FULDA, Minn. — Three years ago, Megan Griep moved to southwestern Minnesota to teach high school English in Fulda, a town of about 1,300 near the Iowa and South Dakota borders.
"A super small town, but it's an amazing community," Griep said. "I love being there."
Griep does not regret her career path. After graduating from Delano High School in 2016, she briefly pursued a pre-law path in college but ultimately switched majors to English education as a sophomore, following in the footsteps of her mom who works as a fourth-grade teacher in the Delano Public Schools.
Embarking on a teaching career during COVID, however, has not been the easiest task.
"It's a struggle. We have all of these kids that never got the original skills that they need, trying to build on those skills they don't have, and we're playing a horrible game of catch-up," Griep said. "So many mental health issues. Home issues. Just a whole host of things and we need support."
The pandemic's strain on students has, in turn, led to an exodus of teachers, with up to 90 percent of districts across Minnesota reporting staffing shortages.
In Fulda, Griep said her colleagues are filling in gaps wherever needed. She calls them the "MVPs" (Most Valuable Players) of the school year. For example, one of her peers with an elementary education degree is teaching math, while another paraprofessional has stepped in to lead a history course.
"Everyone's burned out," Griep said. "We overwork ourselves to overcompensate for what our kids are missing. It's a cycle. It's a bit vicious."
Recently, though, Griep decided to put her feelings into action. After her mother suggested she write down some of her thoughts about the public education system, Griep wrote an 1,100-word letter to state lawmakers.
Griep said she emailed the three-page document to every member of the state legislative committees on education.
To Whom It May Concern,
I hope this letter finds you well, and that you will take the time to read and consider the proposal held within the following paragraphs. To put it in the simplest terms, America's education system is falling apart. Teachers are fleeing the profession in unprecedented numbers, and our students are being underserved because no one wants to take accountability and support the teachers who give more of themselves than they have to offer. The current system is not sustainable, but I believe that with the proposal contained within this letter, we can take a small step into putting it back together for generations to come.
In the letter, Griep made a simple proposal. She asked lawmakers to consider crafting a bill that would require all education committee members to "physically spend time in a high school, middle school, and elementary school classroom in a rural, suburban, and urban setting," preferably for at least three days in each environment. Griep wrote that this hands-on experience in a classroom could help legislators "fully comprehend the effects COVID has had on every kind of classroom."
"I asked them to come into the classroom," Griep put more simply, "to understand how their policies affect us."
Griep said she did not receive an answer from any of the lawmakers, other than an automated response generated by their official email accounts.
After speaking with Griep, KARE 11 called DFL State Sen. Steve Cwodzinski, the chair of the Education Policy Committee who taught American government and history for 33 years at Eden Prairie High School. Cwodzinski said that he had not seen Griep's letter, but after reviewing her proposal on Wednesday about classroom observation requirements, he spoke favorably about the possibility.
"I think it's a great idea, because I think sometimes we lose sight of what it's like to be a kid in a school in Minnesota today. The suburban experience is different than the urban experience and the urban experience is different than the rural experience," Cwodzinski said. "I'd like to entertain it and hear more thoughts on it as it moves forward."
The concept of legislators observing classrooms is not far-fetched. Just last month, in fact, Cwodzinski participated in a "Back to School" tour with some of his colleagues in the State Senate, with nearly a dozen stops at schools in St. Cloud, Duluth, Bemidji, Hibbing, Winona, and many other locations.
"I just love those opportunities that we get as legislators," Cwodzinski said. "Maybe we don't have to legislate doing this, but just you planting the seed in my colleagues' heads, maybe they'll pick up the phone and say, 'hey, can I visit a grade school next week?'"
Megan Griep wants more.
She's seeking a classroom requirement enshrined into Minnesota state law, and she'll be paying close attention to legislators when they return for the next session in February.
"I think it would be the first step in changing the education system in America," Griep said. "It's imploding on itself as we speak."
With that said, Griep still has no plans to leave the profession.
She finds so much joy in the little victories, like how her seniors at Fulda High this semester have embraced her teaching of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth."
"My kids have finally figured out that Shakespearian language, so they've been insulting each other in Shakespearian language," Griep said. "But it's hilarious, because they're like, 'I feel so smart. I'm amazing. Look what I can do!' And that's the coolest thing to see."
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