Volume 4, Issue 38, September 20, 2004
STRAIGHT TALK WITH SAM
Paperwork Reduction
When teachers first begin their careers, they look forward to educating
children in the hopes of preparing them for the future. However, the
bureaucracy of our education system often times gets in the way.
Many teachers I have met while traveling across the Sixth District have told me that they are burdened by piles of paperwork. Teachers need to spend more time grading papers and less time filling out paperwork.
That's why I led the fight to make certain that 95 percent of federal money spent on education goes to the actual education of a child. I believed it was important that we did not forget why our teachers teach. Teaching is done in the classroom-not in the halls of Congress or in the U.S. Department of Education. I never forget that. For every minute a teacher is filling out paperwork, he or she is spending one less minute with our children.
The minutes add up to hours and the hours add up to days. While the effects cannot be easily measured, the effects are most certainly real. We need our teachers focused on teaching and the children to focus on learning, and the rest will fall into place.
Teachers should not have to work hard to understand regulations; they just want to work hard to educate all of our children. I will continue to work to reduce paperwork and I encourage teachers to contact my office with more suggestions on how the system can work better for them.