When most Spectrum staffers were playing around in one-piece pajamas, the Buffalo Board of Education (BOE) was working hard on a new regulation for city teachers. In 1992, the board created a residency rule, giving new teachers six months to find housing with the City of Buffalo.
Now, as we Spectrum staffers are of legal age and have moved on to higher education, the Buffalo BOE has revisited the 19-year-old policy and, as of March 23, rescinded the residency requirement on a 5-4 vote.
Today, less than three weeks later, BOE and Common Council members alike are pressing to reinstate the residency policy.
The problem is, who cares?
Whether or not a city teacher lives within city limits is not rectifying the troubled school district anytime soon, so why is Buffalo wasting its time? There are far greater problems within the system that should be addressed; teacher residency is being granted undeserved attention.
The Common Council, comprised of the legislators who represent the nine districts of the City of Buffalo, has called on the BOE to reenact the residency rule of '92 and has even contemplated withholding over $70 million in education funding, according to The Buffalo News.
Errr what?
So the Common Council is going to further cripple Buffalo's public education system by lessening its funding – or by refusing to increase it – because of a residency policy that will have little effect if it is or isn't in place?
It seems to not only be shortsighted but also a moot point.
Proponents of residency requirement claim that teachers who live in the city can better understand their students and are more integrated into city life, thus are better enabled to instruct. However, there is nothing in the old rule that stops an east-side teacher from living in North Buffalo or Elmwood Village, two areas distinctly different from where he works.
This flaw in and of itself is enough to get rid of the regulation, but those opposed to the rule make an even better point: forcing teachers to live in the City of Buffalo likely limits the teacher-candidate pool, making the struggling school district lose out on promising teachers.
More so, teachers can't be generalized; they deserve to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Dedicated teachers spend a remarkable amount of time at the schools in which they work, between teaching, holding office hours, and helping out with after school activities.
It is plausible that a teacher who lives in the suburbs can be equally involved with his students as a counterpart who lives in the city. It's also possible that a city teacher who resides within the City of Buffalo can be better than one who lives in the suburbs, and the reverse applies, too.
The Buffalo school system is misguided if it believes that residency requirements are the answer to the city's long list of educational problems. The Common Council is worse for considering a reduction in funding. Both entities need to get it together.
