Note: The current Washington State Senate budget proposal calls for a 3 percent reduction in teacher salaries and ends National Board stipend payments after three years. Washington State public schools face the possibility of nearly $2 billion in cuts to education.
By MICHAEL HOLLOWAY
Imagine seeing a man struggling to keep his mouth above water – out in the large expanse of an ocean. You can see him bobbing up and down, occasionally taking in small mouthfuls of water.
A shadow draws up close to him and with a fine leather shoe gives him a gentle push down, just below the surface… let’s say, around 3 percent.
He’s been swimming and struggling with the currents for two decades. He has weathered storms before, but now the currents seem to be personally aimed at him. Pulling at him like a riptide.
Then, seeing that he’ll still somehow manage to float 3 percent below the surface, the shadow shoves the poor bugger again… this time with a board, a large heavy National Board that this man actually worked hard to form, shape, pay for, and produce because he knew it would be worth something.
Never mind that this time the shadow shoves him around $5,090, or 7.9 percent, lower.
The water has cleared just enough to see that. Surprisingly, his wife is also floating at the same level, right next to him… and now they have both been shoved down a collective 10.9 percent below the surface.
From what the locals tell you, these two have been floating around in these waters for a combined 44 years. Encouraged by the little fish that swim in schools around them, the man and his wife keep up their courage in their struggle to stay afloat.
They don’t want the fish to worry about them, so they try their best not to show their desperation. They know that someday these fish will grow up and move along to deeper waters elsewhere, and they feel like they’ve made a difference in helping the fish to swim on their own… even as the two of them fight the inevitable currents.
The man in the water looks up through the blurry surface and sees the sole of the shoe that shoved him down.
Perhaps the sustained struggle has clouded his vision, but he is convinced that he sees someone he recognizes wearing that shoe.
Is it the face of the governor? Now it looks like many faces… the faces of those in the Senate? The House? The faces of two or three “education” governors before this one? The face of Tim Eyman?
The faces of those who are floating happily in their boat on their way to vacation on the sunny beaches that line this ocean? The faces of too many voters who chose not to save these people, or care about the health of the waters these fish swim in?
It may not matter. The man is losing hope. Once, he was convinced that jumping from the corporate software cruise ship into these waters would be an adventure with purpose and meaning.
That conviction turned out to be true beyond words. But, no one would have predicted the changes in the currents, and the changes in the faces of those in the boats floating on top.
Is it meanness in their expression? Hard to tell. Greed? Perhaps. Indifference? That seems to be the closest description. Every man for himself? What happened to this world? When did we lose sight on what might be the best investment we could make for our collective future – education?
The man does his best, but deep down he knows he can’t last much longer. He has his own fish to worry about, too.
It’s only a matter of time before the abyss that lies below him frightens him enough to seek a friendly hand to lift him onto a boat or ship – and a future that may be less adventurous, but will keep him and his wife from drowning.
Michael Holloway teaches Social Studies at Bainbridge High School. He left Microsoft in 1991 to pursue teaching. He and his wife, also a teacher, are trying their best to raise two kids on teacher salaries.
