Shannon Eubanks: Arts Education a Matter of Priorities

Today, we have a piece from Shannon Eubanks, principal at Enterprise Attendance Center in Brookhaven. It's an important look at what happens to arts education when funding falls short. Eubanks presents his perspectives as parent and principal, side by side, to make this strong case for increased arts funding. 

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Let me speak first as a parent.

My oldest daughter doesn't dance. She doesn't play soccer or basketball or care in any way about sports.

But she loves art.

She loves to design and draw. She enjoys painting, sketching, and coloring. She likes to make bracelets and necklaces.

It doesn't matter if she's talented or not, it's her passion.

Fortunately, her parents are able to afford art lessons.

Because her school has no art.

She attends a small, rural school in Mississippi that has a small tax base. Therefore, her school barely has enough teachers to cover the necessities. Art, seemingly to our legislature, is not one. Because if it was important, it'd be funded.

They fund high-stakes tests. They fund vouchers. They fund charters. Why not fund art?

Why can't the children whose parents cannot afford private art lessons have art at school? Why
should it matter where a child attends school? Shouldn't he or she have the same rich curriculum?

Or is art only for kids at rich schools?


Now let me speak as a principal.

I believe in arts in education. My dream is to one day have visual and performance art at my school.

I would love to have a full time music teacher. A band director. A drama coach. A paint and sculpture teacher.

I actually have students who win in art competitions on the state and national level.

And I am ashamed.

Ashamed that these students had to do it on their own, without any help or instruction from their
school.

Ashamed that politicians force me to use more of my meager budget in areas that can demonstrate
higher test scores, instead of areas that nurture children.

Ashamed that as principal my daughters think I can do anything, but I am unable to even offer one
art class because my school can't afford it.

I was asked once by a reporter what would I do with another $250,000, about what my school would
receive if we got full funding from the legislature. More assistants? Newer technology? Upgraded
facilities?

Yes, yes, and yes.

But first, I'd hire an art teacher. And buy art supplies.

And watch students begin to love school again.

Especially one little girl who loves art more than anything in this world.

It's about priorities.

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What about you? What is your story? Are you a public school educator in Mississippi with a unique perspective you would like to share? How does funding affect your students and your goals to educate them? First year teachers and veterans, administrators and support staff, writers and non-writers, celebrities and anonymous submissions alike, fresh perspective is what we're looking for! Let us know if you'd like to impact Mississippi education! 

CALL TO ACTION:

Email showandtellms@gmail.com for more information! 

Check out the guidelines for writing here.

Make your voice heard! 

Disclaimer: The blog entries shared here are individual works that do not necessarily represent the ideas and opinions of the Show and Tell administrators. 

Margaret Adams: MS Fails Students by Paying Teachers Poorly

Today, we have a teacher who questions pay for Mississippi teachers in comparison to other states. It's yet another issue with education funding. 

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Friends and Fellow Mississippians, 

I have a friend whose daughter is starting her first year to teach in TN this fall. Her starting pay is just under what I make now. I have a master's degree, 21 years experience, and National Boards. The difference is only a few thousand. 

So, why would a new teacher want to come to Mississippi when the pay is so much better next door. Furthermore, why would a veteran teacher want to remain in the teaching field when the pay is so inadequate as to be disrespectful. 

It is crucial for MS to attract and retain the best teachers. Our students deserve the best teachers that money can buy! If we are to rise up as a state, it will have to be done through education. This is a funding issue. Our state needs to do better if we want to get and keep good teachers. 

Consider this when you vote next.

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What about you? What is your story? Are you a public school educator in Mississippi with a unique perspective you would like to share? How does funding affect your students and your goals to educate them? First year teachers and veterans, administrators and support staff, writers and non-writers, celebrities and anonymous submissions alike, fresh perspective is what we're looking for! Let us know if you'd like to impact Mississippi education! 

CALL TO ACTION:

Email showandtellms@gmail.com for more information! 

Check out the guidelines for writing here.

Make your voice heard! 

