By Ryan Ellefsen, Director of Bands and Orchestras, East Chapel Hill High School

I have to admit that I wasn’t as excited to start this school year as much as I had been for all the others. That feeling has been gnawing away at me since the beginning of August…Have I lost “it”? Did the fire to inspire fail to ignite this year…and if it had, does it mean that I need to think about a different profession? I couldn’t understand WHY something I knew I wanted to do since the 8th grade suddenly left me.

Then, I watched this video. You can watch it if you want. Or not. You probably get exactly the message of the video from the picture thumbnail. That’s when it hit me. This anxiety isn’t from anything lacking in my desire to teach, but everything in the attitude of the NC General Assembly toward the profession I care for so profoundly. They stare – directly to our faces – smile and offer us a mansion, then tell us they are building it on sand. They tout the “largest increase in educational funding in NC History”, yet I could throw a dart at a map of the US blindfolded and be virtually guaranteed the state it hits has a higher average salary. We teach the masses to be college ready, but can’t afford to send our own children…to the doctor! They look right in our eyes and tell us that they appreciate us, but actively work to dismantle the system – a system that wasn’t actually broken – a system that is drowning as the NCGA holds our face under the water.

I’m not ashamed to admit that this anxiety has brought me near tears or actually in tears every time I revisit the issue. Fine…give me a paltry wage, but give the students textbooks. Fine…give me an unfair evaluation system, but give the students an opportunity. Not a grant. Fine…give me the reputation as “part of a broken system”, but give the public the accountability that comes only from a truly public and transparent educational system.

Of course, all of this is wrong, but what is worse is that you’ve taken the love that teachers have, that love that pushes them to endure through all this, and you’ve replaced it with fear.

With so many teachers and students losing in this situation…who win$?

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