I attended private Catholic schools in Ohio for 18 years. I have taught in public schools in California for 20 years. Each year I take students from Live Oak High School to a three-day program, Camp Everytown, during which we participate in a privilege exercise. In this exercise, you move up if you have received some sort of privilege (such as having books at home or having parents that graduated from college) and you step back if you received some sort of deficit (a parent who has been out of work or having to stay home from school with siblings who are sick). Each year, I turn around from my place in the front of the line and am confronted with the real gap we expect education to close.
We tell our students, no matter where they stand on that privilege line, that working hard in school will lead to success. Each step that separates the front and the back of our privilege line is really a message that those in the back have to work that much harder to reach the same success as those in the front. Each step between the front and the back is an extra obstacle those in the back have to overcome to reach any kind of equality: having to move multiple times in a school year, coming home to an empty house, witnessing crime in your neighborhood, and going without proper medication or healthcare. If we want education to be the great equalizer in our society, we have to work to equalize the lives our students are living now instead of expecting some children to work harder to get to equal.
A Living Wage policy in Santa Clara County will help students in Santa Clara move forward on that line now. When parents are earning a living wage, students are fed, they can afford school supplies, and they can participate in extracurricular activities like athletics, music, and student government. When parents have earned sick leave, they do not have to choose between sending a sick child to school and losing their job by staying home with their child. If parents had consistent work schedules, including the ability to schedule work around school hours, they could participate more regularly in school events and their child’s education.
On Tuesday, November 18, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors will consider a progressive Living Wage for the county and its contractors. As an educator, I support the living wage because it closes the privilege gap for my students now.
Gemma Abels is Vice President of the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers
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