The View from Hillsboro - Advocating for Public Schools

Early retirement

I missed an interesting article in the Oregonian a few days ago: For most, $5,000 may not be enough to quit teaching

While the reality of the current funding for K-12 education is not pretty, I have to say that I noticed that the attitude of some people during the recent school board and budget meetings that I attended is to consider experienced teachers as an expense, and one we can't afford. Experienced teachers are more expensive, and the cost of salaries and benefits is a very large percentage of the budget, but they are not just line items in an expense spreadsheet. These are a valuable resource and our classrooms may not be as enriching once we trade a dozen veterans of the whiteboard for some less costly new teachers. We need new teachers, and we also need experienced teachers. When the choice we have to make is between a bad teacher to student ratio and a worse one, when we focus on the numbers that will look good on the paper, we lose track of the big picture, and that we are all in this together for the future of our students.

posted by Unknown @ 8:21 PM