Disclaimer: The blog entries shared here are individual works that do not necessarily represent the ideas and opinions of the Show and Tell administrators. 

Anonymous Teacher: Things to Remember When You Vote

We received the following in the mail via USPS. Everybody say oooooh!" (Oooooh!) Apparently hand-written letters are not obsolete after all. This teacher is protecting her anonymity by not leaving a digital trail. That is significant because many of Show and Tell's writers have requested to post anonymously. Perhaps this need for anonymity is a phenomenon worth exploring, but for today we have a letter asking voters to remember the personal financial burdens being placed on teachers. 

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Dear Parents,

You are voters. You will be asked to vote on education funding in November. I want to ask you to remember a few things when the time comes.

Remember that end of the year dvd that our class made together as a communication and language project? We used my personal cell phone to take the pics, and I bought the DVRs with my own money. 

Remember the writing project your child did where they created their own book? I bought those blank books and the art supplies with my own money.

Remember when we asked for everyone to pay $6 for the field trip? More than half of our students didn't send that money. I paid for those kids to attend with my own money.

Remember when we made mosaics with dried beans, and the class used those beans for math problems? I bought those beans with my own money. 

Remember the curtains on our windows? I bought those with my own money. Your children deserve a welcoming environment in which to learn everyday. 

Remember the rugs for the kids to sit on at centers? I bought those with my own money. I didn't want them to have to sit on the cold floor and moving the desks for centers everyday is impractical. 

If I didn't teach your child, think about the teachers who did. Please ask the teachers you know what they are buying with their own money each year. Ask them why they choose to buy it and why they can't get it from the school.

Sincerely,

A dedicated Mississippi teacher concerned about where our schools are headed if Jackson continues to underfund

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What about you? What is your story? Are you a public school educator in Mississippi with a unique perspective you would like to share? How does funding affect your students and your goals to educate them? First year teachers and veterans, administrators and support staff, writers and non-writers, celebrities and anonymous submissions alike, fresh perspective is what we're looking for! Let us know if you'd like to impact Mississippi education! 

CALL TO ACTION:

Email showandtellms@gmail.com for more information! 

Check out the guidelines for writing here.

Make your voice heard! 

Disclaimer: The blog entries shared here are individual works that do not necessarily represent the ideas and opinions of the Show and Tell administrators. 

Amanda Koonlaba: Begging For Funds in Mississippi

Today we have a detailed account of the begging one teacher was forced to do because of inadequate, inconsistent funding. Though some teachers have found other ways to meet the needs of students, they're mere proverbial Band-Aids on Mississippi's funding woes. Here is National Board Certified arts teacher, internationally-renowned blogger- and Show and Tell's own- Amanda Koonlaba:

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Since 2011, I have relied on Donors Choose twelve times for a total of around $6,000 worth of materials.

$6,000 sounds like a lot of money for one teacher, so let’s break it down:

The first two projects that I was able to get funded were for my first grade classroom. These two projects were for non-consumable materials for science centers and books of varying reading levels. The total for those two projects was around $1,300. I shared these materials with four other first grade classrooms. There were about 20 kids in each class, about 100 total. That is only $13 per student. When I took another position at a school across town, I left those materials with other teachers to continue to use with their students. So, if they used those materials for the past four years with the same amount of students each year, the expenditure per student is only about $3.25. That is not very much, yet I had to beg donors on the internet to give us funding.

The other projects that I have been able to get funded have been for my visual art classroom where I teach roughly 600 students each year. We’ve gotten some non-consumable materials such as books, paintbrushes, and scissors (although paintbrushes and scissors do not last very long with that many students). However, most art supplies are consumable. Even considering that the supplies are consumable, the remaining total of $4,732 served at least 600 students. That is an expenditure of less than $8 per kid! Again, that is not much, yet I had to beg the internet for donations.

What do I mean by beg? I mean I had to constantly tweet and share these projects all over the internet. I felt like I was marketing my classroom to the public. Couple this with the fact that I’ve written local grants to make up the difference for other funding that we needed for projects, and surely you can see how time consuming this has been.

