Mississippi Public Education, Politicians, & the Political Bet

If you are a public school educator or friend of Mississippi public education, this week has probably left you angry, frustrated, and hopefully ready to take some sort of action. But, if so, what do you do with those emotions? Do you bottle them up and hope they fade or do you take real action?

Regarding the outrage at events in our state capital during this session and the past week, what the politicians are hoping….

The politicians are assuming their actions this past week will probably result in educators not voting for them in November. They perceive this as the risk and well worth the reward of keeping their out-of-state donors happy. This risk is assumed by them and calculated to be well worth the reward, as they will use those funds to buy ads and rally those who will support them by default, largely outside public education and unaware that any of this is occurring.

What the politicians fear….

The “cost vs benefit” analysis of these politicians is assuming one thing, the knowledge of what occurred, conversations about it, and anger at the dishonest way things were handled will all be confined to educators and other educators. Remember, the assumed “risk” is that your votes are lost, but worth the gain.

However, it is assuming these educators and those who follow public education issues will remain silent. By “silent,” I do not mean not making speeches, and I definitely don’t mean not causing a disruption. The silence they assume will continue is as simple as not putting a political sign of an alternative candidate you support in your yard, not simply talking openly about what is going to motivate your vote this year to friends and family members, remaining reluctant to so much as like a public education political statement with which you agree with on social media, or other simple, non-confrontational, and non-disruptive to your daily lives actions. These simple actions are what those politicians are assuming you will continue not to do. They do not even have the realization to fear such actions, as they are so very certain they will not occur.

However, your involvement in doing something that simple, as simply not making an effort to hide your thoughts, will most certainly have a chain reaction effect. All of those tiny actions, which cost you nothing, are like tiny rocks dropped into the calm Mississippi political lake they are counting on. But, those rocks have huge power as their ripples join together. I believe the politicians have overplayed their hand on this occasion. They will realize their mistake when and if those separate ripples are created and join together to form the wave that will sweep them from office.

Then, those that follow them will know there are consequences to such actions. Otherwise, they will not respect the possibility of such consequences, and will only be emboldened to do more and push the envelope further next time.

Educators, those who believe in open government by the people’s representatives, and those who support public education: you have the pebble in your hand; will it remain there or will you let it fall and make some ripples?

– Clint Stroupe

Mississippi Teacher Pay Raise: The Lack of Respect is the Issue, Not the Lack of Money

Just a few brief thoughts in regards to the teacher and teacher assistant pay raise bill passed today by the legislature…

The amount of the raise in question today is not what bothered me for our public school teachers. In fact, as far as a percentage, I was rather glad of the percent being given for assistant teachers’ raises. Assistants could use two or three more in a row like that, but as a percentage, it was an improvement.

What bothered me in regards to certified teachers getting such a small percentage raise was not the money amount. Heck, if our state was truly in financial dire straits, that amount or even less would be fine. What bothered me for our teachers was the attitude the whole process seemed to reflect in regards to how our teachers are treated by the current leadership. Not fully funding public education in general, pumping money into charter/private schools, calling public schools a failed system, failure to fund classroom supply money, being ranked 51st in pay, and so many other actions, both subtle and not so subtle, have been giving the message that public schools in general and public school teachers’ work has not really been valued by the current leadership and those that continually vote in lock-step with their direction. Then, this year, an election year, like clockwork suddenly the leadership is like:

“Oh, you guys seem a little miffed at our actions or something over the past several years! Let’s give you a raise to ease your mean spirits before voting day! But, first let’s arrange and pass laws to enable Supervisors to get a $10,000 per year raise and other elected officials. Okay, now that we quickly got that important stuff out of the way, what were we talking about? Oh yes, how strapped we are as a state and how much we really do care about your work. Okay, let’s see what will it take for you teachers to cool off? Maybe, $500 per year? Yeah, well times are lean and that’s about all we can do…wait…what’s that we have a huge amount of revenue coming in…quick label that as something else. Yes, as I was saying, we love ya’ll teachers, and, if we had a penny to our name we would give you $4,000 per year like Rep. Holland and others in the House tried. Just plain broke is what we are though, so what is the least amount for a raise that will allow you to not feel hurt, $1,500? Definitely hope that’s a workable number, because that’s what you’re getting. Pull the door to on your way out and see you in four years.”

Again, the dollar amount has nothing to do with the general anger some teachers feel about this raise. They work for the people of our state and their salary, like all state employees’ salaries, comes straight from all of our tax dollars. Teachers are reverent to where every dollar that funds students’ educations comes from, whether being used to feed children or to pay salaries. In my opinion, the emotions many feel today are not about the money. The emotions those teachers are feeling has to do with respect from leadership that this raise and so many decisions before it reflect. Yes, respect and the lack thereof does not have a dollar value. But, some of the present Mississippi legislative leadership may realize in November that a lack of respect does result in paying a price!