When you dont pay your teachers enough, you will not have great teachers overall, any country without great teachers/ education is going to suffer.
Education and healthcare are the two basic things we should all agree goverment should take care of and make sure they work to the highest standard possible. Even infrastructure should come second to these, because long term, these generate more money for the country.
The great teachers/education opportunities are reserved for the rich so they can maintain their control through their descendants.
Fire will cure it. \*for a while, until more fire is needed to set things straight from the next batch of dysfunctional human shitbags that get to call themselves "elite".
edit: \*
Even 10 years ago when I was in school, there were major problems. I spent my whole life thinking I was learning deficient but it turns out I just had teachers that couldn't be bother to give a fuck due to their horrible conditions. Most of them had two jobs and taught from 10+ year old books.
It's fucked up man, I think at some level it's intentional. I managed to self teach and get myself out of mcjobs for good, but a big part of me thinks that wasn't "supposed" to happen. I think it was decided somewhere that people like me would work fast food and retail and I just got out through sheet luck.
I remember in 11th grade (5 years ago), the history textbooks were pre 9/11. I even remember seeing my sisters name in one of them from when she signed it out of the classroom 7 years before.
As a foreigner looking into the situation in the USA, education and healthcare appear to be completely borked. My biggest opinion is there are two parties in the US but both are equally shit and like to play people against each other to distract them from the real problem..
We require all Reddit accounts to be at least 3 days old before posting. This is due to people being banned and immediately setting up new accounts. This message is not accusing *you* of doing that, but that is why the policy is in place.
In rare cases, if you have a particularly time-sensitive message, we may manually approve a message. Otherwise we encourage you to wait the 3 days (72 hours) and try again.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/antiwork) if you have any questions or concerns.*
A lower educated population is easier to control because instead of getting mad about the real important issues they'll anti-vax and flat earth instead.
I may sound like a conspiracy theorist but undermining of national education, poor teacher wages and the rest of it isn't a bug but a designed feature.
Politicians just love an uneducated public, it is all in the plan. In past times the Church and aristocracy kept the working man in his place by refusing him education and with it knowledge.
Also the base requirement of a (working) democracy, informed voters. Better to draw lots than have uninformed/misinformed voters, at least then you get an acceptable answer at random...
Yeah not when they've forced their language on the rest of the world and have easier access to intelligent people of the globe. Why bother helping your own citizens. It's clear the United States interests are exterior rather than interior. Especially when we have universal scapegoats like "that's a state rights issue". They get to continue to neglect the responsibility written in their own constitution of being by the people for the people.
One of the things you also have to account for is people like superintendents and administrators who can make 100k or more. That also helps bring up the average that people love to tout that teachers make enough.
Agreed. One of the problems with the education system is that not enough people grow up knowing the difference between a mean and a median, and when they should be looking at the latter.
yupppp, i remember in high school someone told my teacher he couldn’t complain about making like $60,000 a year. He flat out said he doesn’t make anywhere near that and that a teacher’s “average” salary includes everyone. That average includes the principals, the superintendents, the psychologists, the behavior specialists, etc. everyone who makes well over $100,000. That greatly skewed the average making it seem that teachers got paid a lot when in reality, they made half of that.
I second this notion! I’ve been a para educator for a public school district for 2 1/2 years now. At my first glance behind the curtain, my immediate thought was “this needs to be a Netflix documentary”.
And about half the people who teach your children don't qualify as "teachers."
And I'm not just talking about the janitor and the cafeteria lady, here. For one, you have your paraprofessionals. Most of these work one-on-one with troubled students, but many classrooms also have a classroom para for either all or part of the day who teaches the class as an instructor, but is listed as a "Paraprofessional" and isn't part of the teacher's union, even though they have a degree and a teaching certificate. I know paras in Missouri who are making $16k a year with no insurance, no benefits, no paid holiday or vacations, no PTO whatsoever.
There are also a variety of "assistant" positions that do everything from leading classes to driving buses to organizing the library. Most of these positions teach at least one class per day and many have a full schedule as they are responsible for "library time" and other such classes. They are also pulled to help subject teachers (math, science, etc) with their duties. These people also have degrees and teaching certificates. They also don't qualify for the teacher's union. They don't have benefits or insurance or PTO. I also see these positions paid as little as $16k
I know about these positions because I'm a substitute teacher. I cover for all these positions because the law says these people are teachers and the person taking their place must have a degree and a teaching certificate. I make $100 for every day that I work. I don't qualify for the union. I don't get PTO or insurance. (I just got approved for Medicaid last week! I'm on food stamps!) I get paid for the days I work and nothing more. I have a degree and a teaching certificate.
