By Jolie Jackson
A group of teachers and retired teachers in the Friendswood area are combating the issue of teachers’ lack of paid time off. President Kelly Browning started the group called Parents For Public Education.
“Our president used to teach here with me, and then she and I were working on ways to make education better, specifically in Friendswood,” Chairperson Deidre Stevens said. “Somebody mentioned to her to think bigger than Friendswood, so that’s how she started thinking.”
Recently, the group gave grants of up to $500 to teachers who had their pay docked due to caring for themselves or a loved one. Thanks to generous donors, 14 teachers received grants.
“The money that I received from Parents for Public Education is going towards paying my son’s hospital bills,” grant recipient Aly King said. “It’s been a whole year since he was born, and they are not paid off yet.”
The most prevalent issue regarding docked pay is unpaid maternity leave. Parents For Public Education is working at the state level, pushing a bill in the legislative council for 12 weeks of state-funded maternity leave for teachers.
“A lot of people don’t realize that the things done for employees across the state will apply to anyone else who’s working and employed through the state, but then teachers will be the exception,” Stevens said. “We’re asking state senators and representatives to do for us what they’re doing for other state employees.”
Teachers on maternity leave are usually docked around $10K- $16K. This does not include the benefits they may have to reimburse or any additional days they will take off work.
“Without my husband’s income, I would not have been able to take the necessary time off to heal and take care of my newborn,” English teacher Chelsea Sundstrom said. “To be honest, without my husband’s income helping support us, we probably would have never chosen to have children because I don’t think we could’ve managed it without changing careers.”
According to Mrs. Sundstrom, this program is very important, and the problem of teacher burnout will worsen without action.
“So many teachers leave the profession every year from teacher burnout,” she said. “Now, combine that with caring for a family. If teachers don’t get enough support, the likelihood of leaving the profession increases substantially because what made the job ‘worth it’ is no longer worth it. Teacher turnover will only continue to get worse because we won’t have anything left to give.”
Applications for grants are open for the 2024-2025 school year. If you wish to apply or donate to this cause, all information can be found at https://parentsforpubliceducation.org/
