From the Field: A Teacher's Perspective on the Budget Crisis

From the Field: A Teacher's Perspective on the Budget Crisis

(Note: This is a letter written from a teacher to her superintendent, in response to information he sent about potential state budget cuts to education and specifically to the Teacher Retirement System.)

Mr. Hancock:

I am not usually vocal on these matters, but felt compelled to share my observations and opinions with you on these things.


Are you familiar with the Theory of Learned Helplessness? I have only been in this business for 13 years and it seems that no matter how hard we fight, they are going to do what benefits them.

They give us something election year, advertise it, then take it back (unadvertised of course). They take and cheat us every way they can and deny it or “correct it” next election year. It is a never-ending cycle and they get away with it because we are too dedicated to the KIDS to cheat them the way we are cheated.

These “elected officials” depend on that. So even when they make us work until 90 with a .5% raise every year, all the time raising our insurance rates (decreasing our benefits), decreasing our retirement pay, and acting like we are no more than babysitters we must be better than them for our kids.

Why fight it? That is the way it is. We are not going to change it. We just have to do our job for the kids that come before us so that they can do better than us.

I became a teacher so that no child would have to live like I did growing up in a shack in Wills Point. Mind you, I am 38 years old and lived with the dirt floor, no plumbing, and no heat or air. But my Third Grade teacher told me I could be anything I wanted to be (and I wanted to be her). I am the first in my family to graduate from college and I strive to be the best example I can be to our kids. To some I am nothing… but to that one child that finally “gets it” and lights up I am gold. To that one kid that I can motivate, help, and watch blossom… I am somebody. You don’t pay me that. They can’t take it away (from me or my students). My student will be better off in life because of something I do. That is why I am a teacher.

Of course that being said, I have bills to pay and my own children to raise. So it would be nice to be treated with respect by legislators, paid a living wage, and not treated as disposable. But sadly I don’t expect it from the State.

I admire you for fighting for us. I send my emails and letters too, but I won’t hold my breath. In the end they are out for themselves. But, as I stated in the beginning, these are just my observations and opinions. Weird how I am such an optimist in all other aspects of life, but this one I have succumbed to “learned helplessness”.


Kim Conoly
Scott Elementary
Royse City ISD