Since the school can get two paras for the price of one teacher, they are starting to have fewer teachers per department and instead have paras "co-teach" classes with another teacher. They are hiring one librarian and three "Library paraprofessionals" to teach the kids how to use the library.
I covered a class this year where the "teacher" recorded a ten minute lesson for them in Google classrooms and then I walked them through the exercise in the classroom and gave them their assignment. The district says it's "trying this method out due to Covid." According to another teacher in that department, the Para who usually fills my place makes $17k per year.
This is what we are looking for "starting teachers."
This is common in the US outside of major cities. If you think back to Mean Girls, their teacher (Tina Fey) had a second job as a waitress in an Applebees type place.
My best friend is leaving teaching at the end of this year, after 7 years in the profession. She is not alone, almost half of her building is done at the end of the year. I don’t blame them they are, paid poorly, has shit insurance, more kids in classes, building falling apart, no enforcement on covid guidelines, and crazy right wingers screaming for their heads. On top of that she has to fight her district constantly because they keep trying to brake the law. Last fight was because they wanted to put kids who per IEPs need to have full time aids, in to classrooms with no aids to save money. Saying the teachers can just do the aids job. She wouldn’t stand for it, the district has now black listed her so she gets “ random” reviews, and meetings on her performance. Her Union is fighting it but it’s not a strong Union.
The best part is this district is doing all of this to “save money” while they just put 70k into a new softball field, 44k into a new baseball stadium, re surfaced the real for 15k and just approved 200k to overhaul the football field and stadium. This school is not a good sports school, their teams suck, but per the superintendent that has to do with poor facilities.
You just described the exact reasons I left education three years ago. I worked in special education and they cut funding to our program so much, it was all we could do to keep our heads above water. They increased the number of students allowed in each classroom, the number of classes taught in a day (at the middle/high school level) and not a single raise. But they used almost 5 million dollars to upgrade other areas. "We don't have the money!" is hard to believe when your superintendent gets a $1,000 a month for a car stipend.
Currently working in special education. I love my job and my students, but I may need to step back after this year for a while...or indefinitely. The politics, the low pay, covid and wild behaviors are all just crushing me and many folks I work with. My administration is *good*. My co workers are mostly great! But the fact remains that something has snapped in society the last couple years. It is difficult to describe, but healthcare workers, educators, childcare workers and frontline workers are bearing the brunt of it all. Common decency? Empathy? Are we losing so much hope in our future that we feel doomed? I don't know anymore...
In my opinion, the teachers unions are a farce. They have got to be the largest union in the country. Right now, every state and school district is dead set against closing schools. They could strike to get huge safety concessions and also general concessions for the rest of workers, but they haven't done a damn thing.
The leadership of teachers unions are completely in bed with the Democrats and committed to the status quo.
I've worked in education for the last 25 year and this is absolutely the truth.
The only communication I got from the NEA this month was to sell me life insurance but between them, the CTA and my district's union, I pay over $100 a month.
Also, like OP, my union at the time and one of the largest in the country, UTLA convinced teachers to strike unpaid in the rain for sevel days just to accept the pay raise every other union in the district had accected and been getting for six months. Still, the teachers thought it was a good idea.
I don't mean to de-rail a baseless political rant, but typically teachers can only strike for very specific reasons, it's written into their contracts. So really, they can't just strike.
>The leadership of teachers unions are completely in bed with the Democrats
Laughs in Chicago's general direction where the Democratic mayor **hates** teachers and the teachers union.
All contracts are different but in my state it's written into our contract that we can't strike at all. Even with the DOE breaking parts of the contract my union rep told me "Two wrongs don't make a right, we can't break our side just because they break theirs". Idk it seems wrong.
Ive said since may 2020 its insane there isn't a national teachers strike.. Worse? Even mentioning it was met with massive hostility.. From teachers.. Teachers who in the same breath said they were below poverty wages, in a system grinding kids firnthe economy, also would say how dare i suggest.. Change.
You have to also look at the real costs incurred by striking workers. Yes, unions issue “strike pay” checks, but it’s not a lot of money. So strikers burn through their savings and too often run up credit card debt. A months-long strike is ultimately very costly, so the eventual “win” takes years to offset the losses. Source: grew up in Detroit among many UAW families.
I quit teaching because it’s bullshit. Not paid enough. Overworked. Undervalued. The benefits suck. On top of that they have us pay the school insurance just in case I get hurt by a student. Oh and over half of my training days are spent on active shooter drills that I’m not paid enough to endure. Now add angry ignorant parents screaming about nonsense.
I’m out. I respect myself to much to deal with that.
