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Saturday, February 17, 2018

Becki Couch addresses the Parkland tragedy

I have grown to be a real fan of Mrs Couch a tireless education advocate. The board, the school system and the city is going to miss her when her term is up in November.

We have a mutual Facebook friend and she addressed the Parkland school tragedy, responding to a meme that in one point encouraged teachers to be armed and in another part, pointing out that most schools can barely afford printer ink.

Via Facebook: 

Why would we expect teachers to now be police and security? 

Why would we expect teachers to be armed without the same vests we provide police officers who are armed? 

Why would we think this is the solution before we have tried to provide adequate funding so our children can attend safe and secure schools? 

Teachers should be given the freedom to teach! I have taken my concealed weapons class and if I were in the classroom I can assure you I would not be prepared to endure what these hero’s at Marjory Stoneman endured. 

It is time our legislators quit paying lip service to parents and take action. I have been to Tallahassee every year for seven years pleading with our legislators for adequate funding so we can meet the safety to life needs of our schools. 

The legislature has kept Safe School funding allocation the same for the last seven years. In FL there has been an influx of 300,000 students and cost of living had increased during this same time. 

Districts ability to increase capital millage has decreased from 2 mils to 1.5 mils taking away millions in funding. PECO (telephone tax) funding has been redirected to charters. I still asked for help. And you know what I got instead for our students? 

We were told we needed to share the little funding we had with unfettered growth of charter schools. This year alone we will lose $3.8 million more to the required sharing of capital. 

ENOUGH! It is time we stand up and demand our legislature and governor stop paying lip service and show they care through their actions. 

It is time they provide mental health funding and Safe School funding so we can prevent these tragedies. 

It is time we redirect the voucher and test obsessed legislators to listen to these heart breaking stories and do something to show they love our kids as much as they love their “Choice” political talking points. 

We MUST do better!

1 comment:

  1. My high school has 2400+ students and only 2 security guards. Last year we had 3.

    ReplyDelete