Another Message to Teachers in a Difficult Time

I am not going to lie to you- I have never seen a more toxic political climate for teachers than the one we are in now. After three years of a Democratic Administration holding teachers responsible for the problems of failing schools, we now see the leaders of the Republican party making attacks on teachers and teachers unions a focal point of their Presidential campaign. And while this is going on, privatizers and profiteers circle around the nation's public schools like vultures, waiting to pick their carcass clean as political leaders compete to destroy them and/or sell them off. But my teacher friends, don't let these forces run you off and run you out. Outlast them, outsmart them, and outmaneuver them, all the while serving your students and their families as your conscience dictate. Because the policies offered by those that attack you will not work- they will make the country more unequal, and transform schools into places where young people dread to go. I realize I am asking a lot of you. But you are quite literally the hope of this nation, and what is left of its conscience, so hang in, hang on, and help educate your students, and colleagues, to the damage current policies are inflicting on the nation's children, and the nation's future.