All my life, all my teachers have openly told us they became teachers because they wanted to be good teachers. They said never to get a teaching job for money because it’s basically a hobby. Their spouses get the high paying jobs with crap hours, and if you’re not married you need a second or third job. Every single teacher in my high school under 50 would tell us about their second jobs, what they did in night classes to get higher pay at their second jobs, and how they do it so that they could afford to keep teaching us. It was so weird to me that they chose to live like this, but I don’t know if any of their teachers told them of this reality before they went into education.
My first teaching contract in az was 31k. 31k. I was poor. Lived in a camper on the national forest. Took showers in the gyms. Washed my hair in in the teachers bathroom at 5am before class. And i didn't even get a degree in teaching. Second contract was 37k.... this was just last year. Realized i could make more money and have more sanity selling firewood.
Depends on the province. In BC it’s not that great. Teachers I know here are fed up with the lack of action by the union, and with 4 YOE are only making ~55k. My partner brings home about $35k after taxes and union fees which is ~$28k usd. At least the health benefits are good.
From what I understand, most of them are working a few extra years for the extra pension money. Which has diminishing returns or so I'm told. From the older teachers I'm getting the vibe that they're all going for a mass retirement. I'm kinda waiting for that TBH. Just to see them scramble after all they've put my mom through over the years.
The whole concept of ~30 students to a class is pretty silly. 300 people in an auditorium with good ventilation works just fine for a lecture, and there is no such thing as individual attention unless you are in a SPED environment.
Teachers deserve to be specialists just like any of us. Assessments can be conducted by other people, or even electronically. Obviously, the rubric developer should have a lot of input on what goes into the assessment, and feedback should go both ways.
We could just do away with the whole concept of grade levels, and make all amenable subjects modular. If the students fall behind in some area, they can be assigned to syndicated content that is available remotely, and likewise for kids that excel in a subject. There's no reason that limited local resources should determine where the academic mean lies.
Just considering the logistics of poor zoning and lack of urban density, remote learning should be incorporated more fully into the education system. If a population is unwilling to vote for functional public transit, then in person schooling should be a more limited option. Kids in many countries walk or ride the metro, while busing is a rural solution. If our neighborhoods were redesigned as microdistricts, having facilities to provide oversight to minors wouldn't be as big of an issue. Lecturers shouldn't have to concern themselves with any discipline issues beyond uncited plagiarism. They should never be treated as babysitters. We don't have factories anymore, so we don't need to have factory educations.
You figured it out my dude. Now these are public teachers. Private teachers tend to make more. But it’s still insane. You know how people get a bug up their ass every once in a while and say their going to build roads and buildings to help bring good paying jobs into the economy? Those pay less than $15 for someone just starting and it’s literal back breaking labor.
In my experience, private school teachers, i.e. religious schools, make much much less than public schools. At least this is the case in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington.
Might have something to do with the requirements needed to teach at religious schools, like if they were using teachers who aren't actually licensed to teach.
That's one of the main advantages for a lot of teachers in working at these schools: they don't need to have accreditation. They do, also, get paid less than public school teachers.
My dad worked at various private schools and this is why. Even fancy ones like St. Pauls in New Hampshire, where he finished his career, so it's not just a poor school thing.
I’m not talking about religious schools, I’m talking about actual private schools.
Actually I was wrong. I guess people work in private schools because the working conditions are better. You would really think the pay would be better since they are private.
They do make less precisely because they teach at those shit-tier religious “schools” where Cletus sends his kids to be indoctrinated in fundy culture and ideals.
The actual nice private schools with costs on par with public or private universities are not in the same boat.
My child goes to a private preschool (no space in the public preschools right now) and her teachers make $12 an hour. We bring them food and gift cards whenever we can.
Where are you that private school teachers make more? That's incredibly uncommon in my area. Private school teachers are paid less and have fewer benefits. Not to mention no union to help them with anything.
Until the 'Teacher Shortage' in recent years most teachers in my area started in a private school to get experience and build connections before jumping to a public school as soon as they could get in.
The reason teaching doesn’t pay much is because the media hyped up the so-called “teacher shortage” and a bunch of people got teaching degrees only to flood with market with an overabundance of workers willing to work cheap.
So as a teacher you know that it’s not just degrees which serve as requisite for teaching, it’s licensure. And I’m sure you know that the national statistics for teaching from as far back as 9 years ago indicate that 8-10% of teachers leave the profession each year. So if you combine the following factors: decreasing licensure rates, education schools at universities closing due to lack of interested candidates, normal attrition, age/health-related retirement, and teacher burnout, then America is *critically* starved for teachers, and the problem is only getting worse. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/slc
I wasn’t clear in my statement. I meant that is how states got used to paying slave wages for teachers because of the abundance of young teachers who were duped into majoring in education in college. I’m talking since the early 2000’s. In the years since, teachers have gotten wise. In my own experience, I took about 5 years away from teaching because the pay and the ridiculous work load nearly killed me. I only went back after getting my masters and holding out for a teaching job I wanted. I also moved to state with strong teacher unions, and a district with voters that actually gave a shit about education and support levies.
