My name is Stacy Eleczko and I am a teacher. Eight years ago, I moved to North Carolina from Florida because of the progressive direction of education in this state. I also didn’t scoff at the fairly significant raise I got by moving here. Now, teachers in Florida with the same level of experience are making roughly $5,000 a year more than me. By the way, they are also one of the worst paying states in the country so that’s not really saying much.

Frankly, I have had enough.

My husband begged me to stop reading articles about the current budget or legislative decisions in the evening because I end up tossing and turning all night. Of course I do… doesn’t over $250 million in cuts to education funding make you angry?

Over the past 12 years, I have touched a lot of lives. I have given children my lunch or snack when they had none, visited their homes to drop off school supplies, held them when they cried because dad went to jail last night or their power got turned off. I have cheered them on at basketball games, gone to the library to get a favorite book, played soccer with them at recess. I have taught children the love of reading, that it’s okay to be wrong, empowered them to fight for their beliefs. I literally cry tears of happiness when I run into former students. Now these are not things that can be quantified. You cannot put a dollar amount on what it takes to be a teacher. Teaching is not just a job you do, it defines who you are. These are things of value though, of honor, and deserve to be respected as such. I implore you; How is value shown when in order to give me what I will lightly call a “pay raise” you do it by increasing class sizes and cutting teacher assistant positions?

I have had to put in a lot (I mean a lot) of extra hours outside the classroom. This was not that big of a sacrifice until 5 years ago when I gave birth to my baby boy. I would tell you my whole story but it is the same as most other teachers. Teacher gets hired. Teacher is grossly underpaid. Teacher gets second job. It is a constant juggling act to make ends meet.

The current legislators continue to kick us when we are down. We can talk about how adjustments for inflation have actually constituted a pay decrease, the cuts to teacher assistants that seemed to surprise the governor after he signed the bill without at least perusing it, the packaging of a pay raise that really just reallocated funds for veteran teachers, the money taken away from other areas in the school budget in order to increase the budget for teacher salaries but I can also say it much more simply than that. I, like many others, cannot continue in this profession financially or emotionally if there are not drastic changes made and quickly.

My son is starting kindergarten and I am worried. Luckily I will drive him to school so I don’t have to worry about the safety of his transportation, what with the $4.6 million dollars in cuts for school bus funding. I am worried that NC is one of the lowest ranking states in per student funding. I also fear the mass exodus of qualified teachers leaving this profession. Research says over and over that the single most important thing that impacts student achievement is having an effective teacher. We all know that you get what you pay for. I have watched teacher after teacher leave this profession and state for better pay and wonder who will replace them. Many highly effective teachers remain but how long can they hang in there?

The ramifications of what is being done to the education system now will be felt for years to come. Plato said “If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.” The current legislation is dismantling the public education system. We are presented with two choices: we can passively allow them to continue this nonsense or we can make our voices heard.