Supporting Public Schools in Nebraska
Dear Abbey Friends,
Our partner school is amazing. With wonderful teachers and kids that will make you smile. Every Friday I see first hand when I get to dish out ketchup in the Cafe. Our Public Schools need our care right now. We are in a crisis and we cannot volunteer and bake-sale our way out of it. We need a full and resounding investment in our public schools. We need to take the long studied ideas regarding class size, universal childcare and school year structures in to practice. We need to invest in teacher pay, in teacher education, in the support staff that can keep the learn environment clean, safe and pleasant…this includes fixing the AC or the heat or the water fountains or the sidewalks. Our kids and our communities deserve this.
I grew up in Plattsmouth. And even through Lila thinks the 80’s was a dangerous time since no one wore seat belts and car seats were more of a suggestion, my school was a safe place. I had trouble learning to read but my teachers got me all the extra help I needed and the speech pathologist spent time with me. My high school gave me the chance to practice leadership skills, be involved in the speech team, and they even let me start and ecology club. My parents grew up there too. My grandparents were teachers. My mom put in the really hard work of local politics by serving on the school board for 16 years. The Nebraska I remember was more purple and more proud of its schools. Last year, at State Board of Education meetings, I witnessed just how hostile some pockets of our community have grown toward public education. It was shocking, even if it shouldn’t have been surprising.
We are living in the crisis we have made through chronic underfunding and cuts. We are living in the crisis we have made by privileging tax cuts over dreaming of how we can offer the very best to the youngest members of our communities. The pandemic laid bare our broken systems and our response could be cynicism and division. We could be distracted by the loud or we can be guided by research from around the world that points to the gifts investing in education brings to us all.
Now is the time for a sweeping investment in our schools. Now is the time for the hard work, and the layers of red tape and institutional bureaucracy to be lovingly untangled, without agenda or malice but with centering the wellbeing of the students. This starts with wages for our schools, it starts with training for new teachers and fixing the buildings we do have in every community. But then it gets more meaningful and more important when we take the time to learn and really take hard steps to examine what is working and what we need to make it work even better.
As law makers go to work, we need to call out for critical funding for a first step out of this crisis. We will still have bake sales and I will always be ready to clean up a spill in the cafeteria on Fridays but we can’t do it without the whole village. We need all hands on deck and the funding needs to come fast and Districts need to put the money where the magic happens…in the classroom with the students.
Four Asks:
1. Call your representatives, call them every day if you have time. Remind them taxes are our investments in our community and we want to put our money where our values are.
2. Write a note to your local teachers. If you are in Omaha we will do this in worship on February 5th. We are making valentine treat bags for our school staff and if you are not in Omaha, I bet you can find a school to send a little note and maybe something sweet.
3. Bring a box of tissues for the classroom to worship (its that season where noses run) and its the first thing the teacher said when I asked what do you need.
4. Sign up to volunteer. (Details here)
Blessing from Your friendly local Abbot,
Rev. Debra