We must support our public schools: Here’s how

Today, President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, advances to her final confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate. Public outcry against DeVos has exploded in a big way (or, to borrow an expression from our president, “big league” or “bigly” or whatever). A spokesman for Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the Senate received about 1.5 million calls every day last week; a staff member of Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said his office received 80,000 letters pertaining solely to DeVos’ nomination. With a likely 50-50 split for and against her confirmation, Vice President Mike Pence might just make an unprecedented journey to the Senate floor to break the tie for a cabinet nominee.

I, too, have joined in the outcry, sending messages to multiple senators urging them to oppose her confirmation. However, at the time of writing, I don’t know if the Senate has voted her in. With that in mind, rather than detail the many reasons DeVos should not hold any position in the department of education, I hereby dedicate this column to our public schools and, namely, what we can do to support them.

For one, hands-on assistance can help students in both their work and play. A little one-on-one homework tutoring, for example, can motivate students to finish up their assignments, and an outdoor activity afterward allows them to let loose some energy and feel the positivity of a job well done. Public schools typically host after-school programs for these exact purposes, but they often need additional volunteers to keep them running.

If you have a little extra time to contribute this semester, consider contacting a local public school and inquiring about volunteer opportunities like after-school programs. You can also do what I did for a semester and go through a program like MentorUF, which offers training and sets you up with a school program you can participate in during the week. Over the summer, you can reach out to programs like Kids Count in Alachua County and see how and where they need help. This volunteering helps twofold. Not only will the schools and students benefit from the help, but hanging out with the kids will remind you to keep up the positive energy — and just have fun sometimes.

If this semester is a particularly busy one, never fear: You can offer your time when you have the opportunity later, and in the meantime, you can donate other resources to your local public schools. To give monetary donations, for example, you can donate to the Education Foundation of Alachua County, which invests in local students through scholarships and educational programs. Its website provides a list of programs you can support, including Alachua County Public Schools’ Project Makeover and the science fair.

Sometimes we don’t always have money and time to spare, and that’s OK: We can still help our public schools through several free, relatively quick methods. Do you think we should provide better funding to particular departments like arts or music? Write or call your elected representatives. Do you think students should have access to more books at all age levels? Collect your old chapter books from home and ask your friends to contribute, and then take them to a local library.

There are plenty more ideas, and if you have any I haven’t mentioned, I encourage you to write them down, organize them into an opinion column like this one and submit them to this publication and others. No matter what happens today, we can keep working on behalf of education, on behalf of kids across the country, on behalf of our future.

Mia Gettenberg is a UF philosophy and criminology and law junior. Her column appears on Mondays.