But the real message is: Give me a raise or the kid gets it.
Yes, the teachers who make more than most every other Oregonian are telling you, who suffers in this recession or who are under or unemployed that you need to cough up more money. This demand comes while they work part time for a six figure salary and benefit package.
The districts harrumph in pretense of protecting the tax payers and then invariably give in.
Well, I'd like some new language entered into the contracts this year.
1. You will not proselytize your leftist political beliefs to our children. You will keep your political beliefs to yourself and just teach your class.Thank you. You already pick my pocket. I think it's fair that you not be allowed to pick off my kid.
2. You will not encourage our children to get community service credits by volunteering at your favorite political charity. The Bus Project is not a charity, it is a political organization.
3. You will not give credit or encourage our children to participate in the anarchist movement that is Occupy- fill in the blank.
and I'll add a fourth one:
4. You must allow students to livestream or capture in some way all of your lectures so the world can watch.
Are you bloody kidding me? Do you know how many bloody budget cuts have been forced on our educational system for the past few months, years, decades? On a calendar the size of a football field, you can't throw a stone without hitting a budget cut on education.
ReplyDeleteI guess we should just fire ALL the teachers and start homeschooling, huh? You know... Screw the education 'corporations' and buy education local? Good move in your mind? You sound like an Occupier now.
Average state worker salaries shouldn't be more than the average private sector worker salary. To me it's that simple. If we in the private sector have had to cut back to make ends meet, why should anyone one in government be treated differetntly? After all, you the state worker only have a job because of we the private sector worker.
ReplyDeleteHi Ayelis,
ReplyDeleteYour gonna have to get a bigger car to hold all your bumper sticker cliches. Portland Public Schools gets almost $14,000 a year per student to educate roughly half of them. PPS intentionally deferred maintenace and capital spending to preserve teacher pay and benefits which comprise approximatly 85% of the budget. 57% of Oregon's budget goes to education......only 7% to corrections (only 1 in 4 convicted felons in Oregon ever see the inside of the penintentiary).
At the same, democrats in this state have worked hard to suppress the economic growth needed to fund those costs.
I heard a woman for OEA supporting the corporate kicker initative saying their money shouldn't go back to them, but to her. Well, I have a suggestion for her. If schools are such a great investment, how about teachers borrowing against the 55 or so billion dollars in the PERS fund for better schools? They'd make a killing! I'm sure they're good for it...and it's for the children.
How about putting YOUR money where your values are?
Before we even get into their demands - which, by and large, are crap - I have a simple question: why couldn't they teach two more lousy weeks of school and hash it out over the summer? "For the children," my ass.
ReplyDeleteAverage state worker salaries are below that of the private sector in my field of hi-tech. After 30 years at IBM, I left and work for the State Data Center now. The state salary is 25% less, though a portion of that is made up by the health insurance. Side by side comparison is the state compensation package is at least 20% below that of the private sector. And no, I don't get PERS.
ReplyDeleteAs for teachers, they are well UNDER compensated for what they do, regardless of what state they teach in. All the complaints about student performance because of poor teaching is pure BS.
And I sure love Victoria's #1 item on her contract list of no-nos:
ReplyDeleteYou will not proselytize your leftist political beliefs to our children. You will keep your political beliefs to yourself and just teach your class.
Maybe we should also have a contract or law prohibiting GOP politicians nationwide who continue in their attempts to mandate their creationism religious beliefs in public school and masquerade it as "science". The costs associated with this moronic activity has wasted MILLIONS in lawsuits, court time and thousands of hours so the religious right can proselytize in public for free and the GOP can keep their votes.