One of the main reasons I am where I am today is because of the quality education I received as a student. The schools I attended were great because of passionate teachers, caring school leaders, quality resources in the classroom, and engaged families, including my own. I am proud to have a wife who is a National Board Certified teacher and a mother who was a kindergarten teacher. Some of the best people I know are teachers and principals.
Now more than ever, families need to be engaged in education, especially in their children's classrooms and schools, and as effective advocates to ensure their students and schools have the teachers and resources they need to excel. However, this is a two-way street as schools have the responsibility to provide welcoming and friendly environments for families to be engaged and families need to be willing and ready to be engaged whether that is helping teachers in the classroom, greeting students and families at the kiss-and-rides, or meeting with their local school board members to tell their personal stories.
Families should be engaged in effective grassroots advocacy at all government levels to ensure adequate investments are being made for their schools and school systems. Let us face it, students will not be ready for this global economy beyond high school if they do not have access to great teachers in the classroom, high-quality education resources, and access to various supports like school counseling. And let me tell you, the opportunities are out there for students to be successful beyond high school.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics under the U.S. Department of Labor indicates that there are currently 6.1 million job openings as of August 2017. Just pick an industry. No matter if it is manufacturing, construction, or technology, business leaders cannot find enough skilled workers. In fact, the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, estimates nearly 2.4 million STEM job openings by 2018, including 1.1 million new jobs and 1.3 million replacement jobs. The nation's skills gap will worsen as baby boomers retire and there will be less employees in the workforce. More importantly, the nation is dealing with a massive teacher shortage. The priority should be to elevate the teacher profession, provide incentives for teachers to work in certain subjects and underrserved areas, and ensure they are paid comparable to other highly-skilled professions like medicine and law.
To address the STEM skills gap, the National PTA is partnering with corporations and businesses like Bayer, Mathnasium, and ThinkFun through its STEM+Families Initiative to provide opportunities for PTAs across the nation to host math nights, science nights, and/game nights to help build students' critical thinking and problem solving skills and get families engaged in STEM experiences. Here is a video clip about the fun experiments students can conduct and games they can play in and outside the classroom. Balloons are cool!
PTA members across the nation are fighting to increase federal investment in education. Federal funding for public education programs remains at 2% of the federal budget and has been that way for decades, despite the increase in public school enrollment and the rising cost of education resources and services. This disparity between funding levels and actual costs means that the federal government essentially enacted cuts to classrooms.
PTA members are also helping their fellow members in need who are affected by recent natural disasters, including the wildfires in California. Hundreds of thousands of families are displaced, many schools remain closed, and scores of students have yet to be back in their classrooms. Governments at all levels should be doing all they can to reopen affected schools to provide some type of normalcy back to our nation's most vulnerable citizens - our children.
If families are looking to get engaged in their schools and in education, but do not know how, look no further than your local school PTA. Your local school PTA unit is part of the largest, nonpartisan, volunteer child advocacy network in the nation that provides value-added resources and services for its members to be effective leaders, advocates, and overall volunteers.
The common misconception is that you have to be a parent or guardian to join. Not true. Anyone can join their local neighborhood school PTA whether you are a small business owner, grandparent, or non-parent. Your community is desirable because of your neighborhood school. Your property value is tied to how good your neighborhood school is doing. So, why not join and support your neighborhood school PTA to improve your school and/or keep it strong. You can also join any PTA across the nation to provide support. I personally joined the Texas PTA to provide support to my fellow members affected by Hurricane Harvey. I am also providing support to my fellow European PTA members who work hard to ensure our nation's military children receive the quality education they deserve.
During these turbulent times, families need to be engaged in education. Together, we can ensure our nation continues to be the best place on this planet with skilled, global, and passionate citizens.
Written by Tony Shivers, #PTAProud
