The biggest challenge that is facing public education is the shortage of college students graduating and coming to the field of education. It is imperative that state boards of education and school districts do two things: first, these entities must find ways to encourage teachers that are currently in the system. Teachers must feel like they heard and respected as decisions are made for them. Teachers that are satisfied will stay in the profession; those that are not will seek to leave. Secondly, school districts and state boards must allocate resources directly to teachers beyond pay. Many teachers use their own resources to support students; there is an opportunity to reallocate funding to help them and subsequently help students.

I believe the most important thing a school district and additionally, the surrounding community, can do to ensure that safety is prioritized is expanding mental health resources to its students. It is important that this is a top priority as often times, when we see instances of violence within and towards our schools, it comes from a person or persons that had a deficit in receiving mental health assistance. From gun violence down to peer-to-peer bullying, students need to know that there are resources they can turn to without judgement as well as easy access to those resources. Funding should be allocated to this and community partnerships can also assist with outreach to students to help prevent issues of safety within our schools.

Well-performing school districts should be given more autonomy over district decisions if state standards are consistently met and there is clear feedback on performance provided to the Department of Education. The key is to ensure that districts are proving to be good stewards of the funding provided by the Department of Education and can show that there is a balanced budget and children are performing as deemed necessary by state and federal standards. I would also venture to have caution with state control for poor performing districts as well. State takeovers of school districts do not always show an improvement in student achievement. Students have shown that state takeovers can have some positive effects but negative ones as well.

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