The national shortage of educators is not only making the job of educating students more difficult, it is also creating campus safety issues that are unacceptable to all involved. Lack of adequate pay and unrealistic workloads are pushing educators out of the field. School staff that continue during these circumstances are burdened with an increased workload, thus creating a vicious cycle of more work and fewer staff members to share the burden. In short, public education is in crisis with multiple hands involved in its demise. 

As billionaires with seemingly unlimited funds initiate vanity space programs, public schools face austerity budgets that make the job of educating increasingly difficult. A free and fair education system is one of the pillars of a democratic system of government. One sign of the overall health of a nation is the way in which funds are distributed amongst its people. The siphoning off of public monies to corporations and the rich is breaking the back of one the most important institutions in the nation. Educators are at the forefront in this battle to preserve our schools, since many of the groups that are supposed to support our cause have failed to stand by us in our time of need.  

Whereas, increased class sizes and teacher vacancies are substantially affecting students’ learning, we ask that City Center employees with current education licenses be placed in schools to help fill the over 750 current APS openings.

Whereas, the implementation of the new evaluation system has been problematic and a time burden on teachers who are already fulfilling multiple roles, we ask that evaluations be put on hold until the staff shortage has been addressed. 

Whereas, the pay at all levels of school staff is stagnant while our duties and responsibilities have increased substantially  and recent raises have not kept up with the rising cost of living, which is pushing staff members to look for second jobs or to leave the field entirely, we ask for an immediate raise in salaries in order to retain and attract qualified individuals into this field. 

Whereas, Special Education teachers are being asked to increase their caseloads which decreases the amount of time that sponsor teachers spend addressing the often complex, individual issues for each sponsee, we ask for funding to hire more teachers so that caseload sizes are appropriate.

Whereas, campus safety issues are affecting the entire school community, and without enough staff, security cannot be ensured for students and educators alike, and non-security staff are being asked to fill in the gaps not only on an academic level but as monitors of common spaces, we ask that security officers be hired immediately. 

Whereas, educational assistants are grossly underpaid, leaving special education students without the support needed to meet the requirements stipulated in their IEPs, an immediate raise in pay is necessary to retain and attract qualified individuals into this field of work. In addition, if educational assistants were fully staffed, schools would have an increased adult presence to support safer school communities.  

Whereas, privatizing substitute services has exacerbated the shortage by requiring a minimum of three work days per week for substitutes, and teachers, educational assistants and certified staff are routinely being asked to cover when substitutes are not available to fill the number of openings on a daily basis, we ask that this for-profit company withdraw this requirement to attract more people to substitute. In addition, an immediate increase in wages is necessary to fill positions as soon as possible. It is apparent that substitute teachers are a vital part of the school system. Their work is valuable and should be recognized by the district. 

The crisis in education that is occurring on a national, state, and local level could be completely averted if schools and their staff were fully funded. The small, inconsequential raises that educators have received in the last couple of years are simply not enough. Educators provide an essential service for our community and deserve to be paid for a job that is becoming more and more difficult.   

We, the undersigned, agree that immediate action is necessary to keep our schools in the Albuquerque Public School District operating in an effective manner to educate students in the safest conditions possible.