of standardized testing contracts that inform educators of nothing we don’t already know but serve as a bludgeon to demonize schools and to misinform parents that schools are failing so parents rollover for privatization. The goal is the privatization of the system so that it can be extorted. This already happens in district takeovers by the state.
American public school funding costs nearly a trillion dollars annually. Privatizers steal from our kids for profit through charters, vouchers, standardized testing, management contracts, and bogus curriculum purchases like Bluebonnet. My mother used to say “they don’t care about kids they just want to get their hands on the money.” This statement is even more true now that public school kids are overwhelmingly black and brown. Charter schools, voucher scams, grading of schools, all of this is designed to demonize schools in order to siphon off more and more revenue meant for communities, schools, and kids. For people like Abbott and Morath, Dan Patrick, Ted Cruz, it’s about ending public education. Despite the fact that public education is enshrined in our most sacred document the Texas Constitution. These are not honest Texans, if they are Texans at all. Our state was better once upon a time. Pre-1994 when Texas was blue, when the legislature was blue. Those of us who’ve been around long enough know this.
Being a teacher is a life of sacrifice done out of love of others, love of one’s friends, love of one’s community, love of one’s family. There is NO higher calling than being a teacher. There is no more relevant calling in the service of Christ.
The Republican Party in Texas has worked against this mission for decades. Starting with George W. Bush and his testing boondoggle, the introduction of charter schools, vouchers, and now the most egregious of all the district takeover meant to enrich the billionaire donors and school mngt operators, to run teachers out of the profession, and to privatize public schools while profiting from the dismantling. These efforts are an affront to the Holy Spirit. These efforts hurt kids, they hurt communities. They are racist. They are opportunistic. The Republican Party in Texas and the men mentioned above are the money changers in the temple and the Pharisees on high.
Gina Hinojosa recognizes this and will stop all of this exploitation and extortion. Gina knows. Gina remembers how it once was when cared for our kids and our communities. Other Democrats recognize this too.
We need to save our schools. We need to invest in our communities. We need to protect our kids.
Well said. There's a reason they have attacked education for decades; we need to end that attack.
The Texas Republican Party expresses its evil in two major ways, both centered around racist impulses: immigration issues and public education. There are people who’ve long identified themselves as Republican who never considered the racism inherent in Republican policies for anyone who bothered to look, but it’s there and has been there since Nixon defined the Southern Strategy.
Thanks, Michelle! Just shared on bsky.