We are at the beginning of what could be a catastrophic event for our public education system. There is a shortage of educators. There is also a shortage of college bound students choosing to be educators but there is a simple and effective solution.
Schools are underfunded and teachers are underpaid. The reality is that there are fundamental flaws in how we fund our public education system and we need to have a long hard conversation about making education our number 1 priority.
We always here the phrase "time will tell" and in the case of charter schools, time has told us all we need to know. Public education should not be a for profit corporation. From decimating public school systems to cheating on state testing, it is clear that Charters schools damage our children's education.
Over half of the families in our state struggle to find and afford preschool. All while It has been indisputably proven to help kids perform better academically in later grades, enjoy better health in later life, earn higher incomes, are less likely to get arrested, and are more likely to graduate from high school and complete college.
Believe it or not, before and after school programs used to be found regularly in public schools, however with budget cuts and increases in costs, many of these programs have been eliminated. With the little bit of help that these programs provide, working families are able to thrive no matter their income or situation.
With the repeal of the right to work act, the era of busting unions is over. Its time that our legislators work to ensure that our laws and regulations help support our unions here in Michigan like the MEA whose mission is "To protect, advocate, and advance the rights of all education professionals to promote quality public education for all students"
The reality today is that there are over 50,000 vacant educator positions in the United States and around 150,000 educators a year that are leaving the profession. Most educators who leaving the profession state that low salaries, stressful working conditions and long hours are the primary factors for the their decision. This is not new information, these problems have been ongoing for years and the lack of support from our legislators of our educators and public education system is embarrassing.
As your State Representative, Jared Polonowski will work to ensure that all educators have a starting wage that are at or above the state's median household income. If we expect educators to live in the communities that they serve then they need to earn enough money to be able to afford to do so. Jared will also work to mandate a maximum class size ratio of 16 students per educator. We have an obligation to not only set up our students for success but also our educators. Jared will work to mandate union involvement among all educators and the administration regardless of position or salary. We have an obligation to ensure that our educators have the ability to bargain for fair wages, benefits and protections. Jared will work to mandate minimum budgeted funds for each educator and their classroom to ensure that no educator has to use their person money to buy the required materials for their classroom. Jared believes that education is our number one priority. He believes that public schools and educators should always be given the support they need.
Many people may not know that our public education is funded through a variety of sources including sales tax, income tax, property tax, lottery monies, use tax, tobacco tax and real estate transfer tax. These taxes fund both the facilities budget as well as provide per pupil funding. If a district is lucky, they will write and qualify for a federal grants as well. In other words, how well we can fund our public education system is based on the values of properties in our communities and by the value of taxable items sold in the state. Our districts may be able to get a little more funding if they are successful in begging the federal government for help through grant writing but that only works if the district meets certain requirements for things like special education. While each school district is going to have a different number of students and varying facilities at all different levels of need that are going to require different amounts of funding, our legislators feel that determining funding for school districts should be based on dividing up whatever random amount of money comes in from the different revenues of random taxes like those on cigarette sales. This is a terrible method.
As your State Representative, Jared Polonowski will work to ensure that our public education system becomes our top priority. Jared believes that we need to stop the privatization of public education and stop allowing corporations to destroy our education system in order to make a profit. There is an obvious fundamental flaw in how our schools are funded and Jared will work to change how our state determines school district budgets by allowing the school districts themselves to influence their budgets based on what their needs and projections are for accomplishments and improvements in the short term and long term. Every student should have the same opportunity to a great educations, not just those students who had enough people to vote for a millage in order to build adequate facilities or those who have parents with high incomes and property values.
pre-k mandatory,, before and after care,
The average cost for full time child care in Michigan is nearly $1000 a month however the minimum wage in Michigan would only earn about $1400 after taxes. Obviously someone can not live on $400 a month nor would they be able to justify that cost. Either the parent is not going to work or they would qualify for subsidized childcare which falls on the backs of the taxpayer. Today's reality is that every parent is going to require childcare especially from birth to kindergarten and the american dream where both parents are married and can afford to have one parent stay home is no longer an option for a majority of Michiganders. For most working parents, childcare is an extreme financial burden, in most cases permanently effecting the lives of the children.
