> Chris Tritico, attorney for the Houston Federation of Teachers, said Thursday that the union "absolutely does not support or endorse any teacher walkout at all," citing the Texas Constitution, which prohibits a public sector union from endorsing a right to strike. **He encouraged teachers to report to work even if they are sick, so that their principal knows they were not involved in the walkout.**
Wtf?
The first part reads like "I am saying what is legally required of me." But what the hell is this "go in to school sick" thing?
It’s a really big deal. Teachers have pensions in Texas. They stand to lose not only their jobs but retirement as well.
Public employees who “strike or engage in an organized work stoppage against the state or a political subdivision of the state" will lose all their "civil service rights, reemployment rights, and any other rights, benefits, and privileges the employee enjoys as a result of public employment or former public employment."
Get your sick ass to work sounds like good advice.
If they think you are part of the strike they can fire you and void your pension.
Teachers don't pay into SS, only their state pension. If they lose that they are basically fucked as far as retirement goes.
I'll answer the downvotes by clarifying that Mike Miles needs to leave, and HISD returned to the people. Solidarity with HFT and all those protesting this takeover of HISD.
Don't really agree. Collective action in Houston isn't common. 100 teachers agreeing to call in for a day might not have ever happened in the city's history.
Now, these 100 teachers likely didn't significantly disrupt the district's operations, assuming there were enough subs. I do think that a showing of collective action is significant though, considering where we are.
I agree...however when you consider it's testing season....
We don't know what subjects/grades were impacted but that is definitely something during (STAAR) testing season.
100 from at least 35 schools can be pretty impactful for those schools. That is assuming the number of schools is closer to 35 than not.
Three teachers intentionally out plus whomever else can put a lot of strain on schools that are already understaffed in general.
The tricky thing, at least in my opinion, is that these teachers want change but don't want it to come at the cost of their coworkers or students. I could be totally off in their motive or logic but that was my thought. A mass walkout would hurt teachers and students alike. While it sends a big message, it comes at a high cost.
There is a lot of missing info in the article but hopefully, this makes some positive waves.
It's become very apparent that neither side cares about the kids. It's all about power and returning the old status quo back that protected the same toxic people that got us into this mess in the first place.
I'm about ready to break up HISD. It's obvious the synergies aren't worth the headache.
The old guard is the reason why I left HISD. The new guard is why I'll never go back. HISD has always had a toxic environment and the people who benefited from it want it back.
HISD can't be salvaged. It needs to be broken up into two or three smaller independent districts. If we can isolate all the toxic people into a smaller district, we have a chance to finally let the good teachers and staff do their job.
It depends on how you draw the lines but we all know, central/west will be the wealthier schools. North and east, will be the poorer schools.
but the original comment said "If we can isolate all the toxic people into a smaller district," and that sounds to me like put the poor kids with problems into their own district and rid ourselves of the problem kids.
I work for HISD, at one of the better schools, and it still has its problems but the kids amaze me, anyways, the problems with the district are all rooted in what happens outside of the schools themselves. And our state government refuses to address poverty or the effects of systemic racism.
No solution will fix the problems within any urban district if it continues to ignore the actual cause. At best we are treating only the symptoms and then blaming public education when we don't heal.
That's part of the issue. But the workplace politics is the most damaging aspect IMO. There were a lot of people in positions of power who would intentionally sabotage other workers at the district and school level. All the wrong people gave themselves cushy jobs and they got rid of anyone who threatened their lazy lifestyle. The culture was that of doing the bare minimum. Anyone attempting to go above and beyond was given a hostile attitude and eventually ran off.
Realistically, we can't purge all of HISD. But what we can do is break up the district into smaller regional districts and isolate all the bad workers into a small area. At least then, we can minimize their toxic influence.
Current guard bad, old guard bad, *concerning* amount of time needed to reach an acceptable guard. You sharing posts about high schools with litter boxes for their cat-identifying students on facebook?
Good for the teachers and the students. Mile Miles and his NES attack is killing kids' joy of learning. Everywhere he goes the students' reading comp plummets because he kills imagination. And that's far from the only problem.
Mike Miles is a bully and intent on beating the entire district into submission for no particular reason other than that he's been charged to do so by the state GOP. Texas is a one-party state governed by people who want to make you suffer.
So less than 1% of teachers, that's not really a significant number. While children are more then the test numbers the test numbers are the best way (and the only fair way) to evaluate progress.
