Want to improve schools? Help families

Want to improve schools? Help families
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Saturday, July 8, 2023

The headline on a recent oped written by Virginia Del. Mike Cherry caught my attention: “Want to improve schools? Start by empowering parents,” June 30.

Del. Cherry used this opportunity to bash Democrats, noting their failure to support specific education legislation in the Virginia General Assembly.

Unfortunately, our politicians spend too much time criticizing each party while accomplishing little on behalf of students, teachers and parents.

Everyone has an opinion about public education and how to fi x our schools. Those opinions cover lots of topics complete with multiple recommendations, but rarely does anyone talk about a significant challenge to every classroom: the erosion of our families.

In August 2022, The Annie E. Casey Foundation reported that nearly 24 million children live in single-parent families in the United States, or about 1 in every 3 kids across America.

Del. Cherry referenced data from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission related to disruptive student behaviors in our schools. From the teachers surveyed: “56% said behavior is a ‘very serious issue,’ while 24% called it a ‘serious’ problem.”

I wonder how many of Virginia’s disruptive students come from single-parent homes?

Republicans and Democrats can talk all they want about introducing legislation to “empower teachers with the support they need to allow them to better handle discipline in their classrooms.”

Yet, those same teachers who confirmed their concerns about disruptive student behaviors can unequivocally state there will be no empowering of classroom teachers until we address the challenges our families face every day.

This is because our teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade understand: For a student, it all starts at home.

Want to improve our schools?

Then embrace what our classroom teachers have known for many years: It all starts at home.
Virginia, we are overdue to halt the erosion of our families.

Bill Pike Henrico

Author’s note: This letter to the editor was written in response to an Op-Ed piece that appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on June 30, 2023. If you have a family member, relative, friends, and neighbors who teach in public schools, please consider sharing this letter with them. No pressure, thanks, Bill Pike