The Anchorage Education Association asked its members if we would take some time today to write a letter to someone who makes political decisions about our careers. So I’d like to say a few words to my fellow teachers.

At an AEA meeting, a teacher took the mike to say that she just wanted the bargaining team to get her more planning time, she didn’t want us to “get political.” I think a lot of us feel that way: Please just let us do our jobs; they’re about all we have time for. I understand: We’re tired; we have issues of our own going on. Meetings and candidate events tend to happen in the evening, and teachers get up very early.

But it matters. The people who want to underfund our classrooms, devalue our experience and training, judge us, our schools, and our students by narrow and flawed statistics, and replace us at will with anyone who’ll race us to the bottom — those people don’t mind getting political at all. And they’ve begun. Please. Pay attention.

— Barb Clark

Anchorage