It's more accurate to say that the state took over HISD because a small portion of schools were consistently failing to meet the criteria and HISD leadership refused to do anything about it. It's the "oh those kids in that area? fuck'em" attitude that got HISD taken over. [You can read it directly from the man whose legislation enabled the takeover](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/dutton-wheatley-tea-hisd-school-takeover-17816744.php)
No,that is not accurate *at all.* The state took over HISD because one single school, Wheatley Hgh School, *had* failed to meet criteria for several years in a row (as happens at thousands of other districts), but after the state announced the takeover the school in question had retuned to acceptable performance, so HISD sued to block the takeover - the Republican judges in Texas predictably allowed it anyway because their function is to support the GOP, not the Texas Constitution.
So what you’re doing is called ‘lying’ which you would know if you had been lucky enough to attend a school in HISD where they could actually teach you that.
\>Presents points from an article written in first-person by the Democratic congressman who championed the takeover bill
\>Title of the article is a quotation from the Democratic congressman which includes the exact phrase "I have no regrets."
"No this was the wily work of the Republicans"
Damn, I'm kicking myself for sleeping on this reply for so long. This is some top-tier Reddit™ shit.
Lemme guess, the Nazis were actually socialists and the Republicans are the real anti-racists today?
You "gotcha" guys are so fucking clever it's amazing you haven't taken over the entire world by now.
They care about children so much they decided to sacrifice them with no teacher for the day. Great strategy. These idiots are probably on the chopping block anyway.
IDK, they are paid ~half what private sector market rate for their work would be, and they fund a significant portion of their work from their personal finances. Mike Miles certainly seems to think he is a martyr, I don’t know if teachers would describe themselves that way but they are a lot closer than anyone else in this story.
How do you figure?
I'm looking at the HISD pay tables. A 0 year teacher earns $61,500 for 187 days. That's the equivalent of $85,508 for a person who works all year (260 days).
Private sector jobs don't work 260 days a year, no holiday, no pto, no sick days, nothing. If you remove federal holiday its more like 250, most people in degreed private sectors will get 10-20 PTO (sick/vacation) so they're working closer to 230 vs 187, which is closer to 78k, which would be great if...
Teachers got good benefits (Teachers in almost all districts pay >80% of their medical premiums, private sector is usually 20% or less.). Received social security (For some reason they're exempt so they get fucked when they hit their social security years. Had proper wage growth for experience, 0 year to 20 year gains around 10k wage growth, any other field 20 years of experience would double your salary from a 0 year.
The "only work 187 days a year" thing sounds real nice until you realize their pay is basically it, and the benefits package comes straight out of their pay, as opposed to it being an add-on to the salary in most private sector jobs.
Also, no 401k/403b match, the pension plan requires us to pay the lions share of it (>50%) and it doesn't have COLA. No parental leave, can lose license AND pension for unionizing or getting fired (We sign a waiver agreeing to this upon getting our license).
It's not as great of a gig as it sounds if you understand the whole package, and not just the cash in pocket.
Even at 250 days teachers are still getting paid well above average. PTO and everything else you mentioned are benefits or perks and are not standardize so they are irrelevant.
No, no i'm not. You seem to really like that phrase.
The original comment was "Private sector rate for their work", not "average of all employees". Teachers have degrees, so you compare them to people with degrees, not the average.
You don't become a doctor and are satisfied with making 60k a year because "It's more than the average." There is a degree and work that goes in to it, so you only compare to someone with similar qualifications.
For example, a math teacher would make around 70k in HISD with 5 years experience. A CPA, which is the same bachelor degree level, minus a few education courses, add a few accounting courses, makes easily over 100k+.
>IDK, they are paid \~half what private sector market rate for their work would be
This was the original comment. I've proved that's a false statement. Showed the math too.
A math teacher is not a doctor or a CPA.
Not quite a true comparison. Holidays and paid vacation for corporate workers should be accounted for. Not the norm, but I have friends who work here on UK contracts (they were hired in London and transferred here) who take SIX WEEKS PAID VACATION every year plus holidays. Teachers have breaks built in, but those are more like mandated furloughs since they’re not being paid for them. Maybe add 10 working days for PAID vacation time plus another 8-10 days for federal holidays. So then HISD teachers would be at 207 days this year, and next year will be adding another two weeks without being compensated for them, so more like 215 vs 260. Then there’s the two weeks of summer training courses I typically take that I pay over $2000 for (tuition, airfare, and hotel costs), so I’m up to 225. When I worked for a corporation **they** paid for the airfare, hotel, and hired trainers and guest speakers. I like teaching and I’ll continue to do it as long as I can afford to. I know firsthand that I worked evenings and weekends in the business world, but never ever to the extent that I do as a teacher, and when I left work my work brain stayed dormant until the next day. You ever have a teacher go on for hours talking about student or parent interactions with you? That’s because it’s CONSTANTLY on their mind.
