Who is Really Benefiting From "Pink Slips"?

      The last piece of paper that any teacher wants to be given is a pink slip. Those two words, "Pink slip," create an uneasy feeling in the pit of the unfortunate receiver's stomach. Those words also send a wave of nervousness  through the bodies of the fortunate instructors that were by-passed. A pink slip can be devastating, especially for new teachers that just finished their first year teaching at a school they really enjoyed being a part of.
     
            In the past few years, due to the bad economy, more and more towns have been turning to schools as a way to cut the amount of money being spent. Teachers have been issued pink slips indicating they are being laid off, and students are losing out on experiencing young teachers who have new styles of instruction to offer them.
           Even though towns feel that schools are a huge part of the budget and that aspects of schools need to be cut, who is really benefiting from this?
           In the world of today, teacher's are more vital than ever before in the lives of children. Students have greater pressures being placed on their shoulders every day with No Child Left Behind, standardized tests they need to pass, and college looming not far down the road in their future. Students need good teachers to support them, and to help them grow and develop both as individuals and in their education.
          And with more parents worker longer hours to make a decent living in a household, many children are not practicing what they are learning in school at home. Even more children are not being taught the material and skills they should be learning from their parents before they even enter school. This makes the job of a teacher even more crucial in the lives of children. Especially for those students who live in dysfunctional families, where there are divorced parents, various home situations, violence, physical and emotional abuse etc... Students need good role models in their lives and they need someone that can lead them on the right path and provide them with the tools of success.
          With teacher's being cut and materials in school being eliminated, how is this helping the next generation of children (many of which are struggling) to become better educated? If anything, the logic behind the town's budget cuts is taking opportunities away from students and is narrowing children's abilities to express themselves and to learn in various forms.
         For example: At the end of my senior year of high school, the town I live in began to issue pink slips to many of the younger teachers in the school that weren't tenured yet. All of the students loved these new teachers because they had a style of teaching that matched the attitudes and interests of high school students. They understood how high-schoolers functioned in today's modern world. Many of the students in my school backed up these new teachers and tried to save them from being laid off, but in the end their pleas were of no use. Who benefited from this? The students certainly didn't. They lost out on teachers that had a huge impact on their education and made them want to come to school.
      Another example is: In the same year, my town also restructured the schools so that there were k-2 schools and  3-5 schools. They did this in an attempt to decrease the budget in schools. But just think about this for a minute. All of the schools are still being used. How is this helping the town budget? They still have to maintain all the schools in my town. It would be a different story if they abandoned a few schools completely. But now the children in my town are not getting the experience of being in schools with third fourth and fifth graders or with kindergarten, first, and second graders. When having k-5 schools, the fifth graders could have reading buddies with the kindergartners and the smaller students had older students they could look up to as role models. But now this notion is gone. With the split in the grades, this is only putting more stress on parents who have to drive their children to two different schools, and on the students themselves, who have to become accustomed to new bus schedules, a new school, new classmates etc..
             In today's world where there are so many "failing schools" with students who are below average in reading, writing, and in different subjects areas, and overcrowding in classrooms, how is cutting teachers and cutting materials in school helping anyone? It may be reducing the budget in towns, but isn't children's education more important? One day these children are going to grow up and they are going to be the future of America. They need good teachers and they need to be provided with materials that are going to help them to be successful and to make something of themselves.
            I feel that schools should be the last place that towns should look to cut money because they are the most vital institutions. They keep our children occupied, safe, and allow them to explore, to discover, to think at higher levels, and to be intellectually stimulated.
           Therefore, teachers are the key to the success of the next generations (in terms of education), and the "pink slip" is only eliminating children's opportunities and possibilities to be victorious in life.