On Tuesday, November 4th I will make time to get to the polls and vote. I always do and I proudly wear the "I voted" sticker all day. I consider it a responsibility and a privilege.
The people we cast our vote for make choices for our community and country, so why wouldn't I want to have a say in that. As a high school teacher, I am invested in the lives of the 180 or so students I have in my classroom each year. I take what happens to them very personally. Again, why wouldn't I want a voice in what happens to them each year. I always scrutinize candidates platforms, voting records, and actions with an education lens.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are around 3.3 million K-12 working public school teachers in the United States. In Kentucky, where I live and teach, there are over 42,000 teachers. That's a lot of votes out there. Yet, teachers are often overlooked in elections. Why?
This election season a group of pollsters came to my door and asked if I would participate in a survey. I agreed. The questions were fairly typical, asking me to choose which candidate I would vote for in the various races. At the end of the poll, I was asked to select from a list which issue I thought was the most important for this election cycle. There were seven issues listed, all important. Guess what category wasn't on the list? Education. I was stunned. How could Education not make the list of important issues for this election cycle?
Maybe teachers aren't the "squeaky wheel", so we don't warrant attention. Perhaps it is because we are too busy teaching to look up and see that decisions are being made without our input. Or, maybe because we haven't traditionally been involved in policy-making, we don't expect to be involved, and we miss opportunities to use our voice.
One of those opportunities is coming up on November 4th. You still have time to do some research and make your selections for this year's election. It's such a simple thing to do. Simple, but powerful.
Teachers, use your voice and vote.