Donors Choose is a great resource, and I am truly thankful for it. Here’s the catch to using that for funding: If your project does not get completely funded, you get nothing. So, you cannot count on it. For instance, if I were to write a proposal today and set the deadline for donations in September for a project that we were going to complete in October, I’d have no way of knowing until September if I would get the materials. That makes it nerve-wrecking to try to plan instruction. You always have to have a Plan B when using Donors Choose, which for me has been asking my parents and husband to donate!

I’d like to point out a few things related to my experience with using Donors Choose. First, my district has been so supportive of my classroom. I know that they have given us everything that they could, but there is only so much money in the budget. District officials are faced with hard budgeting choices, just as teachers are faced with hard choices about where to get materials for instruction. Second, please do not perceive this post as whiny negativity! I love my students. I do what I do because I want them to have the best. However, the principle of this matter is that using Donors Choose should not be a necessity in this state, especially when it is so unreliable as I described earlier. Teachers like me are caught in the uncertainty of not knowing exactly how they are going to get ALL of the supplies that their students need, not just the bare minimum. This makes it extremely difficult to properly plan instruction. The reality is that our schools are expected to meet certain standards whether funding is there or not! This is a catch-22, which can be defined as an impossible situation from which you cannot escape because of contradictory rules. I believe that if we can come together as citizens of this amazing state to rectify this uncertainty, we will all reap the benefits!

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What about you? What is your story? Are you a public school educator in Mississippi with a unique perspective you would like to share? How does funding affect your students and your goals to educate them? First year teachers and veterans, administrators and support staff, writers and non-writers, celebrities and anonymous submissions alike, fresh perspective is what we're looking for! Let us know if you'd like to impact Mississippi education! 

CALL TO ACTION:

Email showandtellms@gmail.com for more information! 

Check out the guidelines for writing here.

Make your voice heard! 

Disclaimer: The blog entries shared here are individual works that do not necessarily represent the ideas and opinions of the Show and Tell administrators. 

Anonymous Teacher: Even high-performing districts need more space and time to teach

Today we have a disturbing account of the scarcity of resources available to teachers in Mississippi: Leaky classrooms covered in black mold. Rolling carts in schools so overrun some teachers use the cafeteria for a classroom. Even schools in "A" districts can struggle when they're underfunded. 

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As a Mississippi educator for over ten years, I have worked in a classroom where black mold covered one wall and the roof poured water every time it rained. Desks and chairs need to be replaced. I have worked with students who needed books, so I scoured every garage sale, library sale, thrift store, and online sources to get used books for my students.

We had a furlough day a few years ago. Little did I realize how much we lived from paycheck to paycheck. EEF funds never come in until October, and by then all of the Back-to-School sales are over. Funds need to be spent by February, which is never a problem, but needs arise between March and May.

When I got married, my husband took a look at my finances. He explained that I was spending $100 to $300 a month on my students, and that my student loans were not paid off. I did receive scholarship and grant money during college, and I ‘worked off’ the portion allowable, but a big part of my undergraduate degree had to be funded with student loans.

I tried to explain to my new husband how much my students NEED these materials. He firmly stated that until my student loans were paid off, I had no business spending that much money on my students. I compromised, promising not to purchase consumables anymore. I found people who were willing to donate paper, pencils, notebooks, and basic supplies. That time could have been better spent preparing quality lessons for my students, but we had to have pencils and paper!

Now that we have children of our own, I don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to spending money for work. Our son needed tubes in his ears to the tune of close to two grand with insurance. I am working all summer to pay for his medical expenses.

A year ago, I left the regular classroom to work with students who are dyslexic. There is not enough money to fund someone to do this job at every school, although we desperately need someone qualified at each and every elementary school. I know of several qualified teachers who would love to do this job, but there just is not enough money available. I worked with over 75 students last year. At one point I was assigned seven schools. Everywhere I went I was told, “You have so many students here that you should be here full time!” I chuckled about it at school, but at home I cried. How can I possibly be an effective educator when I’m running from school to school all the time? My husband asked me, “Do you still think that you are making a difference, however small?” I would nod my head, and go back to do it another day. I absolutely love my job, and I adore each one of my hard-working students. Their teachers are bending over backwards, but they need more time to collaborate with me. There just isn’t enough of me to go around. I give my cell number and email address and tell them that I’m only a text away, but we both know that’s not the same.

