NK: It is disappointing. The legislature refused to move quickly.
On the Thursday, Friday, and weekend of the walkout they refused to
even work. This could have been solved much earlier.
DW: One of the weirder moments for teachers were the three
amendments proposed by representative Kelly Townsend who sought to
silence teachers for “espousing political ideology[ies] and
beliefs” and fining teachers $5,000 fines for causing school
closures. Even members of her own party denounced her proposals.
She’s now soliciting teachers to “inform” on other teachers—for
what I’m not crystal clear. I’m not sure how to phrase this, so I’ll
just ask it as I felt it: what in the heck is this about?
NK: No idea. I really honestly can’t tell what she is trying to do
here. It seems like a distraction tactic.
DW: There were a number of positive amendments proposed, such as the
expansion of free and reduced lunches, the redefinition of the word
teacher to include all educators, such as librarians, counselors,
and other support staff, a reallocation of money from incentive
programs from results based funding to give raises to support staff,
a mandated 250:1 student to counselor ratio (down from its current
900 students to 1 counselor), and a mandated 25:1 student ratio.
None of these amendments passed. My question to this is, why are
these pro-education, pro-child ideas meeting with political
rejection?
NK: I cannot know for certain. It certainly shows where the
priorities of our elected representatives like, however.
DW: The only amendment that passed was a yes vote for charter
schools no longer being required to publically post teacher
salaries. Why was this proposed and why did it pass?
NK: Again, I do not know for certain. But- it does clearly show what
is prioritized by those at the capitol.
DW: Critics have also claimed that the teacher walk outs were, at
best, poor role-modeling for students and, at worst, detrimental to
the educational process for Arizona students. How do you reply?
NK: What is detrimental to the educational process is not missing
classes for six days but, rather, not investing in our students, not
having textbooks, not having paper towels, not having teachers.
That is what is detrimental to our students.
DW: Once the budget was voted upon, teachers returned to their
classes. What was that experience like for you? How did your
students and their parents greet returning teachers?
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