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Guest Commentary June 20, 2002
Teachers Are Drowning in Paperwork
The Honorable Zell Miller
Both of my parents were teachers. I myself am a history teacher by profession. Three days after I left the Georgia Governor's office in 1999, I was back in the classroom teaching and very happy to be there. And I hope to return to the classroom again once I'm through here in the Senate. I love teaching. I believe it is one of the noblest -- if not the noblest -- professions a person can pursue.
But too often today, our teachers have to spend about as much time pushing papers as they do teaching our children. We have to ask ourselves: Of the two, which is more important?
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And the teachers who are burdened the most by paperwork are the ones who can least afford to give up precious minutes or hours with their students: special education teachers. Special ed teachers spend an average of five hours a week doing paperwork verus the two hours a week that a general educator spends on paperwork. It's not fair to those teachers and it's not fair to those special ed students. If anything, these students desperately need more attention from their teachers -- not less.
And the fact that special ed teachers are drowning in paperwork is a big reason that four out of 10 -- that's 40 percent -- leave the classroom before their fifth year.
We've got too many federal regulations requiring too many forms to be filled out. And too often, these federal regulations are misinterpreted at the state and local levels, resulting in even more paperwork for our teachers.
And then, there's the overwhelming amount of paperwork involved in drafting Individualized Education Programs for special ed students. Special ed teachers are documenting much more than they need to because of the threat of lawsuits.
So, I am very pleased to join Senator Santorum as a co-sponsor of the Teacher Paperwork Reduction Act of 2002.
This bill will make a big difference in reducing teacher paperwork. We can pass education reform after education reform, but our schools will not improve if the burden of paperwork is driving teachers crazy -- or worse -- driving them right out of the profession. We can no longer let reams of red tape take teachers away from their most important job: Educating our children.
Zell Miller, a Democrat, is a U.S. Senator from Georgia. The above commentary has been adapted from a statement Sen. Miller gave at a Capitol Hill news conference, June 20, 2002. To contact him, Click Here.
The above column has been distributed by PoliticsOL.com.
