“The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau…”
~ Dan Rather
Meredith Exline — Former OK Central PLAC leader, Former Edmond Public Schools board member
As a parent, what do you think most jeopardizes the future of our children’s education?
I encourage you to watch this 3 minute video created 6 years ago by OK Central PLAC, before they grew into the united, statewide effort now known as OKPLAC.
The video was created to highlight a fundamental problem in our state and the nation as a whole: the collapse of the teacher pipeline and a critical shortage of qualified teachers in our classrooms. The teachers, parents, and students featured were all sounding the alarm.
Unfortunately, that alarm has largely gone unheeded. The teacher shortage has now been brewing for over a decade. It was not caused by the global COVID pandemic, but the pandemic is exposing just how widespread and dire our teacher shortage situation is. The shortage of teachers affects education in a myriad of ways, ranging from increased class sizes to a decrease in the number of subjects available for students to study. While there has been some legislation passed over the years to address this issue, our state is no closer to guaranteeing we will have enough qualified teachers to ensure a quality education will continue to be provided for our children.
Here we are six years later and it is evident our state has lost focus. Instead of legislation being proposed to solve the problem, we are seeing quite the opposite. The teacher shortage has reached crisis levels as more experienced professionals leave teaching and fewer college students are choosing to become teachers.
As parents, when will we decide to step up for the future of our children and their education?
Having been a longtime advocate for public education - from spending countless hours in my children’s classroom, to forming a non-partisan group to advocate for state policies supporting public education, to serving on a local School Board - watching this video makes my heart heavy for our children. I’ve grown weary of watching the political rhetoric on both sides of the aisle, each side attempting to appease an extreme minority in order to garner their future vote. Both political parties need to stop playing games at the expense of our children. It has gone on for far too long.
It’s time that we come together and take immediate action toward making public education a top priority, starting with finding solutions for the teacher shortage and ways to reduce class sizes.
Our schools are the gateway to our children’s hopes and dreams. Public education is the foundation of our democracy and one of the greatest opportunities we are afforded by living in the United States. What happens when ALL children don’t have access to this opportunity of a free education by qualified teachers? I believe we are heading in that direction and we need to do everything we can now to change course.
If you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or any citizen interested in protecting every child’s right to an equitable education, it is time for you to stand in the gap for our kids. Stop listening to the political extremes and let your voices be heard. Those of us in the middle are letting the extremes on both sides take down our future. You should be very concerned, especially if you watch this video, as our problems are even worse today than when articulated by the teachers, parents, and students six years ago.
It will take our entire community coming together - all sides - to do what is best for our children and our future. Get involved and be a voice for our children, teachers, and public education! (Sign up for OKPLAC’s Advocacy Alert emails today!)
~ Meredith Exline, former OK Central PLAC leader & Edmond Public Schools board member