Evan Brandt, Pottstown Mercury
POTTSTOWN — Sometimes it’s just best to see things first hand.
That’s what U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-4th Dist., was doing Monday when she visited two Pottstown schools. She spent the morning at Pottstown High School and later at Rupert Elementary School.
At the high school, Dean said she heard from students and staff about the difficulties of trying to learn and teach virtually and how much “they all want this all to end so they can get back to something that looks like normal.”
At Rupert, Principal Matthew Moyer told Dean about the “huge staffing problem” the district, his school included, is facing.
“Just this week, we are finally up to full staff for the first time all year. It’s the worse I’ve seen it in 17 years,” Moyer said.
An even more severe problem exists in finding substitutes. That’s because Pennsylvania’s pool of potential teachers, from which substitutes have traditionally been drawn, was dwindling even before the COVID-19 pandemic made it worse.
“It’s a statewide problem I know, but we have fewer people with teaching certificates trickling down to us and it’s very hard to fill positions,” said Moyer.
It can even be hard to fill classrooms with students. Since the pandemic began, and questions about whether there would be in-person learning or cyberlearning, Moyer said he has seen an alarming uptick in truancy.
Some students, Moyer said, take the pandemic measures in stride. “For the younger ones, they’ve never experienced a regular day of school, this is what they know,” Moyer said. But some students are having more trouble staying motivated.
“We’re having bigger attendance problems than we’ve ever had,” Moyer told Dean. “It’s like we all got out of the habit of going to school; it’s quadrupled during the pandemic.”
He said local judges “are inundated” with truancy cases. “And the parents get fined and I’m thinking ‘I don’t want your money. I want your kids in school,'” Moyer said.
Dean said she is hearing similar concerns from two student task forces with whom she consults regularly.
“These kids are so impressive, and they have real insights into what’s going on in the schools and the struggle is all over,” she said.
That’s what the Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Policy Committee found earlier this month during a virtual hearing organized by the committee chair, state Sen. Katie Muth, D-44th Dist. and state Sen. Lindsey Williams from Allegheny County’s 38th Dist.
“Staffing shortages have an enormous price tag and they take a tremendous toll on students, staff, and parents,” said Muth after hearing more than two hours of testimony at the Feb. 1 hearing at which she heard not only from teachers and administrators, but from bus drivers, school nurses, and cafeteria works as well.
“We have an education workforce crisis in Pennsylvania impacting teachers, school nurses, support staff, guidance counselors and bus drivers. This is unfortunately not a new issue, but these challenges have become far more pronounced throughout the pandemic,” Muth said.
“The lack of equitable and sustainable funding for our public school system, staff turnover and low retention rates, and low wages are all barriers that can be overcome,” said Muth. “We need long-term solutions like student loan forgiveness for educators, guaranteed benefits and living wages, and retirement security.”
“We need to take this once in a lifetime opportunity to invest federal funds and a surplus of state funds directly into the next generation — these are our future school nurses, teachers, counselors, and bus drivers,” Williams said in a press release issued after the hearing. “We must seize this moment. The last three years have shown us that our schools are in many ways the keystone of our society — and for a better society, we must invest in our public education system and begin to address the school staffing challenges we heard today.”
Those future nurses, teachers and counselors — at least those learning in a third-grade class at Rupert — had a lot of questions for a visiting member of Congress.
Teacher Jamie Parris, himself a product of the Pottstown school system, had just finished a lesson on elections and elected officials when Dean arrived with Moyer, school board member and director of community relations John Armato, and a reporter in tow.
“One of the things I need to know to do my job is more about how we’re educating our children. How are you all doing?” she asked.
What the children wanted to know, on the other hand, were things like “how did you get there from Washington, D.C.?” “Do you have any free time? “Have you met President Joe Biden?” and when Dean responded yes, she had, there was a collective gasp. An even larger gasp sprang up when Dean said she also had met former president Barrack Obama as well.
The students also wanted to know if she had “eaten fancy food” in The White House. And while she has not, she told them Biden gave her group an impromptu tour of The White House recently where they saw the bowling alley (“there’s a bowling alley?!?” they asked) and the movie theater.
More important than the cool stuff in the White House, Dean told the students, is to understand that in a democracy, elected officials in positions like hers answer to the people who elect them. She explained that she works both in Washington, and back here in Montgomery County for her constituents. “Did you know you are my constituents?” she asked them.
“Public service is about helping somebody else,” Dean explained. “It’s very satisfying.”
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