Support our young people and their teachers

We live diverse and complex lives in an era of complex and difficult times. I have been very fortunate to have lived most of my life in what seems to have been the best of American times. I am ending up feeling very grateful for my life and all the benefits I have experienced.

Those benefits did not just happen. Those benefits happened because of the hard work by public school teachers, students, school administrators, school workers, school board members, taxpayers, legislators, parents and members of corporations.

Currently we are coming off the 2008 recession and the more recent crash of oil prices and their effects on all of us. Money, budgets, savings, revenues  and the Permanent Fund are, by necessity, our current focus. My concern is that our current focus does not emphasize two of our most important resources: our young people and their teachers, and their well-being. Failure to focus on the needs of students and teachers is I believe at the heart of the high opioid use, the high crime rate, our high suicide rate, our high domestic abuse rate and many other problems.

Not helping matters, our national government is expanding our military's budget by $65 billion dollars this year while blaming our schools and teachers for our future problems. The debt incurred in the latest tax cut will be paid by us and the young people currently being shortchanged. Instead of supporting the education of young people, we are cutting their budgets. Evidence of the validity of that statement may be found in the report, "Decade of Neglect," by the American Federation of Teachers.

Now is the time to address our students' and teachers' needs to prepare them for a better future. The media can help educate us for what is needed. Time magazine recognized the importance of this goal and gave time and space to the needs of teachers in their Sept. 24 issue.

I recommend reading about these teachers to learn why teachers recently walked out in six states, including Arizona to Oklahoma. We need to be pushing to settle contracts in Alaska and avoiding the waste of time and energy in arguing. Alaskan young people and teachers deserve better. I hope we can make a better future happen for all of us.

Hugh R. Hays, Ph.D., worked as a science and math teacher from 1977-1987 at Kenai Central High School and Soldotna High. He was president of the Kenai Peninsula Educators Association from 1980-1981.