Cutting at the Top

For the last several weeks, we teachers have been preparing for the worst--losing manageable class sizes, losing preparation periods, losing benefits, and ultimately losing jobs.

Everything that could happen to make teaching our children harder than it already is; that could water down the educational system even more than it is, and that could impact whether anyone would ever choose this profession was on the horizon.

Teacher fairs and recruitment events at universities were cancelled. Newly hired teachers knew they would be cut first and were already putting out feelers for new career paths, and older teachers were going to doctors with stress related health complaints. It has not been a pretty picture.

But I must give props where they're deserved and they go to the Arlington District Superintendant. Despite a multi-million dollar shortfall, he decided not to fire teachers, but instead to cut from the top--administration positions and their support.

Though it was obviously tough to terminate his own colleagues, he put the cause of educating children first. His goal is obviously not to impact the classroom any more than he has to for as long as he can.

Congress could take a lesson from our Superintendant as they deal with the government's budgetary crisis. Instead of curtailing Medicare, Social Security and other social programs that benefit the most vulnerable in our society, cut from the top--your salaries, your benefits, and your perks. I'll bet that would go a long way to solve the problem of no money with which to run the country.