Commentary

COMMENTARY: You Get What You Pay For: Putting Our Money Where Our Values Are

MILWAUKEE COURIER — According to the Center for American Progress, the teacher shortage in Wisconsin is somewhat of a nuanced issue. The aftermath of Act 10, teacher licensure requirements and population decrease in rural districts are some factors that contribute to the rough terrain of K-12 education.

Published

5 years ago

April 1, 2019

Oakland Post

By LaKeshia N. Myers

Growing up, my parents often told me, “you get out of it what you put into it”—the “it” could be a variety of things: school, sports, or overall effort in one’s life. But what was certain, was that there had to be an investment.

I find that our society’s investment in education is no different. For years, education has been fiscally neglected; educator salaries, have remained relatively flat and student achievement has suffered.

In Wisconsin, we have seen the overall investment in both K-12 and higher education decrease, meanwhile our spending on corrections and law enforcement have continued to increase.

Allison Dikanovic of the Neighborhood News Service outlined the rising costs associated with juvenile incarceration.

According to her article, for every young person a county sends to Lincoln Hills or Copper Lake, the county needs to pay the Department of Corrections a daily rate.

Juvenile incarceration costs the county $144,000 a year per youth. For fiscal year 2019-2020, the yearly rate for a young person to go to Lincoln Hills or Copper Lake is $182,865 and for 2020-2021, it goes up to $200,932.

To put this in perspective: one year of education at Harvard University costs $46,000. Therefore, it costs more to incarcerate a child in Wisconsin than to educate one in four years at Harvard University.

According to the Center for American Progress, the teacher shortage in Wisconsin is somewhat of a nuanced issue. The aftermath of Act 10, teacher licensure requirements and population decrease in rural districts are some factors that contribute to the rough terrain of K-12 education.

But nothing is as apparent as the fact that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to attract and retain educators to the profession. One alarming reason for this has been teacher pay.

Prior to Act 10, most teachers were paid based on a scale that measured their educational level and their years of experience. There were slight increases in pay for each year of satisfactory performance and the more education one earned, was rewarded by a bump in pay.

According to a 2012 article in the Journal Sentinel, graduate school enrollments in education began to sharply decline after the enactment of Act 10 because school districts were no longer required to pay teachers for earning advanced degrees.

When we devalue educational attainment, especially in the teaching field, this causes a ripple effect. If teachers are not valued for their education, why should we expect students or parents to respect education or treat educators as professionals?

In no other profession are individuals expected to work beyond their prescribed hours, have advanced knowledge, answer phone calls at home, work from home, and oversee extracurricular activities without being compensated. This is a troubling phenomenon and must be addressed if we ever hope to regain our standing on the world stage. But, just remember we only get out of it, what we put into it.

This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Courier.

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Opinion: Lessons for Current Student Protesters From a San Francisco State Strike Veteran

How the nation’s first College of Ethnic studies came about, bringing together Latino, African American and Asian American disciplines may offer some clues as to how to ease the current turmoil on American college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war. After the deadline passed to end the Columbia University encampment by 2 p.m. Monday, student protesters blockaded and occupied Hamilton Hall in a symbolic move early Tuesday morning. Protesters did the same in 1968.

Published

12 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Oakland Post

iStock Photo

By Emil Guillermo

After the deadline passed to end the Columbia University encampment by 2 p.m. Monday, student protesters blockaded and occupied Hamilton Hall in a symbolic move early Tuesday morning.

Protesters did the same in 1968.

That made me think of San Francisco State University, 1968.

The news was filled with call backs to practically every student protest in the past six decades as arrests mounted into hundreds on nearly two dozen campuses around the country.

In 1970, the protests at Kent State were over the Vietnam War. Ohio National Guardsmen came in, opened fire, and killed four students.

Less than two weeks later that year, civil rights activists outside a dormitory at Jackson State were confronted by armed police. Two African American students were killed, twelve injured.

But again, I didn’t hear anyone mention San Francisco State University, 1968.

That protest addressed all the issues of the day and more. The student strike at SFSU was against the Vietnam war.

That final goal was eventually achieved, but there was violence, sparked mostly by “outside agitators,” who were confronted by police.

“People used the term ‘off the pigs’ but it was more rally rhetoric than a call to action (to actually kill police),” said Daniel Phil Gonzales, who was one of the strikers in 1968.

Gonzales, known as the go-to resource among Filipino American scholars for decades, went on to teach at what was the positive outcome of the strike, San Francisco State University’s College of Ethnic Studies. It’s believed to be the first of its kind in the nation. Gonzales recently retired after more than 50 years as professor.

As for today’s protests, Gonzales is dismayed that the students have constantly dealt with charges of antisemitism.

“It stymies conversation and encourages further polarization and the possibility of violent confrontation,” he said. “You’re going to be labeled pro-Hamas or pro-terrorist.”

That’s happening now. But we forget we are dealing not with Hamas proxies. We are dealing with students.

Gonzales said that was a key lesson at SF State’s strike. The main coalition driving the strike was aided by self-policing from inside of the movement. “That’s very difficult to maintain. Once you start this kind of activity, you don’t know who’s going to join,” he said.

Gonzales believes that in the current situation, there is a patch of humanity, common ground, where one can be both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel. He said it’s made difficult if you stand against the belligerent policies of Benjamin Netanyahu. In that case, you’re likely to be labeled antisemitic.

Despite that, Gonzales is in solidarity with the protesters and the people of Gaza, generally. Not Hamas. And he sees how most of the young people protesting are in shock at what he called the “duration of the absolute inhumane kind of persecution and prosecution of the Palestinians carried out by the Israeli government.”

As a survivor of campus protest decades ago, Gonzales offered some advice to the student protesters of 2024.

“You have to have a definable goal, but right now the path to that goal is unclear,” he said.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. A veteran newsman in TV and print, he is a former host of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”