Education is a system of instruction, and we’re all involved in it, said Tasha Smith, a fifth-grade teacher in the district of Woodrow, N.Y. But in recent years, that’s not the case.
In fact, some of the teachers most directly affected by the crisis, and most concerned about what’s going on in the school system, have been left out of the equation.
The district is still struggling to meet state and federal standards for quality.
And while the federal government has started to provide funding for the district to make up for lost federal dollars, many teachers still don’t have the funding they need to pay for textbooks and other materials.
Tasha’s story illustrates the importance of education as a key component of a successful system, and how many other teachers in the area are in the same position.
Smith was laid off from her job in April.
Her job in Woodrow has been replaced with a new position in a different district.
And she’s still struggling with the issue of teacher salaries and pay.
She said she was offered the same kind of position in New York, but the pay wasn’t the same.
“I just don’t want to be a part of it,” she said.
Smith is now trying to figure out how to pay herself in New Jersey.
She says she could have easily gotten a new job, but her family and friends have stopped talking to her because they know that if they do she could lose her job.
She also knows that her union, the United Teachers Local 1776, hasn’t supported her financially since the crisis began.
And because the state is paying for her medical insurance, she has no way of getting that money back.
But she doesn’t want her family to lose hope.
“My heart is broken,” Smith said.
“But the worst part is, they’re hurting me.”
Tasha and her husband, Matt, started working at the district’s elementary school, Tasha said.
The new job was “a great opportunity,” she added.
“We’re learning a lot about our school, and the teacher who is doing this right now has been great.”
The district also started paying teachers overtime, and a new school board was created, which made teaching more affordable for students.
“The money has been a great opportunity for us,” Tasha added.
But for the first few weeks of her new job at the school, she wasn’t able to do what she wanted to do at home.
“When I got the job, I had no plans,” Tessa said.
She was only getting $3 an hour.
And when the school district announced that teachers would be allowed to take home up to $1,000 per month for health care and retirement benefits, Tessa was upset.
“It’s a huge amount of money for a single person,” she explained.
“They can’t afford it, and I don’t think I can afford it.”
After the first couple of weeks, Tanya, who had recently moved from New York to be closer to her husband and two daughters, was getting her first paycheck of the new year.
But that money wasn’t enough.
“After the first paycheck, it just kind of started piling up,” she recalled.
“And I couldn’t make ends meet.”
Tanya has been trying to help others with her family.
She’s held weekly lunch meetings at the family home to help teachers get to know their new colleagues.
She has made small-group classes for teachers and other students.
And on the school bus, she tries to talk to students about the district and their schools.
But her work isn’t done yet.
“There’s still so much work to do, so many people who don’t get paid,” Tanya said.
Tanya and her family are trying to get the district involved in the teachers’ pension system, but so far, she said, the teachers have been “unresponsive.”
And the district is struggling to pay teachers who are owed back wages for the years since the recession hit.
Teachers are also being paid out of a budget that was cut nearly in half during the recession.
And a school district official recently told the New York Daily News that a large number of teachers are being left without their wages even though the district has provided them with their severance packages.
“To be honest, it’s frustrating,” Taya said.
In order to help her family out, Taya has been working on a petition to help raise funds for her pension.
She and Matt plan to make a $1 million donation to a local chapter of the National Education Association.
The union represents more than 100,000 educators, and has been one of the biggest supporters of the Teachers’ Pension System Act of 2018.
But the bill is still being negotiated, and many teachers who want to support Tanya’s effort have said they don’t feel it is enough.
They say they want to see the system repaired