Phyllis Steele
Toledo, Ohio is a port city on the western edge of Lake Erie. The city, whose population burgeoned along with its glass-making and auto manufacturing industry in the early 20th century, was the site of the Auto-Lite strike of 1934, one of most pivotal battles in the establishment of industrial unions. For much of the last century Jeep was the city’s largest employer.
After decades of deindustrialization and budget-cutting, the city of 280,000 is now the fourth most impoverished big city in America, trailing behind its Rust Belt neighbors Detroit and Cleveland, Ohio, as well as Newark, New Jersey. The official poverty rate is 27.8 percent and the median income for a household is $33,687, according to the 2015 American Community Survey (US Census).
These conditions have had a terrible effect on public education. A Toledo teacher recently spoke to the World Socialist Web Site about the impact of years of education cuts and the growth of social inequality in the city, and how teachers are being scapegoated for problems in the classroom that inevitably arise from these dire conditions. To protect the teacher from victimization we are using a pseudonym.
“Ohio is in a severe heroin epidemic,” explained Venessa. “So, we have even more issues to deal with, which impact the children. Imagine trying to work with parents facing their own crisis, and sometimes not functioning due to addiction or some mental illness. Sometimes there is a parent with no phone or who is homeless.
“In addition to my school being in a high crime area, Toledo has been identified as the fourth-largest recruitment site for human trafficking. We are expected to ensure every child’s safety, even…