Page 8 - IAV Digital Magazine #429

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Teacher Of The Year In Oklahoma Moves To Texas For The Money
By Emily Wendler
About exactly a year ago we brought you the story of Shawn Sheehan, Oklahoma's 2016 Teacher of the Year.
At the time, he and about 40 other educators were running for office in the state, wanting to make a change because, as Sheehan puts it, lawmakers weren't prioritizing education. Fundin
g for schools in the state has been cut tremen- dously over the past decade and teachers in Oklahoma are some of the low- est paid in the country.
"And unfortunate- ly, it didn't go the way that we had wanted," he says.
Sheehan, a math teacher, didn't win that race. In the end, only five of the 40 educators actually took office.
Despite, he still hung on to hope that legislators this session would come up with enough fund- ing to give teach- ers a raise.
Then, "things went south pretty quickly," Sheehan says. He held his breath while law- makers duked it out, but in the end, there was no additional money for public schools, or their teachers.
Now he says he
just can't make ends meet any- more teaching in Norman, Okla.
So, he's leaving for Texas.
Over the past few years, thousands of public school teachers in Oklahoma, like Sheehan, have left the state for better pay and less stress (fewer classes, smaller classes, less instruction time). It's gotten so bad that the state department of education has had to issue emergency teacher certifica- tions to replace teachers as quickly as possi- ble.
Across the state, textbooks are out of date, electives have been elimi- nated, and sup- port positions are being terminated left and right.
"It feels good because I know I'm doing the right thing for my fami- ly, but it also feels sad."
Sheehan and his
wife
are both public school teachers. Supporting just two people, he says they could make the money work. Together they brought in about $3,600 a month. "So, after all bills are paid, we're sitting on about $400-450 per month."
But in late 2016, they had a daughter.
"Sure, life can be done on $400, $450 a month, but I would chal- lenge others out there to buy dia- pers, groceries and all the things that you need for a family of three on $400."
In Texas, he and his wife will see an increase of about $40,000 a year. "We're start- ing at numbers that we will never ever see in this state as educa- tors."
Sheehan says that he did every- thing that he could think of to improve the situa- tion. He ran for
office, he started a non-profit,
"and I'm hitting a wall," he says. "So, I'm not going to keep running in to that wall with my daughter in my hands... that's what I'm saying."
Jon Hazell, this year's teacher of the year, says he would ask Sheehan: If more teachers leave, who is going to teach Oklahoma's children?
"Who's going to mentor them? And who's going to bring them up in this climate that's really tough?"
Hazell believes you can't put a dollar amount on teaching children. It's a privilege that he's been doing for more than 30 years.
And Sheehan respects that idea, but dis- agrees. He says he feels called to teach, but he also wants to be paid like a profession- al.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine