State Chamber Diatribe on HS Counselors Another Example of Hypocritical Public School Funding Decreases

In a recent letter to the editor, Derek Redelman of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce,
claims that school counselors aren’t meeting student needs regarding preparation for college
and careers. His source of information is a survey conducted by the Chamber regarding how
much time school counselors spend on various school duties. Based on the fact that the majority
reported that they only spend 25% of their time on post-secondary counseling, Mr. Redelman’s
implies that counselors aren’t properly doing their jobs to meet the Chamber’s vision of
having 90% of high school graduates properly ready for college or career training.

This reveals the incredible hypocrisy of business and legislators who expect their needs
for a highly qualified workforce (at perhaps the lowest entry level pay possible?) to be a priority
for schools while at the same time decry excessive school spending and then legislate for reduced
and diverted public school funding. Big business, and big business legislators, push for
business tax cuts that significantly reduce State revenue, then insincerely bemoan the lack of
revenue for school funding.

Counselors are considered, by the State, as “instructional support” and not in the same
category as classroom teachers. When schools are forced to make personnel cuts where does
everyone think they make the first cuts? Answer, instructional support staff.

The vast majority of high schools in Indiana don’t meet the recommended ratio of students
to counselors. When “non-essential” support staff and administrators are reduced, how
are the tasks regarding student attendance, enrollment, course selection, monitoring passing
and failing, course selection re-scheduling, administering State exams, SAT, ACT, processing
new enrollments, withdrawals, etc. going to be re-assigned? In most cases, the first person
sought out are counselors (those that are left after cuts are made). These tasks are added to
their responsibilities to not only give guidance for course selection, college choice, scholarship
applications and other post-secondary career planning, but also to deal with personal conflict,
family trauma and social, medical and personal complications for individuals and their peers.

When the expectations are to not only get more students to graduate, but to also graduate
at a higher achievement level, it is not just the classroom teacher that makes that happen. It
is the result of also having sufficient “instructional support” staff as well.

If legislators and business people would realize that the answers to better prepared
graduates are not to be found in minimally prepared “adjunct teachers”, hired at lower salaries,
bare bones funding for public schools forcing them to reduce “instructional support staff” (like
Counselors), diluting the educational landscape with a flood of underperforming Charter
Schools, or simply diverting public school funding with a type of “musical chairs” movement of
already high performing students from public to private schools, perhaps they would not make
business tax cuts a priority over proper funding of public schools. Then, there could be sufficient
Counselors and other support staff to actually meet the needs of our students, as well as,
of course, the goals of our esteemed State Chamber of Commerce.