Education
I attended excellent public schools from preschool through high school. I attended a liberal arts college because I wanted to learn a little about everything. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Education and one in English. Many of the people who taught me over those 20 years founded my desire to be an educator myself, and are still in my life now.
Education is the key to everything. A person who feels comfortable with information and knows how to interpret communication, whether formal or informal, data-driven or emotional, is a person who can make decisions and advocate for themselves and those they care about. Quality education is not only what we owe to every child, but also what we owe to ourselves, to build communities full of people with different interests, skills, and areas of expertise. People who know their options and go after their dreams.
To me, this means fully supporting public schools with public dollars, and fully supporting the expertise of those who work in the education system to set curriculum. I have worked daily with teachers in Iowa and in North Carolina. Every person I have had the honor to call a peer, from paraprofessionals to administration, has been a collaborative, compassionate individual who seeks to create opportunity for every child with whom they interact. These people work their tails off every semester to figure out how to engage every kid in the room, just for the short time they have them.
And the past 20 months have only shown just how accustomed people have become to paying lip service to the needs of educators and the education system. I have personal friends who have worked in Iowa schools their entire adult lives who have spent the pandemic feeling like they cannot do anything without being screamed at from all sides, and all while they’re trying to be life coach-counselor. This disregard for the people who spend their lives trying to better the future of our kids is a disgrace. It’s certainly not only happening here in Iowa, but it is here in Iowa, and it needs to change.
Instead of fleeing public schools, we must put taxpayer funds into building the BEST schools for every kid, and utilize new creative and technological assets to give students the opportunities they crave, whether that is studying ASL starting in 7th grade with a county- or state-wide online program, or building a house (as I got the chance to my senior year) in an applied technology course, or tracking into college-level courses early. We need to pay educators as the professionals they are. And we need to stop the brain drain from Iowa and show young people that there’s a future for them here.