Thursday, October 27, 2005

We're sooo underpaid...

Lars has highlights from the striking teacher's proposed contract. You won't see this info in the mainstream press. Go to his website to see it.

6 comments:

Daniel said...

JWalker, the end number (total compensation) is the base salary + benefits & costs = total compensation.

My company sent a simlair fact sheet to us a couple years ago to demonstrate the total cost of our employment.

I certainly don't want you to be poor. I am also proud of what you do and how hard you work. I absolutely want to encourage teachers like you and Don Diesel to continue in your profession. It is a noble career.

What I am opposing is the Unions. I don't think that they properly award excellence and properly punish below average performance.

I also think that people choose their professions. I am thankful that you chose to be a teacher because we need Christians to be educating our youth. But everyone chooses their career. If you choose to do something that you love/is meaninful/important etc then you might not be making the bucko bucks. But you know that going in.

While your yearly salary might not be equal to that of another profession with the same amount of schooling, you do need to consider the amount of time spent working (teachers get a lot of time off) and the benefits package. (PERS is absolutely ruining the school budgets)

I hope that I have helped clarify my position.

Donnie Herneisen said...

Points of disagreement:

1) Time off? Yes, we get time away from students. Does that mean we aren't "working"? No. We're also grading, calling parents when THEY get home, coaching, taking (state required) classes, getting (federally mandated) "highly qualified", counseling students, attending special ed meetings, parent/teacher conferences, extra-duty activites (chain gang at football, dance chaperone, running scoreboards, yada yada yada), ETC, ETC, ETC....get my point? We aren't sleeping in with that "extra time off", ya know? "Duty Free lunches" are not "non-working" times. That means you aren't supervising kids. There is a huge difference. You wanna know how many times mustard has dripped from my sandwich onto a paper I was grading at the same time?

2)The Union isn't great for Oregon's poor budget. No argument there. But my gramma told me, "don't bite the hand that feeds you". Yes, my check comes from the State (technically), but the Union argues for a lot of good things for us (like potty breaks).

3) I bring home $1600 a month after taxes, and I have no insurance (Doesn't include coaching salary, but it's not basketball season yet!). I can't afford it. ZERO INSURANCE! (Well, I have car insurance)Get it? Luckily, I don't get sick. From that $1600, I also have to pay for college tuition for classes that I don't want to take, but the state says I have to. I already have a master's degree (and the loans that come with it!).

4) Did I know it was going to be like this when I decided to go into teaching? Pretty much, yeah. But for these reasons, I probably won't stay in teaching. It's not worth it. I made more money at the sawmill when I was 18, and the work wasn't nearly as challenging.

So the question is, what is your child's education worth? Who do you want teaching your kid? If you (or the gov't) continually demands more of teachers (and they have been, you can't deny that...) then they will have to be compensated to a level that makes it an attractive occupation. Supply and demand, remember? Scarcity makes the cost go up, remember? That's Econ 101...

5) Last point: PERS wasn't a problem when people weren't retiring in droves. Neither was Social Security. But when baby boomers started retiring, the PERS board started realizing there was a problem. Then they started messing with the promises (contracts) they had previously agreed to (however mistakenly). Even more people close to retirement decided to bail early. Wow, this exacerbated the problem even more. Surprise!

If someone should be "blamed", then the (bulk) of the blame should be on the "Greatest Generation Ever" for having too many kids, or on the PERS board for writing checks their butts couldn't cash when the markets crashed.

You want teachers, and you want them cheap? Make the profession of teaching just "teaching". Cut out all the crap that we have to do. For me, if the money (or benny's) gets cut even more, I have no problem leaving the profession. I'm only 25...I can find better, more profitable work. But you can't have it both ways.

Soliliquy Ends Here...

Donnie Herneisen said...

I was just listening to some "Best of Lars" on Sunday, and heard his bright idea to just bring subs into the Sandy school district,"to continue the learning process". Sorry Mr. Larson, but that really shows a lack of reality on your part. Subs don't really teach. They're pretty much babysitters. It's nearly impossible for a sub to step into a classroom and just pick up where a regular teacher leaves off. Also, you are going to ask subs to lesson plan, call home to parents, attend IEP meetings, coach sports, chaperone school dances, etc etc etc. (oops, sorry, subs can't legally attend IEP meetings). Good luck with that. What Lars is advocating for are hundreds of babysitters that make $18-20 an hour, about $150 a day. A fine use of the taxpayer's funds, right?

Donnie Herneisen said...

Gus, are you seriously advocating for shutting down public education? Just curious, but can you walk me through what happens after that, step by step? Can you show me how shutting down (by not funding it) public education will imrove society?

Donnie Herneisen said...

Gus, what a silly question you put to jwalker. As a public school teacher, I would totally jump ship to teach in a private school if the money and benny's were more equal to what the public schools pay. But therein lies the issue...Private schools are not held to the same standards as public schools. If you have a local private school, please call them and inquire about their ESL program? Or ask how many of their students are on IEPs, or 504s? How big is the migrant student population? How many of their students are on free or reduced lunches? Public schools take anyone and everyone, and are required to teach all of them. But not teach them the same. Just required to make sure they can all pass the same tests. Private schools can "discriminate" (for lack of a better term) in who they let into their schools.

Again, just in case you missed it, I'll say again... I'm a public school teacher that would whole-heartedly jump into the private schools to teach if the money were more equal.

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