The Guardian has published a sample of the messages it received from hundreds of teachers from across America intended for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, describing the difficulties they face in the current education system.
The teachers describe unsafe, unsanitary and unpleasant conditions in classrooms. One Brooklyn-based teacher wrote that “Our buildings are infested with cockroaches and rodents and many air conditioners don’t work. Our furniture is old and broken. We don’t have enough counselors or even space in the building, and we share classrooms, and the entire staff is overworked.”
Another teacher in Florida wrote, “My students have fallen out of two chairs in the last week because they are in such disrepair. The chairs literally are just disintegrating.”
Minnesota teacher Lori Nelson adds that “My first classroom had asbestos and bats. I caught Legionnaires’ disease from infected water supply at school. I developed asthma and COPD as a result and have never been the same”
Others describe the difficulties they face living on a teacher’s salary, the lack of support they see for children living in or near poverty, of supplies provided by the schools, and of metal health services.
“We have no resources,” writes an anonymous Pennsylvania teacher. “Parents send in items at the beginning of the year when they are able to, but teachers provide the rest. All the books in my classroom library were purchased by me. Our evaluations require us to have a pleasant room environment, but we are not given anything with which to create that environment. We are required to hang things on the wall and are told to use a specific kind of tape, but we aren’t provided that tape.”
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