All teachers, such as this fourth grader teacher in Houston on Nov. 27, should be appreciated and valued by everyone, even Nike and the Texas legislature, which historically under funds public education.
Yi-Chin Lee/Staff photographer
I was contacted by Nike, a $176 billion company, at the exact moment I had a stack of 150 ungraded essays and an equal number of unread emails.
Nike's request of me, a high school English teacher in Texas, was to volunteer to take a course qualifying me to score scholarship essays on its behalf and then evaluate the essays accordingly.
Most days I would simply delete the request due to lack of time, but that day, this deep in the semester, the perfect storm manifested. I fired up my keyboard.
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To Whom It May Concern: I want to clarify that you are offering athlete endorsements up to $60 million a year, athletes who already have mountains of money, but you refuse to offer compensation for over-worked and under-paid public school teachers? With the demands of my job and the mountains of essays I need to grade, I should receive compensation for replying to your inappropriate request to grade your essays, too. Honestly, I wonder how your company can justify asking for volunteer work all in the name of doing this for the love of kids. Our love of kids does not pay the bills, and quite frankly, neither does my teaching salary. This could have been an opportunity for Nike to lead by example, but as no surprise to me, Nike took the low road. Imagine if Nike took just one million of Michael Jordan's 60 million dollar endorsement and dispersed it to the teachers you are asking to work for free. You could make a difference in many lives. Although I am not looking for a handout, I would like compensation for my time. Currently, my school district pays $40/hour for extra duties, so in the 15 minutes it took to process the absurdity of your request and plan a thoughtful response, I am already $10 in the hole. If you'd like to issue reimbursement, please remit check payable to (redacted). Best of Luck!
Without a second thought, I sent the message. Then, I posted it to Facebook. Within minutes, it gained traction. There are thousands of likes, shares and comments. This struck a nerve in teachers and their supporters. Suddenly and inadvertently, I was the speaker for all of us tasked with too much to do, not enough time to do it and insufficient pay to take on more.
It isn’t that we mind grading essays. In fact, many of us write letters of recommendation for our students, look over their papers when they email us from college, and do whatever we can to help our students and former students reach their goals. But this ask from Nike? It was just too much coming from a multibillion-dollar company.
It has been more than a week since I sent my letter. Nike hasn’t been in touch, and I don’t expect it to remedy the faux pas or change their mentality because this isn’t just a Nike or big business problem — it’s a state of Texas problem.
Our Legislature just ended a special session in which more than $5 billion earmarked for education was left on the table. Why? Because legislators couldn't agree to fund education or teacher salary increases unless private school taxpayer-funded vouchers passed. These issues shouldn't be contingent upon the other. Now, we face another year in which districts will face deficit budgets, teachers will get no pay raises and public education will continue to suffer.
Sadly, three hours after sending my email, a notification from the Gates Foundation popped up with the same request, echoing the prevalent theme that a teacher’s work does not hold value.
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If all these strangers on social media can understand and appreciate the hard work teachers do and offer the support teachers need, why can’t Nike, the Gates Foundation and especially my leaders in the great state of Texas?
Danielle Wilkes is a Stevens High School English teacher in San Antonio. She served as a 2022-23 Teach Plus Texas Policy fellow.
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