There is one other serious problem. I don’t have a classroom. I’m teaching in book closets, in cafeterias, in P.E. rooms, in the bookkeeper’s office or the counselor’s office. Anywhere we can find a space. And I’m not the only one using these spaces! There are several different teachers who are using these spaces for instructional areas! One of us will use the closet in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Sometimes we use the teacher workroom. (It’s a myth that schools have ‘lounges.’ I have never seen one.) Teachers needing to make copies cannot do so because we are squeezed into the room. Sometimes we use the conference room until it is needed for standardized testing or a meeting. Sometimes we are in a portable, and two teachers are trying to teach at the same time. Students who are struggling with auditory processing disorders are trying to filter out the lesson going on right behind them while focusing on their toughest area: reading. I know several people who have the same position I do, and not one of us has a dedicated instructional space. Portables are being used for regular classrooms and most schools have converted some of their lobby space into instructional space or the teacher workroom.

Every year that I have taught, it seems like I have been asked to do more with less. And I have managed to do so. I’m proud of myself for doing so much with the resources I have been given. At this point, I would be happy with actual classroom space to teach and time with my students and their other teachers. I never dreamed that I would be asking for that when I went into this profession.

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What about you? What is your story? Are you a public school educator in Mississippi with a unique perspective you would like to share? How does funding affect your students and your goals to educate them? First year teachers and veterans, administrators and support staff, writers and non-writers, celebrities and anonymous submissions alike, fresh perspective is what we're looking for! Let us know if you'd like to impact Mississippi education! 

CALL TO ACTION:

Email showandtellms@gmail.com for more information! 

Check out the guidelines for writing here.

Make your voice heard! 

Disclaimer: The blog entries shared here are individual works that do not necessarily represent the ideas and opinions of the Show and Tell administrators. 

Anonymous Teacher: Diapers or Supplies

Today we have a heart-wrenching account of a brutal decision too many teachers have to face when funding is cut. When students are pitted against teachers' families, who gets the "short end of the stick?" An anonymous Mississippi teacher shares a shocking look into her classroom.

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I don’t know how I am going to do this. We are supposed to be following the curriculum map, and next week we have a math lesson where we are “highly encouraged” to engage the students in a hands-on activity involving marshmallows and toothpicks. I don’t have any marshmallows or toothpicks in my classroom.

Yes, I had an Educational Enhancement Fund (EEF) procurement card. I received that in October. I bought face paint and fabric to make costumes for my first graders’ holiday program. This performance allowed them to meet CCSS Speaking and Listening standards. I bought more crayons and glue because most of my students are burdened by poverty and didn’t bring in their supplies at the beginning of the year. I purchased poster boards so that my students could participate in the Red Ribbon Week poster contest where they were able to write for an audience, which is another CCSS standard. I could go on with this justification of where I spent the funds allotted to me on the EEF card, but I digress.

It is now February. The EEF card is empty. If I do not go purchase toothpicks and marshmallows, my students will be the only first graders in our building who do not get to participate in this hands-on activity. Because I am a good teacher, I know that this hands-on lesson is really the best way to teach the concept. I don’t know how I am going to do it.

You see, I have two young children, both still in diapers, of my own. My husband’s had to face a cutback in hours at work, but not enough for him to keep the kids and us to forgo the weekly day care payment. I am going to have to run to the store this afternoon. After paying bills this month, I have less than $25 left to get me to pay day. I could probably buy enough diapers with that. There wouldn’t be anything left over though. I guess I am going to have to either choose the diapers or choose the materials for my class. Well, I guess what I will really have to do is put it all on a nearly maxed out credit card. My own children can’t go without diapers, and if I don’t do this lesson with my class, I might get into trouble and receive a poor evaluation. I need to keep this job.