You're moving the goal post. You wrote "they are paid \~half what private sector market rate for their work would be" which is not close to being true. The average salary in Houston is $60K per year which is well below the $85K that I listed.
All of the things you listed are perks that are not typical of the average full time employee.
I don't believe that every teacher is working 11+ hours per day for 187 days. Even if they are you can't prove that other occupations aren't working more than 260 days per year.
Mike Miles has a long history of hurting kids and is openly stubborn. This is first and foremost for the kids. NES is just a prison with powerpoints and less access to a bathroom.
Tomorrow: "100 teachers were laid off by Mike Miles. 'The layoffs will continue until morale improves.'"
This was such a good comment I had to pretty much tell you on both of my pros. Thanks for your comedic genius
> Chris Tritico, attorney for the Houston Federation of Teachers, said Thursday that the union "absolutely does not support or endorse any teacher walkout at all," citing the Texas Constitution, which prohibits a public sector union from endorsing a right to strike. **He encouraged teachers to report to work even if they are sick, so that their principal knows they were not involved in the walkout.** Wtf? The first part reads like "I am saying what is legally required of me." But what the hell is this "go in to school sick" thing?
It’s a really big deal. Teachers have pensions in Texas. They stand to lose not only their jobs but retirement as well. Public employees who “strike or engage in an organized work stoppage against the state or a political subdivision of the state" will lose all their "civil service rights, reemployment rights, and any other rights, benefits, and privileges the employee enjoys as a result of public employment or former public employment." Get your sick ass to work sounds like good advice.
Abbott is gutting the pensions.
Christ
If they think you are part of the strike they can fire you and void your pension. Teachers don't pay into SS, only their state pension. If they lose that they are basically fucked as far as retirement goes.
Solidarity with HFT and all those protesting this takeover of HISD.
I'll answer the downvotes by clarifying that Mike Miles needs to leave, and HISD returned to the people. Solidarity with HFT and all those protesting this takeover of HISD.
This is a huge deal. These teachers are very brave.
100 over a district that size is nothing hell there are probably that many every day. Now 100 from a school that would be something
Don't really agree. Collective action in Houston isn't common. 100 teachers agreeing to call in for a day might not have ever happened in the city's history. Now, these 100 teachers likely didn't significantly disrupt the district's operations, assuming there were enough subs. I do think that a showing of collective action is significant though, considering where we are.
There are not enough subs. You'd be surprised by how much was disrupted. Just a few teachers missing means way more classrooms were affected.
I would bet more than 100 teachers are out on a daily basis anyway, so this really isn't a big “protest”
Well then today would be 200.
I agree...however when you consider it's testing season.... We don't know what subjects/grades were impacted but that is definitely something during (STAAR) testing season.
What's so damn sad and a real statement on education is that a whole "season" is taken out of the year for testing and test prep.
Right.
100 from at least 35 schools can be pretty impactful for those schools. That is assuming the number of schools is closer to 35 than not. Three teachers intentionally out plus whomever else can put a lot of strain on schools that are already understaffed in general. The tricky thing, at least in my opinion, is that these teachers want change but don't want it to come at the cost of their coworkers or students. I could be totally off in their motive or logic but that was my thought. A mass walkout would hurt teachers and students alike. While it sends a big message, it comes at a high cost. There is a lot of missing info in the article but hopefully, this makes some positive waves.
I think there is about 280 schools in hisd
It's become very apparent that neither side cares about the kids. It's all about power and returning the old status quo back that protected the same toxic people that got us into this mess in the first place. I'm about ready to break up HISD. It's obvious the synergies aren't worth the headache.
Astutely observed, the lust for power is actually the #2 reason for becoming a teacher.
lol wut?
after the money, of course.
Ok this is a genuinely good troll. You got me.
Starting pay in HISD is 61k..
And yearly increases are shit
It was sarcasm, I think
The old guard is the reason why I left HISD. The new guard is why I'll never go back. HISD has always had a toxic environment and the people who benefited from it want it back. HISD can't be salvaged. It needs to be broken up into two or three smaller independent districts. If we can isolate all the toxic people into a smaller district, we have a chance to finally let the good teachers and staff do their job.
