Last year was tough. Mostly virtual. Felt like 36 weeks of intense professional development. With protocols and mandatory asynchronous time on classes, I maybe had about 40% of the “face” time that I would usually get in a typical school year. And the state still “tested” students.

But this year is tougher, and it is not the fault of any of the students. If anything, they have been the “adults in the rooms.” Most of them have shown that they want to be in the school setting absorbing all of the experiences of school: friends, socialization, hands on instruction, extracurricular activities, athletics, etc.

Yes, there is still a pandemic going on and rates of infection are high, but what has made this year tougher than last are the preventable circumstances educators find themselves in and the handling of the school system by those in power.

When class sizes are huge, there are not enough bus drivers and no crossing guards, and we have no new state budget to account for nonrecurring funds, then it is easy to see that adults are the biggest hurdle to schools.

Those are not students who are crying “indoctrination” and “NO CRT IN SCHOOLS!” Those are adults.

Those are not students who are deliberately holding up budget creation. Those are adults.

Those are not students making news with actions at school board meetings. Those are adults.

But those are students in the classrooms.

Do you really know how many unfilled positions are in our schools right now? According to TeachNC:

Now, look to see if there are enough subs to fill any vacancies that may occur on a daily basis.

Yes, this year is tougher than last year.

And it is not because of the pandemic. The findings of the LEANDRO court case happened long before the pandemic.

The pandemic exacerbated already strained conditions that have been fostered by politicians and opponents of fully funding education.

That’s the fault of the adults.