After SPIN! Video: What other areas will suffer from eliminating teacher assistants?

Published August 13, 2015

After SPIN! "Question to Doug Raymond – The State Senate budget contains a provision to eliminate Teacher Assistants. In a former life you were a public school teacher.  The Senate also wants to hire a number of new teachers to replace the assistants and reduce class sizes. Educators say with school about to begin they don’t know what to do. Should they fire TA’s before classes begin, They say they can’t find that many qualified teachers to hire and there isn’t the classroom space for the smaller class sizes. This appears to be a perfect storm brewing. What do you believe is going to happen?"

August 13, 2015 at 8:04 pm
Tammy Albright says:

I think that it would be smart of all parties to take a step back and look at all the roles that ONE assistant does during their day at work. I, for one, have been an assistant for 19 years and enjoy every day. That day includes, but definitely not limited to, meeting students as they arrive at school in car rider line, watching over breakfast duty or "crowd control" of approximately 250 early arrivers in the gym with only one other assistant. Then I instruct whole class and small group instruction in not only one grade but THREE. I also am a first responder, restraint trained, lice identifier among other duties that get handed to me. It truly is a rewarding job but how many others would continue to do this job when their position is threatened annually and are told that they are not important. Making smaller classrooms would be a great thing for the students but where are the teachers that are going to teach them? There is such a shortage of instructors that assistants are called for substitutes and never receive the higher amount of pay that a sub does. Just a thought. Ask an assistant, don't just assume you know what we do.