Juni Testimony – DCPS Budget Hearing – Nov 16 2022

My name is Juni—-, and I am a 4^th grader at Amidon Bowen Elementary School. I would like to ask you to spend more money on increasing aide and substitute salaries, putting money into computers, and giving schools good materials.

I think you should put more money into funding teacher aide and substitute salaries. Teacher aides and substitutes get paid much less than general teachers. Also, DCPS leadership gets paid a huge amount which is unfair! Teacher aides get paid on average only a little more than the minimum wage. Substitutes get paid about $160 per day if they work. That can result in money problems for them and can mean if something bad happens, they may have a hard time doing their job or even getting to their job. I have seen in my years in Amidon-Bowen that the teacher aides and substitutes work very hard at managing kids. Meanwhile, other people may not work half as hard but still get paid more. I think the aides and substitutes should have an increase in their salaries.

Another thing I think you should consider is putting more money into computers. I have seen for myself that sometimes computers don’t work or are very slow. I also see that there are not enough spare computers all the time so sometimes a student takes another student’s computer and when that student looks for their computer, they can’t find it. Then, that can cause confusion that disrupts the entire class. The thing is, computers are an important part of learning these days, so every child needs a good quality computer. I think you should either put money into more spare computers or put money into making sure the computers are working well.

You should also give schools enough decent quality materials. When the school year started, there were not enough headphones, dry erase markers, and pencil sharpeners. Also, sometimes dry erase markers stop working and parts of headphones break off. Without headphones, when students are working on their online work, they hear all the other computers, and they cannot focus on their own work. School supplies are essential to learning and students like me need them. As some of the top people in DCPS, it is your responsibility to provide materials that work to schools. It is not the responsibility of teachers to buy them. I think you should use your money to provide enough decent quality materials for the schools.

Thank you for listening to me.