Jenn Laskin
Jenn Laskin is a Reading Specialist and teacher at Renaissance Continuation High School in Watsonville. She has been a teacher for 11 years. Click here to follow Jenn on Twitter.
Why I March:
I am marching because I believe the only hope for education is for us to get out in the streets and educate people about how we fund public education in California. I’d like every single person who sees the march to join us and march on Sacramento to shut down the Capitol until the legislature calls a Constitutional Convention to change the 2/3 majority required to pass a budget!
Budget cuts over the years have made our schools less safe. We’re down to seven nurses in my school district of 19,000 students. The administration is cutting custodians, office staff and counselors too. When you’ve got only one custodian at a school, it becomes an unsafe environment. When you have no counselors, kids cannot learn about college.
We have no more money for materials such as paper, PE equipment and art supplies. Music and arts programs have been cut. Class sizes have gotten larger to save money yet we still have too many highly paid administrators. Our priorities are out of balance. I know one calculus teacher who has 38 students in his class.
Especially in younger grades, large class size makes it a challenge for teachers to provide in depth instruction and offer the individualized lessons students deserve. It is hard to teach the whole child and meet their academic, emotional and social needs.
Our current policies are driving students to prison instead of college. California deserves better than this.