Well the republican plan is to get rid of public schools since they don’t want to pay for anyone’s education but their own kids. Amazing to me that they bitch and moan about how dumb folks are but don’t want to help anyone get smarter, especially when it would help the folks around them and make life better for all of us. Speaking of dumb shit republicans have pushed for decades regardless of how poorly it is for all, tax cuts.
“Tens of thousands of Arizona teachers voted last week to strike after rejecting an offer of a 20-percent raise, because it didn’t include a vow from state lawmakers not to further cut taxes before providing more money for the state’s schools.”
These teachers aren’t just underpaid, they’re now standing in the most dangerous place in America:
Between GOP lawmakers and a tax cut.
They’re gonna need hazard pay…
78% saying they feel teachers are underpaid but 50% saying they’ll pay higher taxes to pay teachers more isn’t enough.
This is all very well, but here in CA, teachers are paid out of local property taxes (with the state adding funds to top up income to a minimum level for those areas with comparatively low property values). Local parcel taxes can be used to provide additional local funding for schools, but parcel taxes need 66% super majority yes vote to pass. The last parcel tax proposal in my city failed with 59% yes vote. The last one in the city one over failed to pass by just 8 votes. Not enough people are prepared to pay out of their own pocket to give teachers a decent salary.
In his book “Wealth of Nations”, which every economist agrees is the definition of Capitalism, Adam Smith included a chapter devoted to the requirement for a capitalist economy to have universal public education. Or to put another way, in order to be a capitalist society, a nation must have a strong commitment to providing a well rounded public education to all its people.
The need for better public education funding is not only about, and must not be allowed to become only about, teachers salaries. This is about funding public education for all Americans. That is in addition to teacher pay, we need to discuss spending for smaller classes, internet access, books, extra curricular activities to include clubs and sports, that are necessary to provide a public education that competes with the rest of the developed and developing world.
The 78% are right. My daughter is a public school teacher, and she sometimes works entire weekends catching up and planning lessons. People who think teachers work from 8:30 to 3:30 live in a fantasy world.
It is also true in Illinois where the state pays little for education. What this means is that there are huge differences in the public education provided. In the last 40 years the federal government lessening its commitment to public education has made the situation even worse. It not only affects how much money a district has to spend, but what they spend it on. That is a poorer district with less money to spend has more needs to spend that money on than a wealthy district where the parents can provide. This includes not only school materials like text books, but also food and after school activities. The result is Illinois has separate and unequal school districts.
Seems like a simple solution… once you have more Democrats in office.
I taught in a medical school. An hour lecture for first year students meant 6-8 hours of prep work for me. And that was on top of the research lab time I needed to invest in graduate students, writing journal articles, and grants…let’s us not forget grants (the bane of my professional existence). I am very glad to be retired.
There is something of a difficulty in comparing pay across systems. For example, the IMF estimates that a low level economist job paid 40,000 euros in Finland corresponds to a living standard similar to $105,000 in the US. The difference isn’t just exchange rates. Finns get healthcare, daycare, public transport and a certain amount of housing affordability in that package, even if the prices are like Alaska. I would argue that teachers would gladly take benefits over money in many cases. A place close to the school to live, daycare for the kids, great healthcare, etc. and a safe work space. We should not underestimate the efforts of religious zealots in degrading the system. School should be a secular space, but a motivated minority would rather destroy schools and the profession than let that happen.
Yes, and I feel for you. Prior to Proposition 13 (1978, and I remember all those shiny promises at the time) California possessed one of the three or four finest school systems in the U.S. By the 90s California’s eighth grade math scores were tied dead last with Louisiana. Local burdens need to be lifted.
And I bet she works before school starts and of course evenings.
That’s why state like Arizona have so much trouble raising taxes for education, so many retirees in the state that don’t care about public education, plus tons of religious nuts that actually hate public education.
With the push to keep teachers pay at the minimum, and threatening jail for the ones that complain. Pretty soon Public School teaching will be a job for immigrants and ex-cons. Conservatives will be happy to have destroyed the system and getting revenge for Brown vs Board Of Education.
My daughter likes to get to school early to get her classroom ready and herself together before the students arrive and sometimes stays hours after school in the evenings. That’s not counting parents’ meetings and other meetings scheduled in the evening. While she’s teaching, principals and supervisors drop in for surprise and scheduled observation and critiques of her teaching methods. She’s a good teacher, but It ain’t easy,
And then they bitch and moan about how dumb and incompetent young folks are these days…catch 22 is a bitch!