Skip to main content

School Infrastructure

Article Title: US Schools Need an Infrastructure Upgrade

Source: California Educator (CTA monthly magazine)

Date: 2021, month unknown (I tore it out of the magazine months ago)

    Okay, both an obvious and boring opening topic, I know. This is also not really breaking news, and I wanted the stories I wrote about to be more recent than last year. This is news because I have only just left the teaching profession in part because of this issue, and the infrastructure issues featured in a graph in this article clearly demonstrate how critical this issue is to the future (of everyone, not just the kids who have to learn in these conditions). When I say school infrastructure, I mean the basics that include running water and roofs that don't leak, let alone mental health services and internet access.
    
      The article itself is only a few paragraphs, but it is the graph that tells the real story. The key takeaway is that at least 20% of public schools are missing at least one of the following: heating, ventilation, air conditioning, indoor or outdoor lighting, bad roofing, plumbing, windows, doors, phone lines, or electricity. This blew my mind. I knew that the basic needs of schools were not being provided, but this is far worse than I anticipated...half that, honestly. This is the 6th largest economy on the planet (in my lifetime it's been between 5th and 8th), and this is the state of the public school system.
    This breaks my heart when I think of all the dedicated teachers, students, staff, and parents who work daily to overcome these basic obstacles that it is the responsibility of the government to provide. I believe creative thinking is in order for a solution like this to happen with any real speed or efficacy. Schools need to be reimagined, just as our lives have been reimagined since the dawn of industrialization, when these systems were put in place.
Why Bring This Up?
    I am a fan of big ideas and want people to share theirs so we can work together to enact meaningful change. What kind of infrastructure changes can be made so that it will adapt with society and last for generations? There will have to be a large time, money, and manpower investment up front, if only because of the size of the project. The benefit to us all, let alone the children, is worth the investment. What is stopping us? Start the conversation with me through the comments and survey I made to start collecting data on solutions that will make a real difference in education (and society generally).
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On Hold

  The Viral Candidate – On Hold               I really don’t want to run for office. I’m an idea person, not an implementation person. I have a lot of ideas that I think would do a lot of good. I realized that all the political candidates have done something “noteworthy” in politics or life before trying to run the country. This feels elitist, but also ensures intelligent, capable people are the ones running. Or maybe those are the people who refuse to run because our political landscape has gotten so toxic. With that thought, I want to finish some of my ideas and do something larger than being a high school teacher before I try to imagine a national political campaign. Therefore, I am putting the Viral Candidate project on hold for a year.               I have been trying to find a way to build a platform and have done so with little guidance so far, and little success. The only accomplishment I have in writing is one book being published by one of the nefarious for-profit edges o
Post a Comment
Read more

The Viral Candidate - Kids

Kids               I don’t want to run for public office, I never have, but if I did, I would focus on our children and how to set them up for future success. As a member of the first generation in this country predicted to be worse off than their parents both physically and financially, this is particularly important for me . Kids are our future, and we need to do a better job taking care of them and enabling them to have the quality of life we wish for them (which I’m assuming is better than the one we have made for ourselves). I’m a public-school teacher of middle and high school students and have been for over a decade (since before the iPhone came out and teaching fully metamorphosed into an exercise in frustration). As a public servant and one who has a heart for the future success of our nation through the next generation, I find it important to address what we are going to do for our descendants (while figuring out what to do for ourselves); the next generations will deal wi
Post a Comment
Read more

The Viral Candidate - Introduction

  What if a public-school teacher ran for President of the United States? Just to be clear, I am talking about me. What if an average American ran for president?   Twenty years ago, this would have been unthinkable, as there was no inexpensive and effective method to disseminate information to enough voters. The PAC’s will certainly ignore anyone who has no interest in increasing their wealth, so where would the money come from? Now we have social media, the internet, and GoFundMe. I can share information with the largest voting block without spending a dime; merely becoming viral will get me the support and start the discussions to bring voters around to a new (and old) way of campaigning. GoFundMe will allow a person with student loan debt and making less than living wage to go around the country and talk to fellow Americans about what they need. This is the first thing that will separate me from the pack: I want to listen. I want to know what you need. What we are afraid of
Post a Comment
Read more