Op-Ed: CFISD Taking Away Printers?

CFISD is limiting the amount of printers on every campus. Each school will have a small number of printers that everyone will have to share – called “network printers.” This is an inconvenience for teachers and students alike. We will no longer have the luxury to use a printer whenever and wherever we can. Students and staff will have to locate the nearest printer to them and get used to using that one.

It is unknown how many network printers each campus will be limited to, but at Cypress Ranch, we will only have 61 printers available all across our campus. This is quite an insignificant number compared to the many printers that we are used to having access to.

So, why exactly is this happening? Budget cuts is the primary reason. It appears CFISD is taking away the majority of printers to cut paper and ink costs (ink cartridges are super expensive).

The unavailability to easily access printers across our campus will undoubtedly cause a teacher inconvenience. They are one of the most, if not the most-used devices for staff members and students. Printers are a vital part of a successful education system. Think about it: teachers won’t be able to print necessary documents in class. They would have to leave their students unattended to go and find the nearest printer to them (and that’s only if what they want to print is really worth the trouble).

Having printers in as many classrooms as we can is quite important, but something that isn’t important is the expensive microphones (look in the ceiling) given to each campus by CFISD last year. It is a rare sighting to actually see a teacher use this equipment since they don’t necessarily add anything new to the classroom. Most teachers have loud voices and do not need to use these “TopCat Lightspeed” systems.

An idea I would like to propose is to take away the microphones that have generally not contributed to a better classroom experience. It would be best to sell those and then use the money earned from the mics towards the budget rather than selling our printers. This would be a much more effective and efficient way for CFISD to reach their financial goals.

Printers are a valuable resource in our classrooms and we will definitely miss being able to have easy access to them. Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do about this other than adjust to the change in the quantity of printers that will soon be implemented. No one likes change, but like the clear backpack policy, we will get used to it.