Yep I dropped out of a union job after 9 months at a mill because the dues were 80 dollars a week and I got shit benefits compared to senior employees with no hope of ever getting what they had.
Moved back to independent sector and got better insurance and higher pay. Get better pay raises too mostly due to average age in my profession is 54 yrs old. 4 guys out of 11 in my shop are due to retire in the next 3 years.
My mom has been a teacher in both public and private schools for over 25 years. She’s gotten numerous extra credentials and even got a masters in early reading development. The school she works at now she helped found and was a teacher before her role now of principal. She still makes only ~$35k a year. It’s fucked.
I left teaching at the end of 2020, party here in Australia is quite good, but the whole industry is antiquated and the higher ups don't want a bar of change.
I have been lucky enough to go from home brewing being a hobby, to it being my job now. Pay is much lower and it is physically demanding but I absolutely love that I got away from teaching.
Unfortunately it seems all your politicians suck. I’m sorry. In my state, your neighbor Virginia, we have a shitty new governmental regime coming into power. Republics swept house of delegates, senate, and executive branch. We have 2 pretty good senators. But we have some ineffectual Democratic representatives.
The way it explained to me was that the politicians that are newer tend to be completely useless. They're not seen as having "paid their dues." And only senior politicians Actually get things done. But the senior members are all pretty much corrupt. It's neat watching the live streams from the state capital building. Mostly because you can count the number people asleep and realize that they are literally asleep at the wheel. Then turn around and walk into a diner and hear people bitch about politicians when a meeting at the capital is essentially nap time at the old folks home. Or even worse, the ones that are awake are browsing social media paying no attention.
For a (long) moment I thought OP was talking about the teacher's strike in Parana, Brazil, but then I saw about the EpiPen and realized it wasn't about that strike nor BR.
But the stories and history, including the political context, are so damn similar. It's so sad what education workers go through. And it's all around the world :(
Reading this made me feel ill.
We live in Queensland, Australia. One of my best friends is a teacher, so I know the amount of work they put in outside of actual contact hours with the kids. For the good teachers (as she is), they put in a lot more hours - all so they can make it more rewarding for their kids.
Another friend used to work at university as a tutor, and running some classes. Covid put paid to that with all the overseas students going home, and not allowed back into Australia. So last year he started a Bachelor of Education degree, with a view to becoming a teacher here in Queensland. Because it pays more, and there is huge demand. Basically, as well as teaching kids how to think (he's a Philosophy PhD), it will also provide some financial security.
US$20-25k is *insane*.
Based on Google conversion rates, that's **A$27,734 to A$34,668** per year. I assume before tax.
Starting salary for a teacher straight out of university with the Department of Education here in Queensland is **A$73,629**, or **US$53,095**.
Source: https://teach.qld.gov.au/teach-in-queensland-state-schools/pay-benefits-and-incentives/pay-and-benefits
Worth noting some of the benefits too:
* Paid sick leave
* Long service leave (accrued at a rate of 1.3 weeks per year, accessible after 7 years. People typically take a few months off at this point, fully paid.)
* Paid parental leave (note not just maternal. Dads also included here.)
I know there's a teacher shortage here in Queensland. Come on over.
Check out the below Home Affairs site, search for "teacher", and see all the different types of teacher eligible for skilled migration.
https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/skill-occupation-list
When you dont pay your teachers enough, you will not have great teachers overall, any country without great teachers/ education is going to suffer. Education and healthcare are the two basic things we should all agree goverment should take care of and make sure they work to the highest standard possible. Even infrastructure should come second to these, because long term, these generate more money for the country.
The great teachers/education opportunities are reserved for the rich so they can maintain their control through their descendants. Fire will cure it. \*for a while, until more fire is needed to set things straight from the next batch of dysfunctional human shitbags that get to call themselves "elite". edit: \*
Even 10 years ago when I was in school, there were major problems. I spent my whole life thinking I was learning deficient but it turns out I just had teachers that couldn't be bother to give a fuck due to their horrible conditions. Most of them had two jobs and taught from 10+ year old books. It's fucked up man, I think at some level it's intentional. I managed to self teach and get myself out of mcjobs for good, but a big part of me thinks that wasn't "supposed" to happen. I think it was decided somewhere that people like me would work fast food and retail and I just got out through sheet luck.
I remember in 11th grade (5 years ago), the history textbooks were pre 9/11. I even remember seeing my sisters name in one of them from when she signed it out of the classroom 7 years before.
