Red reasons

Indiana State Teachers Association has a list of talking points for Red for Ed Action Day.

But what is on the minds of local teachers ahead of Tuesday’s event at the Indiana Statehouse?

Four Jay County educators offered their thoughts about what they see as problems with the state’s education system, ranging from pay rates to lack of support for programs and services to concerns about career and technical education.

Regardless of specific issues of concern in their profession, though, a complaint from multiple local teachers was the feeling that they’re not being heard by state legislators.

Ingrid Saxman, who retired from East Elementary School and now serves as a substitute teacher, said she’s attempted to contact her representatives “to no avail.”

“I’ve tried to give solid reasons for how I thought they should vote on educational matters, and they have shown no interest in learning,” she said in an email to The Commercial Review. “They are told how to vote and that’s what they do.”

Brittany Kloer, a vocational agriculture teacher at Jay County High School, expressed frustration with her experience at the February Third House Session with Sen. Travis Holdman, who represents Jay, Adams, Wells and Blackford counties and part of Huntington and Grant counties. (Rep. J.D. Prescott was unavailable to attend that session in Portland because he and his wife Brooke were at the hospital following the birth of their second child.) Kloer brought up several education-related issues during the question-and-answer portion of that event.

“I asked for things to protect career and technical education, and then a week later I got an email with the same talking points that I was trying to fight against,” she said. “As an education advocate, I’ve struggled getting into the ears of our legislators.”

Both Saxman and Kloer plan to travel Tuesday to Indianapolis for the Red for Ed rally that is expected to draw thousands of educators from across the state. As of Sunday, nearly 150 of the state’s 287 school districts had announced closures or e-learning days for Tuesday. That includes Jay School Corporation, which announced its closure a week in advance after more than 50 teachers requested the day off.

Ryan Steinbrunner, an East Jay Middle School math and science teacher, won’t be attending the event in Indianapolis because he will be preparing to leave later Tuesday evening for the local middle schools’ trip to Washington, D.C. But, he said he supports the initiative in large part for financial reasons.

Steinbrunner said his research shows that if he was teaching in Ohio he would be making about $17,000 more per year than he is in Indiana. He estimated that over the course of his 11-year career he could have made $80,000 more had he been teaching across the state line.

“There’s a reason jobs are hard to come by in Fort Recovery, and Jay Schools has a large turnover rate of teachers,” he said in an email. “Money talks.”

Saxman echoed Steinbrunner’s thoughts on teacher pay rates, adding that reductions in services for students such as libraries, special class teachers, special education, field trips and in-classroom assistance have helped drive teachers away from the profession. She also noted larger class sizes.

“We have to do something to show our state government (Republicans) that we will no longer stand for this,” Saxman wrote. “Our Hoosier children are worth more than they are being given. Indiana needs to stop siphoning off public tax dollars meant for public education to charter and private schools.

“That’s why I’m going to Indianapolis, and wearing red for ed. I think it’s important for those of us who have been there to support today’s teachers.”

Kloer said she wouldn’t put pay on her top 10 list of concerns. Her focus is her feeling educators have not had a voice in developing state education policy.

She noted specifically the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet that now controls the state’s Career and Technical Education Department. There are no teachers on the 22-member cabinet, she said.

Kloer also noted concern about a new requirement that students have career coaching meetings with counselors beginning in the sixth grade. Her concern was not the policy, which she said she supports, but rather that no additional funding was provided to implement it.

“I am attending the Red for Ed rally because I am tired of the disconnect lawmakers have with our classrooms,” said Kloer.

She also referenced the vast amount of Indiana Code — 1,269 pages in 2019 — that educators have to navigate.

For Carol Gebert, who teaches theatre, speech and art at JCHS, the reason for attending Tuesday’s rally is close to her heart. She said both of her parents fought to start a teachers’ union shortly after World War II.

“Tuesday is an opportunity to represent them in memory, to be part of history, and to express to my students that I am fighting not for my salary, but for them,” she said.