RH Jones: Lack of adequate public education funding hurting youngsters

From RH Jones, December 7, 2007
Subject: Lack of adequate public education funding hurting youngsters

To all:

Having an Ohio legislature that has been reluctant to the extreme in backing traditional public schools with adequate funding, is it no wonder that, as reported in the media, crime and incarceration is increasing in Ohio, especially for females. If the legislature does not spend money on public education, they will spend it on jails and prisons. Without education, and the jobs, and the wealth that follows, life is hopeless. Crime results. Victims of crime increase proportionately.

There are fewer men nowadays getting into teaching. And can you blame them for not? They pay their own way to become teachers; and after employment, to gain increasingly stringent certification standards, they must pay for advanced education well beyond the bachelors degree. Hard-hearted legislators continually attack the profession and think they save money by holding back on traditional public school funding. They cite wrongful and unfounded research backed by powerful neoconservative money pinchers.

Everyone knows that youngsters of both genders need a decent male image on which to base their conception of manhood, without which the “macho dude” hanging about on the corner or the unsavory rock star becomes their role model. In modern times, with mothers away from home working, and over half of Ohio’s families without a father at home, youngsters need more male teachers in the classroom. Young boys, for the most part, are more physically oriented than girls. For at least part of the school day, they need supervised physical work alongside men. Our child labor laws should to be rethought to accommodate this phenomenon.

With a preponderance of women in leadership roles in Ohio’s classrooms, girls generally have been better served in the education setting. After having over 30-years of service in the classroom, I have been witness to this. Boys, most certainly, would stay out of trouble if they were allowed to learn in an environment that allows them to apply and adapt the abstract learning from their desks to that of the real world of work. I know. I was a boy once. However, both boys and girls need to learn the personal satisfaction they get from work. Recent media reports have said that teen pregnancy is again on the rise. Would not girls put off pregnancy longer if they learned how to work alongside decent men? Recently passed laws now insure that teachers follow moral behavior when dealing with students. Only individual educators out of their minds would risk a career that has required years of expensive college training; might I add: especially if you are actively teaching and know that your employer is willing to increase their share of contribution for the STRS retirement health care fund.

Our Ohio legislators need to face reality: educating children for the world of work and good citizenship costs money; the alternative, jail and prison costs even more. And, yes, teaching is different from police and fire employment. Being an educator is just as risky but it must be recognized as essential for Ohio’s youngsters and their future happiness and security. Our children, our most precious possession, deserve the best. The future depends on them and on the supporting legislation of the present.

RHJones, a retired STRS member & a proud union member for life.