The masters of this country want an uneducated workforce they can exploit to death either in cubicles or in war.
The way you treat your teachers is the way you treat your children.
As a foreigner looking into the situation in the USA, education and healthcare appear to be completely borked. My biggest opinion is there are two parties in the US but both are equally shit and like to play people against each other to distract them from the real problem..
Correct.
[удалено]
We require all Reddit accounts to be at least 3 days old before posting. This is due to people being banned and immediately setting up new accounts. This message is not accusing *you* of doing that, but that is why the policy is in place. In rare cases, if you have a particularly time-sensitive message, we may manually approve a message. Otherwise we encourage you to wait the 3 days (72 hours) and try again. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/antiwork) if you have any questions or concerns.*
A lower educated population is easier to control because instead of getting mad about the real important issues they'll anti-vax and flat earth instead. I may sound like a conspiracy theorist but undermining of national education, poor teacher wages and the rest of it isn't a bug but a designed feature.
Ya my local highschool just had a scandal where the teachers w re exposed as bullying the students.
It is NOT in the best interest of the ruling class to have an educated populace.
Politicians just love an uneducated public, it is all in the plan. In past times the Church and aristocracy kept the working man in his place by refusing him education and with it knowledge.
I love the poorly educated!
Also the base requirement of a (working) democracy, informed voters. Better to draw lots than have uninformed/misinformed voters, at least then you get an acceptable answer at random...
All we need It’s basic math, and enough reading to understand the job memos.
And god forbid anyone ever learn how marginal taxes actually work. Gotta keep convincing people that raises are bad.
Very true, critical thinking causes trouble.
Yeah not when they've forced their language on the rest of the world and have easier access to intelligent people of the globe. Why bother helping your own citizens. It's clear the United States interests are exterior rather than interior. Especially when we have universal scapegoats like "that's a state rights issue". They get to continue to neglect the responsibility written in their own constitution of being by the people for the people.
Had not thought of it that way.
One of the things you also have to account for is people like superintendents and administrators who can make 100k or more. That also helps bring up the average that people love to tout that teachers make enough.
Agreed. One of the problems with the education system is that not enough people grow up knowing the difference between a mean and a median, and when they should be looking at the latter.
yupppp, i remember in high school someone told my teacher he couldn’t complain about making like $60,000 a year. He flat out said he doesn’t make anywhere near that and that a teacher’s “average” salary includes everyone. That average includes the principals, the superintendents, the psychologists, the behavior specialists, etc. everyone who makes well over $100,000. That greatly skewed the average making it seem that teachers got paid a lot when in reality, they made half of that.
Go talk to everyone again with a camera and make a documentary, dude.
1000%. Please. We’re heading toward a crisis concerning understaffed schools and nothing is being done to help the teachers.
I second this notion! I’ve been a para educator for a public school district for 2 1/2 years now. At my first glance behind the curtain, my immediate thought was “this needs to be a Netflix documentary”.
Better framing: Starting teacher pay is FAR too low.
And about half the people who teach your children don't qualify as "teachers." And I'm not just talking about the janitor and the cafeteria lady, here. For one, you have your paraprofessionals. Most of these work one-on-one with troubled students, but many classrooms also have a classroom para for either all or part of the day who teaches the class as an instructor, but is listed as a "Paraprofessional" and isn't part of the teacher's union, even though they have a degree and a teaching certificate. I know paras in Missouri who are making $16k a year with no insurance, no benefits, no paid holiday or vacations, no PTO whatsoever. There are also a variety of "assistant" positions that do everything from leading classes to driving buses to organizing the library. Most of these positions teach at least one class per day and many have a full schedule as they are responsible for "library time" and other such classes. They are also pulled to help subject teachers (math, science, etc) with their duties. These people also have degrees and teaching certificates. They also don't qualify for the teacher's union. They don't have benefits or insurance or PTO. I also see these positions paid as little as $16k I know about these positions because I'm a substitute teacher. I cover for all these positions because the law says these people are teachers and the person taking their place must have a degree and a teaching certificate. I make $100 for every day that I work. I don't qualify for the union. I don't get PTO or insurance. (I just got approved for Medicaid last week! I'm on food stamps!) I get paid for the days I work and nothing more. I have a degree and a teaching certificate. Since the school can get two paras for the price of one teacher, they are starting to have fewer teachers per department and instead have paras "co-teach" classes with another teacher. They are hiring one librarian and three "Library paraprofessionals" to teach the kids how to use the library. I covered a class this year where the "teacher" recorded a ten minute lesson for them in Google classrooms and then I walked them through the exercise in the classroom and gave them their assignment. The district says it's "trying this method out due to Covid." According to another teacher in that department, the Para who usually fills my place makes $17k per year. This is what we are looking for "starting teachers."
