A little article in the paper this weekend caught my eye.
Under the title of "Clean your attic for a good cause" it said:
Kannapolis City Schools is looking to provide a good home for the treasures you find during your summer cleaning. The school system is planning a giant yard sale for its new teachers and wants donations from the community.So let me get this straight, we are inviting new teachers to come pick up some of our junk ("in good condition") as a welcome to our area?
The New Teacher Yard Sale won't be an actual sale because everything will be free. At the start of the school year, Kannapolis City Schools will invite its first-year teachers to select from the donated items.
How much are we paying these poor folks? Surely the Kannapolis School system (which is separate from the Cabarrus County School system) must be underfunded if their new teachers can't even afford to buy a lamp or chair when they move in?
I'm sure the organization of this yard sale is done with the best intentions, but wouldn't it make a much better impression if we could give these new teachers a little sign on bonus or something ,so they could buy some basic things for their new home or apartment, instead of being dependent on hand outs from the population?
Isn't the City of Kannapolis planning on investing $60 million in infrastructure improvements for the new Research Campus? That investment is not necessarily a bad thing, but maybe we have our priorities a little wrong here?
10 comments:
Oh ya, lets increase taxes so we can pay teachers more. They already work a 9 month year, get EVERY federal holiday off, and have near impenetrable job security with no real standards of performance and lest we forget may 20 percent more than our police officer and firefighters.
Maybe some administrative house cleaning is in order...
Yeah, teachers are way overpaid lazy slobs. I'm being sarcastic.
You dont seem to realize that Teachers work way more than a 40 hour week for 9 months.
You seem to forget that teachers have a lot of work outside of the time that there are actual students in their classroom. They have tons of work on correcting homework and tests, preparing their classes and they have a lot of teacher workdays . Just go the Cabarrus school website and check out the calendar , you'll see that a lot of times when students have the day off, teachers are actually having a workday at school. Just talk to a local teacher and ask if they have an idea on how many hours they actually work, I know you'll be surprised.
I'm betting that teachers will work more hours than you and I do in a year.
And what does the fact that police and firefighters are underpaid have to do with the teachers being underpaid? Maybe we can pay everyone a decent wage?
I'll take that bet! What is the amount?
My mother was a teacher before she passed away, my aunt is a retired teacher both of her daughters are teachers, my fathers new wife is a teacher. Saying that I know a little about teachers in general is an understatement.
1. No, 44-48 hours is about standard. (thanks for giving me an excuse to call my family and ask them about their jobs) and that includes grading papers and prep time. They begin prepping for the year about 2 weeks before school. That gives them 7 consecutive weeks off per year. They get 1 weeks vacation off in December. According to my cousins they usually work about 3 out of 5 days during spring break.
2. almost all teacher work days are half days if the teacher comes in at all. My cousins don't because they keep their work caught up.
3. I work a minimum of 55 hours per week (closer to 65 if you count commute time)
4. police and firefighters are in actual harms way every shift and make about 8-10k less per year and work an actual 12 month schedule.
5. Teachers don't have much lesson planning to do anymore due to Ted and "W" coming up with the "No Dumbass left behind" (A direct quote from my aunt)
And finally, no, you can't pay every GOVERNMENT employee a decent wage.
Public Schools are a monopoly and as such have no major competition. Wages are set at replacement levels in all areas of government work. There is no motivation to do better than the lowest common denominator, and since you don't have any options elsewhere, you don't have to apply yourself.
A cop cant prevent all crime or even 50 percent of it, same with firefighters. Therefore, they can't be measured on merit basis. (But they are.) Teachers aren't paid on merit but have control (or at least had control until teddy and "w") over how their pupils performed.
Being a true liberal, Im sure you hate Wal Mart but their average employee brings home more than a cop in Cabarrus County with 3 years experience. But they bring home less than a teacher.
I'm glad to see that because of some math you now already say that teachers have 8 weeks off (7+1) and not 12 (3 months) like you originally said. Maybe if we keep this going for a while we'll get to a point where they have no time off ;-)
You say you work 55 hours a week, well do you earn more or less than a teacher?
And I totally agree that a cop should earn more money than a walmart employee.
Maybe in your logic we should be paying walmart employees less? Since paying people that work for the government more seems to be out of the question for you (all those evil taxes and such).