Fully funding education would not only make a huge impact on my classroom, but on my personal life and the lives of my own children as well. What kind of message are we sending to families in this state when we don’t fully fund our schools? That quality of life doesn’t matter? What kind of message are we sending to the rest of this country? That we are satisfied with this status quo?

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What about you? What is your story? Are you a public school educator in Mississippi with a unique perspective you would like to share? How does funding affect your students and your goals to educate them? First year teachers and veterans, administrators and support staff, writers and non-writers, celebrities and anonymous submissions alike, fresh perspective is what we're looking for! Let us know if you'd like to impact Mississippi education! 

CALL TO ACTION:

Email showandtellms@gmail.com for more information! 

Check out the guidelines for writing here.

Make your voice heard! 

Disclaimer: The blog entries shared here are individual works that do not necessarily represent the ideas and opinions of the Show and Tell administrators. 

Mississippi 2001 Teacher of the Year Renee Moore: Mississippi's Shame

Today we have an insightful analogy and a haunting image of the lengths to which teachers must go to get much needed resources. Take a moment to ponder the questions posed from Cleveland, MS.

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Imagine I need to renovate my house. After careful study, I know I need at least $50,000. I hire a highly qualified contractor, but I only give her $35,000 to do the project. Oh, but I still want all the features included in my $50,000 design. To make matters worse, I come back periodically during the project and add more requirements, but not more money. The professional insists I haven’t provided enough funds even to bring the project up to code, yet I accuse them of gouging. My project ends up unfinished, and I publicly rail about the contractor’s incompetence.

Mississippi’s schools find themselves in a similar scenario with our state leaders’ annual refusal to fully fund districts across the state—based on the formula the legislature itself put in place (Mississippi Adequate Education Program – MAEP). Tragically, we’re not talking about a fictitious project, but rather the very real lives and futures of Mississippi’s children.

Despite designing what is a relatively innovative (among states) and accurate way to determine school funding, the Mississippi legislature refuses to follow the law. MAEP has only been fully funded in two (non-consecutive election) years since its inception, even when there were sufficient state revenues to do so. Economists declare Mississippi now spends “less per student than before the [2008] recession” (MEPC). To compound the misery, as the Legislature continues to under-fund the schools, it distorts the MAEP formula to allow for even lower allotments, meaning schools, especially poor ones, never catch up with their minimum requirements.

What does this perennial, intentional neglect look like on the ground – especially in the schools serving the already poverty-entrenched Mississippi Delta?  It’s not pretty. It means our children have to do without many things students in other places take for granted. Things like school nurses on site, functioning computers, science labs, seats……and teachers. These deprivations at school compound what those students face at home. Consequently, we send those who most need encouragement and educational opportunity a doubly negative message.

God bless the poor parents trying to use candy and doughnut sales to help make up for the state-sanctioned shortfalls. Thank God for heroic teachers and administrators struggling to provide the best education possible under the circumstances, often purchasing out of their own pockets, or begging for teaching materials that should have come from their and our state taxes, or, as I and my co-workers did one fall, dumpster diving for textbooks.

But why should those who teach the most impoverished students have to do so much more than our counterparts just to get what the State of Mississippi itself acknowledges is the minimum we need to do the job? Can schools that were set-up to fail, truly be labeled “failing schools”? Ultimately, it is the children who pay for decades of cumulative neglect.

Where is our conscience? Where is our common sense? The least the Mississippi leadership can do for the least of these is fulfill its promise of minimal support.

Renee Moore is a National Board-certified teacher in the Mississippi Delta. In 2001, she was named State Teacher of the Year for Mississippi. She has served on the Teacher/Administrator Licensure Commission in Jackson for ten years, is a proud member of the Mississippi Association of Educators, serves on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Board of Directors, and was one of the original members of the Teacher Leader Network- now the Center for Teaching Quality Collaboratory. She blogs at TeachMoore. (We've purposefully linked to one particularly provoking post about Mississippi.)