Posted on 08/13/2015 11:04:39 AM PDT by MichCapCon
You understand that once tenured, anything you do after 3 pm is optional; I know enough public school teachers, and none of them do anything you describe. Here in NJ teachers work 180 days per year (less than half the year), and they work from 8 to 3 - and still get lunch in there. The “poor teacher” nonsense went out the window years ago when the Asbury Park Press released the salaries of all of our public school teachers in NJ (as public information). Taxpayers were floored (and this was just the straight current salaries, not the current or retirement benefits); they promptly elected Chris Christie to deal with them - and he did. With our property tax increases capped at 2%, every time teachers get 4% raises other teachers lose their jobs.
The teachers’ unions have singlehandedly destroyed NJ, and they’re getting paid back as Americans flee - leaving illegals and welfare folks to fill the schools (and NOT pay any bills).
This is a prime example of why public service unions should not exist. When I considered a vocation in the 60’s, teaching had the appeal of security, good benefits, and summers off as an offset to lower pay. Now, thanks to unions, they receive more than most workers and have little accountability for the results they produce. I say this with apologies to the dedicated teachers who are few and far between.
"The way I described" is the way I've done teaching for over 20 years. To do any less, to me, would be a dereliction of duty. And STILL, one gets mediocre results. The STUDENTS have been basically relieved of any responsibility for their own learning and nearly the entire onus for their success has been placed squarely on the teacher's back--alongside the responsibility for parenting the student, teaching them right from wrong, teaching them a work ethic, sometimes giving them your own lunch if they had nothing to eat, etc. Then, if they fail to do the work assigned, they are allowed to make it up with ridiculous "online learning" which they cheat at, outrageously fake makeup work in the summer, etc. Nothing is their fault; it is only the teacher's fault, time after time.
Every single day, the NY Post and the NY Daily News make sure to feature a teacher-bashing article, even if the teacher is from Outer Mongolia and it happened 10 years ago. Has anyone heard of a profession so outrageously denigrated, so utterly scapegoated? There are hundreds of thousands of teachers killing themselves to help their students, and these rags manage to focus on the few rotten apples one might find in any profession and try to represent them as typical teachers. Do they ever feature stories about electricians molesting clients, or shoe salesman, etc.? No. Apparently, only teachers are bad.
And I am sick of hearing about "the unions this, the unions that". With our detestable quisling imitation union leader (he is to unions what Odungo is to presidents), we had NO raise for several years. Then, in a widely acclaimed (by no one but the union) contract signed last year, we got "raises" of 1, 2%, etc. and not even a raise every year, in a contract locked in til 2020. This is not even commensurate with the cost of living. And, the retroactive pay we were due for work done 2009-2011 will not be fully meted out until 2020--when many of the veteran teachers now teaching will be long gone, without having received pay they were due---outright thievery. Additionally, the union never returns calls from teachers who need advice about vindictive administrators, contract violations, etc. You call, you leave messages which are never returned. Wow, for $1300 out of your salary every year. But the union finds plenty of money to help out the Occupy Wall Street movement and to subsidize a march for the likes of Eric Garner, a petty thug who died resisting arrest.
Oh yeah, we got it sooooo good. I suggest you walk a mile in our moccasins before you announce to the world what you "know" about teachers, the teaching profession, and how "good" they've got it.
There's a reason that there is a precipitous drop in enrollment in education courses in colleges and a widening teacher shortage across the U.S. Teachers themselves are now telling kids, "Don't go into teaching" and if they're young enough, teachers are bailing for jobs where they get more respect and better treatment.
The reason for the drop in enrollment in education courses is better summed up by the fact that many young prospective parasites can’t get on the gravy train (I know 2 personally); they now have a degree that lands them nothing in the private sector (education itself should never be a degree - pick a real subject and master it). They know that $1,300 investment in their union is the best money ever spent - employment for life with no merit involved. They just can’t get the older teachers to retire and create job openings - it is SO difficult they work into their 70s for huge paychecks (with longevity bonuses, etc.).
I agree there are many reasons students won’t learn, but instead of a defense of teachers I see that as a reason to reduce their pay; if they are just daycare for older kids then pay them as such - stop pretending we’re buying a quality product.
1 - 2% while the private sector is having wages frozen is still a bargain, as Governor Christie told one whining malcontent (who deceptively understated her pay to maintain the charade): “You don’t have to do this; do something else” (as though she even could).
Here in NJ they have caused the flight of companies and taxpayers who see through the nonsense; in my town the unfolding fiscal disaster caused even tenured teachers to be laid off.
Years ago many teachers worked summer jobs (as camp counselors and such) because they were paid as the part-time workers they are. Here in NJ they are now our upper middle class (while real jobs are fleeing their costs).
“The average public school teacher’s salary in Michigan in 2014 was $62,169, according to the state Department of Education.
The average salary in Michigan’s private sector was $48,043 in 2014, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
It is even more stark than that! Consider the length of the school year is 9 months. So, the average salary of $62K for a 9 month year would actually be ($62K/9*12)=$82.66K a year. That is 170% of the statewide average!
While I applaud good teachers, I think we need to make structural changes in the education industry. We could start with a wholesale slashing of the adminstrative side!
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