Property taxes are the main source for school funding, and so to offset the financial burden of heightening property values, Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) has taken a budget cut of 32 million dollars for the 2024-2025 school year.
Schools nationwide had a large spike for funding during the pandemic as relief funds were provided for the government. Now that relief funding is coming to an end, the sudden loss of support will be felt by many districts and families.
Resources available to schools have a massive effect on student well-being and performance. The concept is linked heavily to school staff, how they are able to treat students when they simply don’t have the capacity. School staff struggle to perform to their best as teacher shortages, fueled by poor wages and the stress of the job, raise class sizes, add more emotional and literal workload, and increase responsibilities for the average teacher.
Think about it: as a teacher, how can you deal with caring for dozens of children’s educations, attempting to keep all individuals on track, lesson-plan and do paperwork, take on responsibilities to compensate for losses in staff, take on the emotional responsibilities of working with developing minds, and in the end hardly get paid for all of this? Of course, it is also common knowledge that teachers provide most materials for their classrooms, taking up to thousands of dollars out of a teacher’s own pockets.
Over the years, especially after the pandemic, student behavior has worsened. Have you noticed an uptick in misbehavior or class disruptions since quarantine ended? Have you noticed the amount of class time taken to redirect back to learning? Teachers are noticing it too. And you can bet it has an effect on them.
“It’s not that we’ve never dealt with behavioral issues before,” associate superintendent for human resources Dr. Vann Price commented. “But it’s different. We have to get better at understanding what those differences are, be able to meet the needs of helping students as best we can, so that we don’t feel so ill-prepared.”
A large proportion of the teacher shortage is from teachers quitting. According to a report by the Pew Research Center, about three-in-ten teachers said they might look for a new job last year. Young and new teachers are also most likely to quit, meaning fewer quality teachers for the long run. Students get left behind as a result.
Mental health resources in schools are underfunded as well. “Every year it’s a struggle to make sure we have funding to maintain the positions for therapists who work at East,” Tami Rembolt, the social worker at East High School, said. “Those positions are really important, because[…] community agencies provide the services free of charge to students that can otherwise not get therapy, because either their parents can’t afford it or they don’t have insurance.”
Kids and teenagers are experiencing one of the worst mental health crises in American history. This fact was exacerbated by the pandemic, but it was a growing trend even before 2020.
Students desperately need mental aid and support, but many schools simply can’t afford to provide these services. Even schools with psychologists, social workers, or therapists often don’t have a good ratio of mental health professionals to the sheer amount of students. Many kids also don’t feel comfortable talking to staff, and it isn’t made clear enough what might be shared with parents or care-takers, which adds to the stigma. We are more likely to talk to our friends about our mental struggles, but schools don’t do enough to teach their students how to naturally and carefully talk to friends in need without making them close themselves off.
Schools teach self-care of course, and even advocate for good mental health, but doesn’t the curriculum and school culture send the opposite message? How do the workload and expectations and the lack of available help contribute to one’s mental health?
Student performance is linked to their mental health. It’s difficult to perform properly under constant and debilitating stress. The lack of resources provided adds to the inability to do well. Many studies say that when schools get more money, students do better. When students are more secure in their environment, they can reach their full potential.
Impoverished communities struggle further to provide for their students, especially when property values are lower in these areas and so schools receive less funding. Students from poor communities are set up to fail even more by the fact that their schools can’t give them the things they need to succeed.
All of this isn’t to say teachers don’t care about you. You can be assured they do. The fact of the matter is none of us are given the best supplies to help ourselves, let alone each other. It isn’t your fault for not working hard or studying all night–it’s a systemic issue. The people who want to provide for students struggle to, and that’s not their fault. But it is a pitfall that the youth are having to suffer the consequences of it.
