Teachers’ Role in Education and the Tustin School Crisis

I am a fourth-grade teacher in Tustin and have taught there for over 20 years. I did not choose Tustin because the pay was higher but because of its educational climate.

Tustin has fine schools and great test scores, but who makes it possible? The teacher, yet the teachers are blamed for all the ills of the world. No one considers that it is inconsistent with human needs to squeeze 34 bodies within inches of each other--adults have at least five square feet in an office--but it happens in schools.

No one would place non-English-speaking students within this conglomerate but in schools it’s a common occurrence.

When you enter a job contract, it’s like a marriage. If there’s no money, there’s no money but if one partner has it and won’t share spending decisions with the other--it’s no longer a good marriage or contract.

Why isn’t an independent agency looking at the budget? Why isn’t there a comparison salary schedule printed of Tustin, Irvine, Saddleback, Santa Ana and Orange so the community can see for itself where Tustin stands?

Why don’t teachers have a chance to say whether we need psychologists, PR people, remediation specialists or computers?

I invite the people in the community to visit the schools and assist where possible. We need your help, since we run the schools with volunteers when we can get them. Is this any way to run an office?

TEDDY JONES

Tustin