Day 681: National Guard in Schools

 Some interesting news today. First, a justice of the Supreme Court is stepping down, and Biden is vowing to appoint a Black woman!

But the one that made me want to stop and write was the headline about New Mexico Schools calling in the National Guard to serve as substitute teachers amid crisis level staffing shortages. 

It is hard for me to explain what it is like, as a public school teacher, to suddenly have my profession and my colleagues in the spotlight so much. Before Covid-19, education would occasionally make headlines, but usually only when teachers were off striking for some crazy cause. And in those cases we were often villiafied for making ridiculous demands for pay and working conditions, and it seemed to me the general consensus was that we should just get back to work.   

But much like health care workers, teachers found themselves topping headlines pretty constantly throughout the pandemic. For me, teaching has always been somewhat of a public role, but suddenly it all felt magnified. I read article after article about how teachers around the country were suffering. How we are blamed when schools have to go remote again. How we aren't given access to PPE. How are dying of covid. How we are indoctrinating students with our left wing idealogogy and critical race theory. Since when a school board meeting, the most boring place ever, fodder for an SNL skit? I could link to dozens of articles about schools, teacher shortages, and how schools and teachers are at a breaking point right now. 

But I have to say, there is something strangely disturbing about seeing the National Guard in our school buildings. The first time they came, to run a vaccine clinic for the public, my heart caught in my throat and tears stung in my eyes just at the sight of them. For me, it amplified the gravity of this crisis. I felt at once both very supported and honored to have them there, relief and joy to live in a country that could deploy systems via public schools to vaccinate the masses, and also just a little...post apocalyptic?  Was this even real? 

And now, the amazing service members of our National Guard are being sent in as substitute teachers. I'mma say that again: The public education system has reached such a point of crisis that we are recruiting our service members to fill teacher vacancies:

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/20/new-mexico-national-guard-substitute-teachers-omicron 

I don't mean in any way to disparage our service members, they are honorable and doing amazing work by stepping in to fill these vacancies during this time of need. But I do mean to highlight what this shows about the state of public education, and public educators, today. Between school violence, the pandemic, and being used a political footballs (hello CRT, another post coming on you!), not to mention a long list of long standing working conditions problems (yes, including pay), it is no wonder teachers are leaving the profession in droves. Now yes, I know the Guard is stepping in amid omicron because so many teachers are out sick, yes, OK. But the shortages like we've never seen are also due to so many leaving the profession, and so few entering. 

Our systems are at a breaking point, and it is only getting worse.