As your State Representative, Jared Polonowski will work to pass legislation that would incorporate childcare into the k-12 public school system. Jared will also work to allow childcare funding to go directly to a stay at home parent for the first year of a child's life rather than subsidizing a corporation that provides childcare services. Every parent should have the opportunity to create a bond with their child. Too many times an infant is thrown into a situation that lacks the love and support just that a working parent can pay less in taxes than what the state pays out in assistance. This is inexcusably stupid and financially irresponsible by our government. Jared believes that every parent who wants to work should be able to work and free childcare through the public education system should be available to every resident in the state. Not only does every community already have the facilities and staff to accommodate childcare services but it would reduce tax payer money going to for profit corporations as a subsidy. Jared also believes that this childcare program would need to be properly staffed and funded within each district. This would promote facilities improvements and additional good paying union jobs within all of our communities.
About 1 in 7 kids in Michigan live with food insecurity and until recently during the COVID pandemic food was not guaranteed to children at school. There has been a large push for free lunch for all in our public school system and that is definitely a start unfortunately over half a million kids still live with food insecurities in Michigan. The free lunch program also exists, and while good in theory, can be elimnated if the states computer system does register an uploaded document. For parents with split custody, it becomes even more complicated as the state will only allow one of the parents with 50/50 custody to receive food assistance while the other is excluded and 4 days a week the child suffers. As a result of the increase in demand for food in the school lunch program and shortages in our supply the quality of the food in our school lunches is at time poor even though the state will tell you that the meals provided at school are healthier than what children would eat otherwise.
As your Sate Representative, Jared Polonowski will work to ensure that every child in the public education system receives high quality food while at school, this would include breakfast, lunch, snacks and drinks. Jared will also work to ensure that new standards and procedures are put in place to ensure that the food being supplied to students is high quality, healthy and includes a wide variety of options that will promote healthy lifestyles and living to our children. Jared believes that it is the responsibility of the school district to feed its students and that the best way to impact children especially those who have food insecurities is through the public education system.
Its no secret that the cost of tuition for colleges and universities is reaching astronomical levels, leaving many college graduates with an amount of debt that cannot be covered by their income with the job they obtained with the degree. For this reason many people have shifted their attention to the trades, however unpaid/underpaid internships or apprenticeships make it difficult for anyone with existing financial obligations and children to be able to take advantage of this opportunity. For many of those graduates of k-12 who decide to go to college, their financial assistance is dependent upon the income of their parents, who have no obligation to financially back their child's education, leaving them in the dark. For those who can not afford tuition and were lucky enough to grow up poor, they can always beg the federal government for grant money through FASFA. There is no reason that public education has to be like this and it never used to be like this. Community college and public universities used to be primarily funded by the government and many Americans were able to pay their tuition with a summer job.
As your State Representative, Jared Polonowski will work to ensure that all community colleges in the state of Michigan are free to attend by any Michigan resident. Jared believe that if you pay taxes and your tax money funds public college and universities then the tax payer should be able to benefit from those facilities as much or as little as they would like. It should not matter your age or your income bracket, you should be able to enroll in any class in your local community college and improve yourself. Workers should be able to improve their education, allowing them to have vertical movement and increase their earning or to make a shift in their employment to do something that they are more passionate about. And they shouldn't have to beg the government or justify their decision to Michigan Works or their employer. Jared wholeheartedly believes that you can never over fund education.
Union membership among teachers is optional in Michigan. Other staff and administrators are exempt entirely. This is yet again another union busting tactic to keep unions small and weak in order to reduce their ability to negotiate for fair wages and benefits. It has been working for a long time, pay it at an all time low and a mass exodus of teachers out of the public school system has begun leaving all students behind. Its time for this to end.
As your Representative, Jared Polonowski will work to ensure that every teacher, administrator and employee in the public school system including colleges and universities are mandated to join a union. Jared believes that it is only through strong union representation that our educators and workers in public education will be able to have their best interest represented effectively.