This preliminary "1 % lum-sum payment" is actually a huge pay cut that I absolutely cannot afford. It is not even that I feel "disrespected" by the lawmakers and state DOE. It is simply that there is no fat to cut from my meager family budget. As a single-mother of two kids, I am paying more than half of my take-home salary to rent. (I live in a run-down, small apartment.) Just leaving the DOE is not a good option either. Although I have marketable skills and prior career experiences, I became a public school teacher to help the next generation. I believe in the difference that I am making each day in my classroom.  Friends who I grew up with and attended from Ala Wai Elementary to McKinley High sent their own kids to private schools because of crazy things that their kids experienced at their neighborhood schools. I don't want to add to this problem; I want to be a part of the solution. Hence, we have to fight for not just ourselves, but for the future that our children will inherit.