Iowa needs to celebrate teachers again

Teaching and singing the national anthem have a lot in common. Both are really hard to do, and experts make it look easy enough anyone can do it. Everyone can’t.

If you don’t believe me, try remembering where those bombs burst, and try hitting that high note on key at the end. It’s not easy. With a pandemic raging, parents quickly figured out teaching was hard when they tried to teach their own child fractions, and it devolved into a scene from American Horror Story.

Yes, real teaching is really hard.

In the first COVID-19 surge, there was renewed appreciation for public schools and for teachers. After all, public schools provided meals for kids even though shuttered, and teachers retooled on the fly and delivered meaningful remote lessons.

But we’ve forgotten.

Now, public schools and teachers are targets of the right-wing scream machine, and school board meetings once scary dull are now just scary. It’s time for Iowa to wake up and celebrate teachers through actions again. Here are a few ways to renew the celebration.

First, During the school board election, the future was on the ballot. Hopefully, If the community appreciated teachers, they did not vote for the person who screamed the loudest, but for the person who really cared through their actions about educating all kids. One-issue candidates are dangerous. Often the one issue is either resolved or evaporates, and the candidate without that issue is clueless about what really matters.

Unless we want every school board meeting to look like a Trump or Biden Rally, school board elections need to remain non-partisan. They always have been in Iowa. It should stay that way.

Secondly, most teachers are overwhelmed by a few issues that need to be addressed by Iowa legislators and by local school administrators. We’ve all seen the guy who goes through the buffet line, and piles his plate too high. Food falls off, or that heaped plate will cause big time heart burn. The same thing happens when local school administrators, parents, and legislators keep piling jobs on teachers’ plates.

When I was representing educators, we called it, “Flavor of the month.” But it’s more like “Mandate of the month” now. Something has to drop off the teachers’ plates, or the teachers will drop out.

One thing that needs to fall off is the covering for a colleague because no substitute is available who will work for $15 an hour. It means teachers don’t have even a few minutes to prepare for the next class because they’re busy substituting. It’s not good for kids or teachers.

There is really not a shortage of teachers or substitutes. There is a shortage of highly qualified professionals who will work for a substandard professional wage. Fast food figured it out. Schools should too.

Finally, the Iowa Legislature needs to get serious about funding public schools. Gov. Kim Reynolds loves to brag on Fox about the huge budget surplus Iowa enjoys. The majority party gutted collective bargaining, and since 2018, the average educator raise hasn’t come close to matching the cost of living.

For that reason, there needs to be a specific earmarked salary increase for public school teachers over and above the regular school funding provided. Before it’s too late, this would help recruit and retain our teachers.

Our public education system being number one in the nation was a bipartisan bragging point that helped define Iowa. We’ve lost that, and now public education is used as a wedge issue. Iowa is better than that, and we need to show it through our actions.

Bruce Lear of Sioux City retired after 38 years connected to public schools. He was a teacher for 11 years, and a regional director for Iowa State Education Association for 27 years.