Some call me "Flem"

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I'm an elementary school teacher turned high school English teacher, School-Based Teacher Leader (SBTL), and adjunct professor here in Philly. These posts are the views, as I see them, from room 105, my first classroom number. Enjoy, engage, and share!

Friday, August 15, 2014

My letter to a state rep


Dear Rep Roebuck,
The school funding crisis is beyond out of control and tragic. Students died last year. A school police officer suffered a heart attack in school after breaking up a fight. He died. Another faculty member was jumped and hospitalized. Yet they propose to cut additional services and are constantly asking for teachers to give up money to save the district despite the fact that we didn't contribute to its financial ruin.

PLEASE keep fighting for us!

Also, PA's version of Value Added Measures, VAM, or PVAAS, that needs to be thrown out! They want to make teachers more accountable, but are totally stripping us of what we need to be as effective as we possibly can. It's not right, it's not fair and there needs to be an immediate cessation of such an ill-conceived, illogical, unfair, and insidious law.

I'm an elementary school teacher at John B. Kelly Elementary School. I'm committed to teaching,  to learning, and to the realistic, not idealistic, notion that our kids can have the best educational experiences that our schools have the potential energy to provide but a lack of a kinetic, consistent,  and equitable distribution of funds and resources to do what we all love!

There's so much more that I can say and I would love to have the opportunity to sit and meet with you and discuss the issues and real solutions!

Yours truly,
Stephen R. Flemming

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