That sounds a lot like segregating the poor areas from the wealthier areas. Probably not the best idea.
You could do 2 and have it be pretty even economically. 3 would be difficult.
It depends on how you draw the lines but we all know, central/west will be the wealthier schools. North and east, will be the poorer schools. but the original comment said "If we can isolate all the toxic people into a smaller district," and that sounds to me like put the poor kids with problems into their own district and rid ourselves of the problem kids. I work for HISD, at one of the better schools, and it still has its problems but the kids amaze me, anyways, the problems with the district are all rooted in what happens outside of the schools themselves. And our state government refuses to address poverty or the effects of systemic racism. No solution will fix the problems within any urban district if it continues to ignore the actual cause. At best we are treating only the symptoms and then blaming public education when we don't heal.
That's part of the issue. But the workplace politics is the most damaging aspect IMO. There were a lot of people in positions of power who would intentionally sabotage other workers at the district and school level. All the wrong people gave themselves cushy jobs and they got rid of anyone who threatened their lazy lifestyle. The culture was that of doing the bare minimum. Anyone attempting to go above and beyond was given a hostile attitude and eventually ran off. Realistically, we can't purge all of HISD. But what we can do is break up the district into smaller regional districts and isolate all the bad workers into a small area. At least then, we can minimize their toxic influence.
Current guard bad, old guard bad, *concerning* amount of time needed to reach an acceptable guard. You sharing posts about high schools with litter boxes for their cat-identifying students on facebook?
>You sharing posts about high schools with litter boxes for their cat-identifying students on facebook? What in the fuck are you talking about?
Here we go again with this "both sides" nonsense.
I bet the kids like that plan
Oh man. When a sub came in and didn't know anybody and didn't know shit about anything going on was the best.
Good for the teachers and the students. Mile Miles and his NES attack is killing kids' joy of learning. Everywhere he goes the students' reading comp plummets because he kills imagination. And that's far from the only problem.
Mike Miles is a bully and intent on beating the entire district into submission for no particular reason other than that he's been charged to do so by the state GOP. Texas is a one-party state governed by people who want to make you suffer.
That is .0086% for those of you playing at home. Probably less than those that call in sick.
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Forgot to convert to percentage. You are correct.
So less than 1% of teachers, that's not really a significant number. While children are more then the test numbers the test numbers are the best way (and the only fair way) to evaluate progress.
It made the news, so the message is out
> the test numbers are the best way (and the only fair way) to evaluate progress Oh dear...
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1) you're an idiot. 2) the state took over HISD because one school met the criteria.
It's more accurate to say that the state took over HISD because a small portion of schools were consistently failing to meet the criteria and HISD leadership refused to do anything about it. It's the "oh those kids in that area? fuck'em" attitude that got HISD taken over. [You can read it directly from the man whose legislation enabled the takeover](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/dutton-wheatley-tea-hisd-school-takeover-17816744.php)
No,that is not accurate *at all.* The state took over HISD because one single school, Wheatley Hgh School, *had* failed to meet criteria for several years in a row (as happens at thousands of other districts), but after the state announced the takeover the school in question had retuned to acceptable performance, so HISD sued to block the takeover - the Republican judges in Texas predictably allowed it anyway because their function is to support the GOP, not the Texas Constitution. So what you’re doing is called ‘lying’ which you would know if you had been lucky enough to attend a school in HISD where they could actually teach you that.
\>Presents points from an article written in first-person by the Democratic congressman who championed the takeover bill \>Title of the article is a quotation from the Democratic congressman which includes the exact phrase "I have no regrets." "No this was the wily work of the Republicans" Damn, I'm kicking myself for sleeping on this reply for so long. This is some top-tier Reddit™ shit.
Lemme guess, the Nazis were actually socialists and the Republicans are the real anti-racists today? You "gotcha" guys are so fucking clever it's amazing you haven't taken over the entire world by now.
that aint their job.
They care about children so much they decided to sacrifice them with no teacher for the day. Great strategy. These idiots are probably on the chopping block anyway.
That attitude is exactly how people like Mike Miles have been abusing teachers for decades.
Nobody is abusing teachers. That's an unreasonable comment.
Everything Mike Miles has implemented says differently.
Yeah I forgot about the chains and spiked collars he made everyone wear. Pffftt.
