Glimpses of an emergency

(or, there is no "Public School Plan B")

This morning, as I was getting ready to leave for a meeting and Richard was on his way to work, we had a call from the girls’ school. Harriet had a high fever—could someone pick her up?

We knew she probably had strep throat—Bea had just gotten over her second bout with it, and after a quick phone call we had an appointment at our doctor’s office. I was at her preschool playground in less than ten minutes, running up the sidewalk to pick up my poor, sweet little girl, who was wrapped up in a hoodie and her pink butterfly dress in Ms. Donna’s arms.

This was an ordinary sort of emergency—she’d be okay, I knew that. But her high fever was the definition of emergency: “a serious, unexpected, and dangerous situation requiring immediate action.” She needed treatment. Had I done nothing, she could have gotten much sicker, or could have infected another child or adult who wouldn’t get better as easily.

So we went to the doctor, got tested (it was strep). We got medicine, came home, and cuddled up in bed. And as Harriet napped I read a little more about Governor Cooper’s declaration of a “Public Education Emergency,” which calls out what our Republican supermajority is trying to do public schools in North Carolina.

Here’s what the Republicans in the NC legislature are up to:

-They’re giving our underpaid teachers minimal, insulting, drive-them-away raises (less than 2.5% this year).

-They’re giving tax cuts to the wealthiest citizens, reducing state funds by 20%.

-They’re investing in private academies instead of public schools.

-They’re politicizing the classroom with unnecessary, unwelcoming, anti-trans kids, anti-historical bills like the “Parents Bill of Rights”

Yes, this is an emergency. Code red. Yet on a run the other day, my friend Julie and I talked about how we worried that the impending “state of emergency” announcement might further drive families away from the public schools, which our families love and depend on.

So I want re-frame “emergency” a little bit. Emergency doesn’t always mean a burning building you have to flee. Sometimes it’s an easily treatable illness. A fever that can be brought down with Motrin, a virus treatable with amoxicillin.

Sometimes it’s something you save—a forest, an institution—because a community depends on it, and because you can and must save it. Sometimes what makes an emergency is what is being threatened: something precious to you.

Here are just a few things, glimpsed today, that make our public school precious to me, and why senate bill 406 (“Choose Your School, Choose Your Future”) is an EMERGENCY.

Because it would threaten all of these things I love and depend on:

-One of Harriet’s preschool teachers, Ms. Donna, cradling her as I ran up the sidewalk.

-The Pete the Cat book in her cubby that was an end-of-year gift from Ms. Spell, our wonderful librarian.

-Two parent volunteers spreading mulch on the pollinator garden behind the cafeteria (one of them was Julie!) as we drove away.

-A message from Bea’s third-grade teacher, Ms. Tuite, encouraging all the parents in class to give our kids extra “running around” time this week to help with end of grade testing nerves.

-A secret plan from Nicholas’s mom to give little encouraging notes to all the kids in class.

-The gorgeous bulletin boards from by Ms. Drechsler’s art classes (“Ask a Kindergartener about Jean-Michel Basquiat”) that I always admire at drop-off and pick-up…

-Being able to pick Bea up after school (Harriet was napping) from a safe, quality after-care program that encourages teamwork and exercise.

I have more to say about private schools that I don’t have time to say right now… look for an Abbott-themed post about that later this week.

But for now, I want to know what’s precious about your public schools? Why will you fight for them? Give us a glimpse of your public school and what makes it great in the comments…

Also, call your representatives about these destructive bills! And take care of yourselves, Frog Troublers!