Say Anything Blog

meanwhile, catholic school teachers start at 18k. Vouchers, please.

Yes, vouchers please.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

from the article:

I’m not sure why we think it is good for teacher morale or for the recruitment of future quality teachers to insist falsely that teachers are paid more like fast-food workers than like professionals. Repeatedly understating how well-paid teachers are serves to discourage quality people from the profession and creates among teachers a false sense of persecution.

That needed to be said.

What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.

That needed to be said.

Whistler,

I wonder how much less a problem out education system would be if the point had been made years ago, and we had been recruiting teachers not bureaucrats.

“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.”

My wife is a teacher and I work for a school district.  Let me tell you about the required day here.  Because of state laws, students must spend 360 minutes a day in class.  Teachers are guaranteed a minimum of 40 minnutes of that time with no students.  Additionally, during that time, the administration cannot ask them to do anything.  If their are any requests of their time during this planning period, the teacher must be either paid for it or given compensatory time.  What that means is that a teacher is required to actually have contact with students for 5 hours and 20 minutes day.

In the case of our district, teachers are paid for 7 hours and 40 minutes a day.  This includes the legally-mandated 30 minute lunch (for which the same rules apply as for planning periods.) That means that the average teacher has 2:20 a day for which she is being paid but has no students in her room.  If an administrator asks a teacher to stay beyond 7:40, the teacher is paid or is given comp time.

A brand-new teacher straight out of college with no experience at all earns $32,000.  The state’s median income is about $22,000.

One odd thing that I have noticed is that it is typically the teachers who do the absolute best job who complain about the pay the least.  The ones who complain the most are the ones who would probably starve to death if teachers were paid on any kind of a performance plan.

"Although I can accept talking scarecrows, lions and great wizards in emerald cities, I find it hard to believe there is no paperwork involved when your house lands on a witch.”
- Dave James

One odd thing that I have noticed is that it is typically the teachers who do the absolute best job who complain about the pay the least.  The ones who complain the most are the ones who would probably starve to death if teachers were paid on any kind of a performance plan.

I don’t consider that odd or surprising in the least.  The worst workers are always the ones with the big chip on their shoulders.  I’ll leave it up to you to decide if the chicken or th e egg came first.

What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.

That is 36% more than the average white collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty and technical worker, which are the categories in which the BLS places teachers.

The average white collar worker doesn’t have to put up with the daily round of sh*t teachers do.

Steve L.:

That means that the average teacher has 2:20 a day for which she is being paid but has no students in her room.  If an administrator asks a teacher to stay beyond 7:40, the teacher is paid or is given comp time.

Its strange that someone who’s spouse is a teacher doesn’t seem to understand that most teachers use that time to grade and prepare lessons and, I might add, regain their composure so they don’t strangle the next dhd student they get flak from. Maybe its different wherever Steve’s from.

Pretty much puts a lie to the theory that teachers are working all evening grading papers.

It’s the parents that are doing schoolwork all evening teaching their kids what they didn’t get taught during the day.

What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.

Have you visited a classroom lately? The teachers are the only parents most of the kids have.  We don’t get paid to be parents but we do it anyway.

What a coincidence.  Judging by the volume and type of homework that I help my kids do I can say that I’m their only teacher. 

Why is it that the homework that gets sent home is reading, writing and arithmetic.  What do you spend the 7 hours you have with them doing?

Oh well, I’d need daycare anyway and they do learn some nice four letter words.

What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.