Nice dodge of the fact that I know more about the actual facts of the matter than your own meandering experience and heresay.
8 weeks/12 weeks (count up all federal holidays and "optional teacher workdays." Its a 9 month year.) And while you're at it, name one other job with 7 consecutive weeks of vacation per year.
And 20 hours a week for the 2-3 weeks before school starts is hardly a regular weeks work.
Secondly, the reason government employees get paid so little around here is because there are so damned many of them. We dont need parks and rec employees, or public housing maintinence workers, administrators for 30 local departments that have mirror departments at the County, State and Federal level. Secretaries for Administrators and so on and so on.
We don't need tourism boards, convention centers, arenas, corporate welfare for perspective employers, water parks, discount security service for Humphy Wheeler and LMS or any of that stuff.
You like that stuff because without the government, you would surely perish within a week or so.
I don't need it. But what I do need is protection from the use of force of others and the protection from natural disasters and accidents I did not cause.
Don't play the "if you don't like tax hikes, you hate kids" game with me.
And yes, I make more than a teacher, and I also DONT work in a monopoly and I DO get paid based on my quality of work, not my seniority.
The point is, Public Education is a monopoly out of choice. Vouchers or Tax Credits could just as easily be used rather than the current compulsary funding and attendance. Law Enforcement is a monopoly out of neccesity. State laws cannot be enforced by private citizens except in extremely rare cases. So the question is:
Who has the harder job? Who accepts more risk on a daily basis? Who has more personal and societal responsibility?
The answer is clear, what is not is the pay discrepency between the two.
And since no one puts a gun to the head of a teacher or a police officer it is their ultimate responsiblity when they accept the job to accept the pay. But it is the duty of a greatful public to reward their hard work. Not the number of years they have been around but THEIR HARD WORK.
Man, all I can say is that you're crazier than I thought. Let's hope I never run into you somewhere in a dark alley. I might have to call some underpaid cops to protect me.
In the meantime, maybe you should have a little less Red Bull.
Let me close off by saying that i totally agree with your statement: "But it is the duty of a greatful (sic) public to reward their hard work." I conclude that you think teachers don't work hard and should be paid less. Discussion closed.
"Discussion Closed"
I could care less whether you post this or not. You have done what "your kind" usually do and taken your ball and gone home.
Here is the breakdown:
Teachers: Paid based on seniority.
Public Safety: Paid based on merit.
Teachers: Paid More than Public Safety.
Public Safety: Paid Less than teachers
Teachers: Better Benefits that cops
Public Safety: No benefits unless you can afford the 900 dollars a month. (go to city of concord or kannapolis website and see for yourself)
Teachers: Voluntary monopoly
Public Safety: Mandatory Monopoly
Public Safety: Saves your life when you are in distress
Teachers: Sit in air conditioned class room or lounge and instruct kids and grade papers.
Like I said, when the facts dont back up your statement, change the subject. But when the facts still come back take the "liberal" way out and end the discussion!
No wonder congress is so inept...
Conclusion (repeated for the 3rd time):
You think teachers don't work hard and should be paid less.
The reason to close a discussion is because the same viewpoints get repeated over and over. I rest My case.
I hope you told all those teacher family members of yours that you think they don't work enough and get paid too much.
Aaron, you must be an idiot. We have always had some impossible assessment to get our population to measure up to, and our job depends on it. Try being a band teacher and working 91 hours a week because of concerts and rehearsals, and going to conferences all summer, all state, all county, and national performances. Ever have a student put a gun to your head? I would say that's in the line of fire. Your cousins shoul not be teachers if they opt not to come in on a mandatory day, it's not optional where I come from. Look alive, and take a few college credits (I took 30 a semester to do what I do)
Aaron, you must be an idiot. We have always had some impossible assessment to get our population to measure up to, and our job depends on it. Try being a band teacher and working 91 hours a week because of concerts and rehearsals, and going to conferences all summer, all state, all county, and national performances. Ever have a student put a gun to your head? I would say that's in the line of fire. Your cousins shoul not be teachers if they opt not to come in on a mandatory day, it's not optional where I come from. Look alive, and take a few college credits (I took 30 a semester to do what I do)
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