Dear Sir or Madam,

Hello. My name is Katelyn Caudle. I’m a 27 year old college graduate. I attended a very well respected public university. I received a degree from an excellent program, and passed my required certification exams for my field of work with flying colors. I have a more than full time job that I love doing; this job satisfies my soul. I also, like many in my profession, work a second and sometimes third job just to keep the lights on, and food on the table.

You may have guessed by now what it is that I do for a living. I am a teacher. I work in an incredible school, in an outstanding district. My students are the most important thing in my life. I know which students live in poverty. I know which students are tired in class, because they work until after midnight to help out a single mother. I know which students just need one adult to treat them with respect. I know which kids have never felt appreciated in their entire lives. The world doesn’t give all of my kids a fair chance, but public education should.

My students are the future of our great state. They are our future doctors, attorneys, police officers, teachers, mechanics, businessmen, artists, firefighters, and even politicians. Someday very soon, they will vote. I do my damnedest every day to give them a good enough education, so that when this day arrives, they will know how important their vote is.

I do my best to show them their worth. I work my tail off to help them see their value, because you clearly do not, and you get to decide how much funding my school receives.

You, who have never taught a day in your life…you, who when you retire, will live very comfortably on a nice fat pension check… you, who have no idea the wars we battle every day in public education. You not only get to decide how much I make, but also, how much money we are allowed to spend on education to the masses.

I am very fortunate that I work in a district, and for a principal, who does their best every single day to help us not feel your prior cuts as deeply as we could. But you are now tying their hands as well.

I am worth more.

I am worth more that what you are giving me. I bust my ass every day to be the best teacher I can be for these kids. My parents didn’t pay for my college, so I’m paying off student loans every month. I am single; I don’t have dual income to help with living expenses. You have decided that because I chose this profession, I get to live with the salary. Well, you are wrong on both counts. See, I believe that no one “chooses to be a teacher.” Teachers are born to be teachers. We are created from the heart outwards. And, I do not have to put up with the humiliating pay check. My time, my brain, my heart, and my will for student success (and that of my colleagues) is worth more, and is respected more in just about any other state.

Don’t tell me there isn’t any money to dish out, because we both know that’s a lie. Your pension check, for example, will probably be around $160,000 a year, unless of course your name is Mary Fallin, in which case you will bank $175,000 a year. After taxes, I bring home about $22,000 per year. Please tell me how this is ok.

Yesterday you came up with another budget cut for our schools, one that we will start to feel this year. I need to tell you about my kids, the ones you are hurting. You have decided to take away money from lunch programs. Are you aware that for a lot of Oklahoma kids, the hot lunch they eat at school is their only hot meal, if not their only meal, of the day? You have completely cut STEM funding. Let me repeat that. YOU HAVE COMPLETELY CUT STEM FUNDING. When we have no Oklahoma students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, or math, I will gladly direct all blame to you. You have cut budgets for advanced placement training for teachers. Now, our high achieving, college bound students will be impacted.

You break my heart 128 times every day. Every time I see one of my kids denied something by you, my heart breaks. The irony here is that you are denying them something that you were allowed to take advantage of, and has no doubt helped you achieve the position you are in today. As American citizens, we all have a right to a good, free, public education. Public education needs funds in order to continue to be good. We are growing by thousands of kids each year in Oklahoma Public Ed, but we are continuing to see the funds for these students cut.

Sir Thomas More wrote, “For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them.” I fear for the society we are creating for ourselves. I fear a society where students are given an extremely watered down education, but still held to incredibly high standards. Their reactions are something to be considerate of. This is a generation of kids that have embraced the mob mentality, especially when social media is concerned.

I do not know the solution to this problem, but I do know that this problem warrants a solution. Find the solution, before it is too late.

What you are doing is not ok. I am worth more. My colleagues are worth more. My kids are worth more.

Sincerely,

Katelyn Caudle

“Ms. C”