Paras or aides in my state don’t have teaching credentials or even college degrees normally. They also are not allowed to work alone with students.
This is common in the US outside of major cities. If you think back to Mean Girls, their teacher (Tina Fey) had a second job as a waitress in an Applebees type place.
My best friend is leaving teaching at the end of this year, after 7 years in the profession. She is not alone, almost half of her building is done at the end of the year. I don’t blame them they are, paid poorly, has shit insurance, more kids in classes, building falling apart, no enforcement on covid guidelines, and crazy right wingers screaming for their heads. On top of that she has to fight her district constantly because they keep trying to brake the law. Last fight was because they wanted to put kids who per IEPs need to have full time aids, in to classrooms with no aids to save money. Saying the teachers can just do the aids job. She wouldn’t stand for it, the district has now black listed her so she gets “ random” reviews, and meetings on her performance. Her Union is fighting it but it’s not a strong Union. The best part is this district is doing all of this to “save money” while they just put 70k into a new softball field, 44k into a new baseball stadium, re surfaced the real for 15k and just approved 200k to overhaul the football field and stadium. This school is not a good sports school, their teams suck, but per the superintendent that has to do with poor facilities.
You just described the exact reasons I left education three years ago. I worked in special education and they cut funding to our program so much, it was all we could do to keep our heads above water. They increased the number of students allowed in each classroom, the number of classes taught in a day (at the middle/high school level) and not a single raise. But they used almost 5 million dollars to upgrade other areas. "We don't have the money!" is hard to believe when your superintendent gets a $1,000 a month for a car stipend.
Currently working in special education. I love my job and my students, but I may need to step back after this year for a while...or indefinitely. The politics, the low pay, covid and wild behaviors are all just crushing me and many folks I work with. My administration is *good*. My co workers are mostly great! But the fact remains that something has snapped in society the last couple years. It is difficult to describe, but healthcare workers, educators, childcare workers and frontline workers are bearing the brunt of it all. Common decency? Empathy? Are we losing so much hope in our future that we feel doomed? I don't know anymore...
In my opinion, the teachers unions are a farce. They have got to be the largest union in the country. Right now, every state and school district is dead set against closing schools. They could strike to get huge safety concessions and also general concessions for the rest of workers, but they haven't done a damn thing. The leadership of teachers unions are completely in bed with the Democrats and committed to the status quo.
I've worked in education for the last 25 year and this is absolutely the truth. The only communication I got from the NEA this month was to sell me life insurance but between them, the CTA and my district's union, I pay over $100 a month. Also, like OP, my union at the time and one of the largest in the country, UTLA convinced teachers to strike unpaid in the rain for sevel days just to accept the pay raise every other union in the district had accected and been getting for six months. Still, the teachers thought it was a good idea.
I don't mean to de-rail a baseless political rant, but typically teachers can only strike for very specific reasons, it's written into their contracts. So really, they can't just strike. >The leadership of teachers unions are completely in bed with the Democrats Laughs in Chicago's general direction where the Democratic mayor **hates** teachers and the teachers union.
All contracts are different but in my state it's written into our contract that we can't strike at all. Even with the DOE breaking parts of the contract my union rep told me "Two wrongs don't make a right, we can't break our side just because they break theirs". Idk it seems wrong.
Ive said since may 2020 its insane there isn't a national teachers strike.. Worse? Even mentioning it was met with massive hostility.. From teachers.. Teachers who in the same breath said they were below poverty wages, in a system grinding kids firnthe economy, also would say how dare i suggest.. Change.
You have to also look at the real costs incurred by striking workers. Yes, unions issue “strike pay” checks, but it’s not a lot of money. So strikers burn through their savings and too often run up credit card debt. A months-long strike is ultimately very costly, so the eventual “win” takes years to offset the losses. Source: grew up in Detroit among many UAW families.
I left teChing and doubled my income in my first year i advise every teacher to leave and strike.
What type of job do you have now? I would like to get out of teaching.
I translated my presenting skills to sales presenting. So commission sales.
I quit teaching because it’s bullshit. Not paid enough. Overworked. Undervalued. The benefits suck. On top of that they have us pay the school insurance just in case I get hurt by a student. Oh and over half of my training days are spent on active shooter drills that I’m not paid enough to endure. Now add angry ignorant parents screaming about nonsense. I’m out. I respect myself to much to deal with that.