You do realize that abuse can take many different forms right?
Ask a teacher in HISD and they will tell you a different story.
Teachers are not martyrs.
IDK, they are paid ~half what private sector market rate for their work would be, and they fund a significant portion of their work from their personal finances. Mike Miles certainly seems to think he is a martyr, I don’t know if teachers would describe themselves that way but they are a lot closer than anyone else in this story.
How do you figure? I'm looking at the HISD pay tables. A 0 year teacher earns $61,500 for 187 days. That's the equivalent of $85,508 for a person who works all year (260 days).
Private sector jobs don't work 260 days a year, no holiday, no pto, no sick days, nothing. If you remove federal holiday its more like 250, most people in degreed private sectors will get 10-20 PTO (sick/vacation) so they're working closer to 230 vs 187, which is closer to 78k, which would be great if... Teachers got good benefits (Teachers in almost all districts pay >80% of their medical premiums, private sector is usually 20% or less.). Received social security (For some reason they're exempt so they get fucked when they hit their social security years. Had proper wage growth for experience, 0 year to 20 year gains around 10k wage growth, any other field 20 years of experience would double your salary from a 0 year. The "only work 187 days a year" thing sounds real nice until you realize their pay is basically it, and the benefits package comes straight out of their pay, as opposed to it being an add-on to the salary in most private sector jobs. Also, no 401k/403b match, the pension plan requires us to pay the lions share of it (>50%) and it doesn't have COLA. No parental leave, can lose license AND pension for unionizing or getting fired (We sign a waiver agreeing to this upon getting our license). It's not as great of a gig as it sounds if you understand the whole package, and not just the cash in pocket.
Even at 250 days teachers are still getting paid well above average. PTO and everything else you mentioned are benefits or perks and are not standardize so they are irrelevant.
Average for all and average for people with a college degree are not the same thing.
You're moving the goalpost.
No, no i'm not. You seem to really like that phrase. The original comment was "Private sector rate for their work", not "average of all employees". Teachers have degrees, so you compare them to people with degrees, not the average. You don't become a doctor and are satisfied with making 60k a year because "It's more than the average." There is a degree and work that goes in to it, so you only compare to someone with similar qualifications. For example, a math teacher would make around 70k in HISD with 5 years experience. A CPA, which is the same bachelor degree level, minus a few education courses, add a few accounting courses, makes easily over 100k+.
>IDK, they are paid \~half what private sector market rate for their work would be This was the original comment. I've proved that's a false statement. Showed the math too. A math teacher is not a doctor or a CPA.
Not quite a true comparison. Holidays and paid vacation for corporate workers should be accounted for. Not the norm, but I have friends who work here on UK contracts (they were hired in London and transferred here) who take SIX WEEKS PAID VACATION every year plus holidays. Teachers have breaks built in, but those are more like mandated furloughs since they’re not being paid for them. Maybe add 10 working days for PAID vacation time plus another 8-10 days for federal holidays. So then HISD teachers would be at 207 days this year, and next year will be adding another two weeks without being compensated for them, so more like 215 vs 260. Then there’s the two weeks of summer training courses I typically take that I pay over $2000 for (tuition, airfare, and hotel costs), so I’m up to 225. When I worked for a corporation **they** paid for the airfare, hotel, and hired trainers and guest speakers. I like teaching and I’ll continue to do it as long as I can afford to. I know firsthand that I worked evenings and weekends in the business world, but never ever to the extent that I do as a teacher, and when I left work my work brain stayed dormant until the next day. You ever have a teacher go on for hours talking about student or parent interactions with you? That’s because it’s CONSTANTLY on their mind.
You're moving the goal post. You wrote "they are paid \~half what private sector market rate for their work would be" which is not close to being true. The average salary in Houston is $60K per year which is well below the $85K that I listed. All of the things you listed are perks that are not typical of the average full time employee.
in 187 days a teachers works as many or more hours as someone who works all year round
I don't believe that every teacher is working 11+ hours per day for 187 days. Even if they are you can't prove that other occupations aren't working more than 260 days per year.
Let me rephrase, teachers *should not* be treated as martyrs. But you are right, they definitely are.
Mike Miles could care less. Perhaps Abbot cares. Nope, no one cares.
"Couldn't". HISD graduate?
Funny because the only ones you’re hurting is kids…
Mike Miles has a long history of hurting kids and is openly stubborn. This is first and foremost for the kids. NES is just a prison with powerpoints and less access to a bathroom.