There is a decline of student enrollment in my district, but an increase in assistant to the assistant to the assistant superintendent with all having an increase in pay raises while teachers struggle to keep up with professional pay in the private sector.
It is painfully obvious that policy makers don't value teachers, unless they value us as scapegoats for social ills (unaffordable housing, inflation, no increase to minimum wage, etc.). Policy makers (Marsha Blackburn for example) don't value teachers, but they do value test vendors (Pearson) and the gun lobby (NRA). They value the folks who fund their campaigns and give them the high of staying in power. Actual students? They don't care a whit about them. If they did, they'd fund education and pay teachers more. All they really want at this point is to put a whole bunch of kids in one class, put them in front of a computer, and let one teacher manage as many as possible- 40? 50? More? Give kids a minimum wage type of education, wherein they have very basic skills but not much else. Why else would anyone underfund education? Underpay teachers? Overload classrooms?
This answer is directly connected to their perspective of what a teacher does. If the teachers uphold the liberal educational agenda of teaching evidence based knowledge then they will be highly unlikely to value teachers;
But if they are onboard with the conservative/MAGA/religious agenda-mindset then such teachers are not genuine teachers in so much as they are parroting propagandist supporters.
There is a decline of student enrollment in my district, but an increase in assistant to the assistant to the assistant superintendent with all having an increase in pay raises while teachers struggle to keep up with professional pay in the private sector.
It is painfully obvious that policy makers don't value teachers, unless they value us as scapegoats for social ills (unaffordable housing, inflation, no increase to minimum wage, etc.). Policy makers (Marsha Blackburn for example) don't value teachers, but they do value test vendors (Pearson) and the gun lobby (NRA). They value the folks who fund their campaigns and give them the high of staying in power. Actual students? They don't care a whit about them. If they did, they'd fund education and pay teachers more. All they really want at this point is to put a whole bunch of kids in one class, put them in front of a computer, and let one teacher manage as many as possible- 40? 50? More? Give kids a minimum wage type of education, wherein they have very basic skills but not much else. Why else would anyone underfund education? Underpay teachers? Overload classrooms?
"Do policymakers value teachers?"
This answer is directly connected to their perspective of what a teacher does. If the teachers uphold the liberal educational agenda of teaching evidence based knowledge then they will be highly unlikely to value teachers;
But if they are onboard with the conservative/MAGA/religious agenda-mindset then such teachers are not genuine teachers in so much as they are parroting propagandist supporters.