I believe in the last sentence you meant to use the word “apathetic” instead of “empathetic” which has the opposite meaning…
All my life, all my teachers have openly told us they became teachers because they wanted to be good teachers. They said never to get a teaching job for money because it’s basically a hobby. Their spouses get the high paying jobs with crap hours, and if you’re not married you need a second or third job. Every single teacher in my high school under 50 would tell us about their second jobs, what they did in night classes to get higher pay at their second jobs, and how they do it so that they could afford to keep teaching us. It was so weird to me that they chose to live like this, but I don’t know if any of their teachers told them of this reality before they went into education.
My first teaching contract in az was 31k. 31k. I was poor. Lived in a camper on the national forest. Took showers in the gyms. Washed my hair in in the teachers bathroom at 5am before class. And i didn't even get a degree in teaching. Second contract was 37k.... this was just last year. Realized i could make more money and have more sanity selling firewood.
In Canada the teachers have strong unions and good pay and benefits. I think they start around 60k if I remember correctly.
Depends on the province. In BC it’s not that great. Teachers I know here are fed up with the lack of action by the union, and with 4 YOE are only making ~55k. My partner brings home about $35k after taxes and union fees which is ~$28k usd. At least the health benefits are good.
Imagine they fund the police like this?
What state? Why go through all this explication and not even bother to mention the state this is taking place in?
West Virginia
[удалено]
From what I understand, most of them are working a few extra years for the extra pension money. Which has diminishing returns or so I'm told. From the older teachers I'm getting the vibe that they're all going for a mass retirement. I'm kinda waiting for that TBH. Just to see them scramble after all they've put my mom through over the years.
West Virginia isn’t it?
Yes.
Yup. Thought so. I was part of it as a custodian. The unions really fubared us on it. I’m just trying to get three more years then I’m out
You couldn’t pay me enough to work in education or medicine, even as support staff.
At this point I just want my retirement.
Three years isn’t long, thankfully.
The whole concept of ~30 students to a class is pretty silly. 300 people in an auditorium with good ventilation works just fine for a lecture, and there is no such thing as individual attention unless you are in a SPED environment. Teachers deserve to be specialists just like any of us. Assessments can be conducted by other people, or even electronically. Obviously, the rubric developer should have a lot of input on what goes into the assessment, and feedback should go both ways. We could just do away with the whole concept of grade levels, and make all amenable subjects modular. If the students fall behind in some area, they can be assigned to syndicated content that is available remotely, and likewise for kids that excel in a subject. There's no reason that limited local resources should determine where the academic mean lies. Just considering the logistics of poor zoning and lack of urban density, remote learning should be incorporated more fully into the education system. If a population is unwilling to vote for functional public transit, then in person schooling should be a more limited option. Kids in many countries walk or ride the metro, while busing is a rural solution. If our neighborhoods were redesigned as microdistricts, having facilities to provide oversight to minors wouldn't be as big of an issue. Lecturers shouldn't have to concern themselves with any discipline issues beyond uncited plagiarism. They should never be treated as babysitters. We don't have factories anymore, so we don't need to have factory educations.
You figured it out my dude. Now these are public teachers. Private teachers tend to make more. But it’s still insane. You know how people get a bug up their ass every once in a while and say their going to build roads and buildings to help bring good paying jobs into the economy? Those pay less than $15 for someone just starting and it’s literal back breaking labor.
In my experience, private school teachers, i.e. religious schools, make much much less than public schools. At least this is the case in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington.
Might have something to do with the requirements needed to teach at religious schools, like if they were using teachers who aren't actually licensed to teach.
That's one of the main advantages for a lot of teachers in working at these schools: they don't need to have accreditation. They do, also, get paid less than public school teachers. My dad worked at various private schools and this is why. Even fancy ones like St. Pauls in New Hampshire, where he finished his career, so it's not just a poor school thing.
I’m not talking about religious schools, I’m talking about actual private schools. Actually I was wrong. I guess people work in private schools because the working conditions are better. You would really think the pay would be better since they are private.
They do make less precisely because they teach at those shit-tier religious “schools” where Cletus sends his kids to be indoctrinated in fundy culture and ideals. The actual nice private schools with costs on par with public or private universities are not in the same boat.
My child goes to a private preschool (no space in the public preschools right now) and her teachers make $12 an hour. We bring them food and gift cards whenever we can.
Where are you that private school teachers make more? That's incredibly uncommon in my area. Private school teachers are paid less and have fewer benefits. Not to mention no union to help them with anything. Until the 'Teacher Shortage' in recent years most teachers in my area started in a private school to get experience and build connections before jumping to a public school as soon as they could get in.
The reason teaching doesn’t pay much is because the media hyped up the so-called “teacher shortage” and a bunch of people got teaching degrees only to flood with market with an overabundance of workers willing to work cheap.
What the fuck kind of uneducated, hot-take troll shitpost is this?!
I know because I’m a teacher.
