School counselors give lifelong value
It has been an honor serving our community as an elementary school counselor for the past nine years. By teaching students how to solve conflicts peacefully and how to manage uncomfortable feelings, I am promoting a healthier future for all Alaskans.
Unfortunately, it appears our state leaders do not value my work. My colleagues and I have experienced a lot of change in the last three years. I am now split among multiple schools and the number of students I work with has more than doubled.
While I am grateful to have this career, I am now responsible for four times what is recommended by the American School Counseling Association. The job shuffling caused by flat state funding and the resulting school district job cuts have eroded my ability to establish therapeutic-trusting relationships with students.
With many of our clinical counseling agencies facing waiting lists of four to six months, it makes sense to fund school counselors. By increasing support to schools we are providing the necessary reinforcement our kids need for lifelong success.
I encourage any legislator to contact me and learn more about a typical day in the life of a school counselor because writing about it here requires more space than this entry allows.
-- Angie Jensen
Anchorage
Heres a challenge for you, Jenkins
On the off chance that anybody still pays attention to Paul Jenkins' rants (I'm talking about you, Alaska legislators), I would he happy to refute his latest specious reasoning about Medicaid expansion (May 10).
His first claim that Alaska cannot afford Medicaid expansion conveniently ignores the fact that it would actually bring jobs and money into the state, even according to the conservative Chamber of Commerce.
His claim that we shouldn't provide Medicaid to the thousands of our fellow Alaskans currently living with no coverage until the system is perfect enough for him is like me saying that the U.S. military (or Alaska National Guard) should be shut down until I think that it is running exactly like I want it to.
He says that "The big question is whether there will be any doctors left to see them," thus admitting that so many Alaskans are receiving no health care whatsoever, it would overtax our present supply of doctors if they did. Remember the "bringing more jobs to Alaska" part of the equation? Mr. Jenkins apparently doesn't want any more doctors in the state. After all, they might actually treat many of those people he so disdains.
Medicaid opponents are very fond of investing in private health insurance companies because they pay such nice dividends to the stockholders. Of course, they make their huge profits by charging customers as much as they possibly can, and then limiting the amount of treatment available when people actually need it. I challenge Mr. Jenkins to give up his public and private health insurance until such time as he decides that Medicaid is "good enough." I will gladly join him. (What about you, legislators?)
I have a feeling that these brave men fighting "big government" would change their view of Medicaid pretty quickly if their own well-being depended on it.
-- Leif Simcox
Anchorage
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