Godzilla1960 wrote:
I am a public sector school teacher and union member, Cross, and I can tell you I have not only not had a pay raise in two years, but my income has been cut during this recession.
My second job as a part time virtual teacher (school teachers need two jobs to pay the bills) was cut because the state cut back on funding and the school had to lay off all part timers. Our state pays a bonus for teachers who have high passing rates on the advanced placement test (actual merit pay that works). I have one of the highest passing rates, but not only does the state cap the bonus (what incentive is that?), but they have cut back the bonus each of the past two years. Our state also pays a bonus to teachers in schools that achieve an "A" rating. Our school has achieved that rating, but the state has cut that bonus each of the past two years. As an incentive to improve the quality of teachers they also pay a bonus for teachers who go through a rigorous program to become nationally board certified. I have gone through the program, but once again our state has cut back on that bonus.
Every hoop our state has created (by Republican governors and Republican legislators) I have jumped through. And the state has responded by reneging on its promises and cutting pay.
During this period, when I have lost about $10,000 in yearly income, my work load has increased, as the county has added an additional class of 30 more students for every teacher. In spite of that I still work an average 3 hours a day for free and last week I gave up my Saturday to administer a practice test to prepare my students for their AP exam and then spent the entire weekend grading exams. This is not unusual. Every weekend I bring home hours worth of essays to grade and all of my planning is on my own time. I have given my students and their parents the highest quality education, have been named teacher of the year three times, including being a top five finalist for teacher of the year in my county. My students consistently have outstanding passing rates on the AP exam (last year 89% of my 10th grade students earned college credit for European history). I save my students' parents thousands of dollars on college classes they now don't have to pay for.
I have to buy my own printer and pay for my own copies for my students. Every year I spend hundreds of dollars out of my own pocket on my students, and that is actually a break now that I teach upper end kids exclusively. When I taught in a school where most of the kids lived in poverty I was buying them all of their school supplies.
I have been doing this for 22 years and I do it all for $47,000 a year (compare that to the average pay for a UPS driver of $74,000 a year).
This is the life I have chosen and I knew when I went into it that people don’t value education in this country enough to pay for it. When my wife came down with MS (don’t get me started on our crappy health benefits - which they are talking about cutting next year) and we had to live solely on my meager income, we just tightened our belts a little more. I don’t complain about my pay and I don’t need anybody’s sympathy.
But, I sure as hell don’t need to be shit on for doing my job well and expecting to get paid. I get really sick and tired of people who consistently expect something for nothing. You want your kids to have the highest quality education possible, but you don’t want to pay for it.
Gimme, gimme, gimme.
And then dump on the teachers who do the giving.
I’ve enjoyed our conversations over the years, Cross, but this is a piece of insensitive, ignorant bullshit.
I am not aware of what school district you work in Zilla, but my sister is a teacher (4 yrs) in Wilson, My stepfather is a teacher in Sweethome (29 yrs). Your district must be the odd one out. My sister's starting salary was 43k a yr, then benefits. My stepfathers salary now is in excess of 88k a yr then benefits. And both of them completely agree the taxpayer is being taken for a hideous ride by the teachers union in NYS.
Oh, and by the way, neither of them had any student grants or loans, paid cash for their education through hard work and both of them loath how the state is allowing the teachers union to run a ponzi scheme for a retirement plan.
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