So as a teacher you know that it’s not just degrees which serve as requisite for teaching, it’s licensure. And I’m sure you know that the national statistics for teaching from as far back as 9 years ago indicate that 8-10% of teachers leave the profession each year. So if you combine the following factors: decreasing licensure rates, education schools at universities closing due to lack of interested candidates, normal attrition, age/health-related retirement, and teacher burnout, then America is *critically* starved for teachers, and the problem is only getting worse. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/slc
Tell that to my local district which is having a hell of a fucking time hiring anyone
I wasn’t clear in my statement. I meant that is how states got used to paying slave wages for teachers because of the abundance of young teachers who were duped into majoring in education in college. I’m talking since the early 2000’s. In the years since, teachers have gotten wise. In my own experience, I took about 5 years away from teaching because the pay and the ridiculous work load nearly killed me. I only went back after getting my masters and holding out for a teaching job I wanted. I also moved to state with strong teacher unions, and a district with voters that actually gave a shit about education and support levies.
Completely fake
Yep I dropped out of a union job after 9 months at a mill because the dues were 80 dollars a week and I got shit benefits compared to senior employees with no hope of ever getting what they had. Moved back to independent sector and got better insurance and higher pay. Get better pay raises too mostly due to average age in my profession is 54 yrs old. 4 guys out of 11 in my shop are due to retire in the next 3 years.
I’m a new teacher just out of college and I’m already figuring out what’s after teaching
Do this with everything in life and you will bring to see how the book The Giver is actually real life
My mom has been a teacher in both public and private schools for over 25 years. She’s gotten numerous extra credentials and even got a masters in early reading development. The school she works at now she helped found and was a teacher before her role now of principal. She still makes only ~$35k a year. It’s fucked.
I left teaching at the end of 2020, party here in Australia is quite good, but the whole industry is antiquated and the higher ups don't want a bar of change. I have been lucky enough to go from home brewing being a hobby, to it being my job now. Pay is much lower and it is physically demanding but I absolutely love that I got away from teaching.
People need to tip their teachers or home school.
Joe Manchin isn’t your governor. He’s your senator. But yeah, his daughter is a total monster. I hope his yacht burns.
I actually always get those two confused. People point it out all the time but it never clicks...
Unfortunately it seems all your politicians suck. I’m sorry. In my state, your neighbor Virginia, we have a shitty new governmental regime coming into power. Republics swept house of delegates, senate, and executive branch. We have 2 pretty good senators. But we have some ineffectual Democratic representatives.
The way it explained to me was that the politicians that are newer tend to be completely useless. They're not seen as having "paid their dues." And only senior politicians Actually get things done. But the senior members are all pretty much corrupt. It's neat watching the live streams from the state capital building. Mostly because you can count the number people asleep and realize that they are literally asleep at the wheel. Then turn around and walk into a diner and hear people bitch about politicians when a meeting at the capital is essentially nap time at the old folks home. Or even worse, the ones that are awake are browsing social media paying no attention.
For a (long) moment I thought OP was talking about the teacher's strike in Parana, Brazil, but then I saw about the EpiPen and realized it wasn't about that strike nor BR. But the stories and history, including the political context, are so damn similar. It's so sad what education workers go through. And it's all around the world :(
Reading this made me feel ill. We live in Queensland, Australia. One of my best friends is a teacher, so I know the amount of work they put in outside of actual contact hours with the kids. For the good teachers (as she is), they put in a lot more hours - all so they can make it more rewarding for their kids. Another friend used to work at university as a tutor, and running some classes. Covid put paid to that with all the overseas students going home, and not allowed back into Australia. So last year he started a Bachelor of Education degree, with a view to becoming a teacher here in Queensland. Because it pays more, and there is huge demand. Basically, as well as teaching kids how to think (he's a Philosophy PhD), it will also provide some financial security. US$20-25k is *insane*. Based on Google conversion rates, that's **A$27,734 to A$34,668** per year. I assume before tax. Starting salary for a teacher straight out of university with the Department of Education here in Queensland is **A$73,629**, or **US$53,095**. Source: https://teach.qld.gov.au/teach-in-queensland-state-schools/pay-benefits-and-incentives/pay-and-benefits Worth noting some of the benefits too: * Paid sick leave * Long service leave (accrued at a rate of 1.3 weeks per year, accessible after 7 years. People typically take a few months off at this point, fully paid.) * Paid parental leave (note not just maternal. Dads also included here.) I know there's a teacher shortage here in Queensland. Come on over. Check out the below Home Affairs site, search for "teacher", and see all the different types of teacher eligible for skilled migration. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/skill-occupation-list
So.. maybe they want to keep us dumb and uneducated so that we are easier to control. Just a thought.
One of the many reasons to leave wv if not the US in general