Martin: Beware the 'trespass offerings' of political poachers

We barely have a voice left, the days have grown weary, and we have few chances left if any at all. This is all we have left sadly at this point in our profession. As teachers, we can no longer stand behind our doors burying our heads to avoid watching the extinction of our profession. We must wake up to the notion that political poachers have trespassed the values and origins of our profession. They have begun the process of taking the God-given gift of teaching right out of the heart of our profession.

Let us not forget: We made teaching excellent a long time ago, so we should not be satisfied as the inheritance of our practice is threatened. At a time where education should be expanding to meet global demands, we are being shrunken to satisfy political poachers. If we keep letting them dictate to us what is and what is not quality teaching, then our children will become confined by the dispossession of our practice.

These poachers are only making a “trespass offering” that only reveals their personal political agendas and their own lack of insight while justifying themselves as they turn our public integrated school system into a private segregated school system. If we as a nation have fought so hard to make education a civil right, then why are we allowing these poachers to destroy that right? Our system is endangered and public school as we now know it will become extinct in South Carolina if we do not take a stand immediately.

VGY Martin, Richland County