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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Your Semi-Annual Sob Story About Underpaid US Teachers |
| 2018-09-14 |
| This shit really ticks me right the fuck off: [Time] - Hope Brown can make $60 donating plasma from her blood cells twice in one week, and a little more if she sells some of her clothes at a consignment store. (just a bit of unreported income here? - ed.) It’s usually just enough to cover an electric bill or a car payment (are you driving a used Pinto / Hyundai Excel? - ed.). This financial juggling is now a part of her everyday life‐something she never expected almost two decades ago when she earned a master’s degree in secondary education and became a high school history teacher. Brown often works from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. at her school in Versailles, Ky., then goes to a second job manning the metal detectors and wrangling rowdy guests at Lexington’s Rupp Arena. With her husband, she also runs a historical tour company for extra money. "I truly love teaching," says the 52-year-old. "But we are not paid for the work that we do." That has become the rallying cry of many of America’s public-school teachers, who have staged walkouts and marches on six state capitols this year. From Arizona to Oklahoma, in states blue, red and purple, teachers have risen up to demand increases in salaries, benefits and funding for public education. Their outrage has struck a chord, reviving a national debate over the role and value of teachers and the future of public education. I first saw this on a high school friend's Facebook page (do not lecture me on that point - I have a semi-professional commitment for that; key words 'high school' for you wannabe wags / scolds) and within 20 seconds had the following questions about what a piece of shit slanted hatchet job this article was: Not trying to pick a fight here, but for me this article raises more questions than it answers. How many teachers arrive three hours before the presumed 8:00 opening bell? Does she do this every single day ('often' is not quantified and could mean any number)? What exactly is she doing during those three hours? Why isn't her actual salary mentioned, or her husband's? Does she have a family? How many kids are they trying to support? Are they living in a house they really can't afford? Care to guess the number of responses to that post / comment of mine? |
| Posted by:Raj |
| #20 The cutest girl I dated in college was an education major. She thought that Israel was in South America. I rest my case. |
| Posted by: SR-71 2018-09-14 23:43 |
| #19 I wouldn't begrudge teachers more pay if they didn't let their union use dues to gain Dem power rather than improve student scores. Oh, and about those student scores: Don't fight merit pay and get rid of non-performers. Raise scores without cheating or STFU. When they fail a student, the student doesn't learn. If I fail in my job, people die |
| Posted by: Frank G 2018-09-14 19:53 |
| #18 Ref #16: Google - Did you know: Woodford is the third-highest-income Kentucky location by per capita income ($28,501). wikipedia.org |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2018-09-14 19:47 |
| #17 Very much appreciated, jc. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2018-09-14 19:23 |
| #16 Just thought I'd post this: In Woodford County, KY, where that teacher lives and works, her salary for 9 months of work is between $57,000 and $64,000, depending on her professional qualifications aside from her Masters. She receives $18,000 and change in benefits, including health insurance, term life insurance, and a state pension. She can earn extra money by teaching during the summer, or by, for instance, being a club sponsor, a counsellor, tutor or an athletic coach (the teacher in the article does none of those things). Her daily hours are 8:15 to 3:15, including a guaranteed meal break and several periods during the day that must be left open for her to complete her classwork. If her salary was extended to 12 months, her annual salary for about 6 hours of work a day would be $77,000 a year. |
| Posted by: jc 2018-09-14 18:41 |
| #15 My personal conspiracy-theory is that school is subsidised so that both parents tend to work and thus push up land prices in urban areas. Which benefits the establishment. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2018-09-14 16:54 |
| #14 Straight pissed me off. As well it should. Totally ignores the economies of scale, for one thing. For another, babysitters don't generally make your kids stupider. In one of those amusing coincidences the Universe is famous for, I happened to see this graph the other day: inflation-adjusted cost of K-12 education vs student achievement. tl;dr: Since 1970, costs have risen 200% while student test scores have remained flat. To be fair, a lot of that cost is the increased number of administrators, diversity officers and other well-paid but useless poobahs, not teacher's salaries. But recently, there have been a number of news stories about the low percentage of high school grads who are scored as competent in reading, math and science. The lack of progress in education is striking if you compare today's cars, computers, science, medicine, whatever with 1970s state-of-the-art. And don't get me started on the whole-word method of learning to read, or Common Core math. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2018-09-14 16:32 |
| #13 Funny, I had a sob piece scroll across me just the other day. It went something like, "Let's pay teachers what an average babysitter would make; $10/student times school days yadda yadda yadda $300,000/year or such." Straight pissed me off. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2018-09-14 14:54 |
| #12 Spouse is a public school educator. She is well paid for her efforts. Some/a lot of her peers are over paid. Administration and Board of Education types border on corrupt. |
| Posted by: jvalentour 2018-09-14 14:26 |
| #11 These stories annoy me not just for the lack of relevant info as evidenced by commenters here but also because teachers whine that they work more than their approximately 6 hour work day - well guess what - salaried workers in corporate America work well more than their assigned 8 hour day on a regular basis, sometimes you travel so your 24 hour day is not your own and with cell phones you are often always on. Cry me a river! |
| Posted by: warthogswife 2018-09-14 12:39 |
| #10 She's getting paid the going market rate. If she doesn't like it she should consider another line of work. If enough teachers do that there will be a shortage of teachers and school districts will have to pay more. But if there are too many would be teachers looking for jobs the districts will have to pay less. Anyone who aspires to teach our children should understand supply and demand. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2018-09-14 12:28 |
| #9 i have never heard anyone say they are paid enough. |
| Posted by: chris 2018-09-14 10:00 |
| #8 Missing a lot of details here as has been noted; USN-Daughter and her Spousal Unit are both teachers in public schools; first few years out of the gate were a bit tight and they worked summer jobs, but now are OK. The school mandated they get master's Degrees w/in a few years and yes there was some support for that but are not complaining now. And they also have a portion of their pay during the school year withheld to cover the summer. Not living in a Stately Wayne Manner, but typical 'burb, and have 2 late model cars, neither on a Rolls. Their biggest complaint re compensation was the mandatory dues collection ( both conservatives) going towards the WEA and NEA democrat support. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2018-09-14 09:54 |
| #7 Considering the quality of high school graduates in the past couple decades... I would say she is overpaid for the quality of her work. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2018-09-14 09:39 |
| #6 This really should be paired with a story of under-literacy among high school |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2018-09-14 09:21 |
| #5 Are they living in a house they really can't afford? That's a biggie for a lot of folks. At 52, her kids might be still in college studying art or something and getting a 'free ride' off the folks. In addition to that, her husband might be an 'occasional earner' or perhaps a true deadbeat. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2018-09-14 08:20 |
| #4 Work 9 months of the year to get the salary that all others have to work 11 and a half? If their output was of superior measured quality why would anyone object? Problem is that the quality is lacking and obstruction to good metrics only raises suspicion to actual performance. Besides one of the greatest contributors to successful students is a home environment that supports education. Lowering standards incentivizes good parents to remove those higher performers from the public system. Raising teachers salaries does not effect any of that, thus little change in outputs other than creating day care and paper mill factories that exist upon the back of taxpayers. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2018-09-14 03:30 |
| #3 p.s. "5 a.m. to 4 p.m." probably means she gets up at five. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2018-09-14 03:16 |
| #2 This really should be paired with a story of under-literacy among high school graduates. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2018-09-14 03:01 |
| #1 Some people want to keep their comfort zone, or rule it. |
| Posted by: newc 2018-09-14 01:28 |