In response to recent letters criticizing teacher strike/pay issues, I offer the following in support. Disclosure: My wife is a 30-year teacher. The voters approved a COLA for teachers six years ago. The Legislature has thus far dismissed the will of the voters. That’s about a 12 percent dismissal. Result? Her take home pay has decreased each year since, due to health insurance premiums alone. How low shall we go?
About that “part-time job”? She works 9-10 hours a day at school. Then routinely spends another hour or two each night doing lesson plans, grading papers, phoning parents over grade/discipline issues, writing letters of recommendations.. She often takes products from the house to use for labs, brings clothing to kids in need, and travels to Seattle on her time and dime to get supplies and lab kits from her network of support so she can deliver state-of-the-art lessons and labs. Oh, yeah, don’t forget teachers must continue to take courses during their first years-on their dime and time.
Smaller classes? Is 150-180 kids a day a bit much? Thought so. This is what she does with her seven years of college. It’s her passion, and the voters apparently think such devotion was worth rewarding.
Teacher pay tied to performance? Tough when families have deserted their obligation to raise and be involved in a child’s life, and teachers have to raise and teach. Didn’t work out recently in Atlanta, where school staff provided answers for the testing, kids “excelled” and teachers got their bonus. Oops, they were caught, and all but one are in jail. ‘Bonus Gone Wild?”
I might suggest the complainers actually get educated. Spend a day in the classroom and see what it is all about. Just don’t try and keep up with the lessons, because you likely will fail. It’s not Romper Room, baby.
Any surprise there are teacher shortages? Lucky we still have people inspired to help prepare kids for life. My wife is representative, not an outlier.
Rob Dietz
Arlington
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