Posted on 08/28/2006 9:26:05 PM PDT by letsgonova19087
I apologize if people feel this is a waste of space...this is the first thread I've started here but I have some complaints and some questions.
In my local township, our public school teachers are preparing to strike. Obviously, we, as students, are furious at the prospect of losing our holidays and summer to the greed of our teachers. But it becomes far worse when we look at the numbers.
Best I can tell (from general googling), the average national teachers salary is about $45,000. We live in a very affluent community, with some of the best schools in the state of PA. The MINIMUM starting salary, yes starting salary, at our school is roughly $50,000. Meaning, a first year teacher can walk into our district and make more than the national average of all teachers in the country, regardless of experience. The MAXIMUM salary for a teacher -cash compensation- is just under $100,000 a year. This does not include benefits, andd while I don't have a number for those, it would be at least enough to put that number well into six figures. Needless to say, the teachers in our district are far from deprived.
I've had several of the head union reps as teachers, and I can attest to the fact that many of them are extreme leftists. I generally don't hold it too much against them. Except now, their greed and selfishness is interfering with everybody else's lives.
I have a couple questions. The first are legal, and really more out of my own curiousity than anything else. 1. Can teachers on strike be fired? At the levels we pay these people, we could have those positions filled again overnight. If I were the superintendent, I would have said "show up for work tomorrow, or you're fired". Is that legally possible? 2. are there such things as illegitimate grounds for a strike? I think it would be tough to make a case that a teacher making a hundred grand really has grounds to strike. Is it possible for a judge to throw that out?
Lastly, I would just like some ideas as to how we as students could become involved in the process without damaging ourselves in school. Nobody is in favor of this, but the vast majority I've talked to are fearful of retribution by the teachers once school DOES get started? How can we influence this without becomming targets?
Thanks for your time.
One word, tenure.
You would probably have to have a lawyer review their union contract if you want to find out.
That's a little out of my league. Besides, I'm sure somebody has already done that. Pisses me off though.
Haha now THERE's an idea. Get local media involved...cameras, lots of cameras, and show them how resolute students are to learn by defying the eeeeeeevvillll greedy teachers and learning on their own...talk about a PR victory...
The teachers could be really pissed if they did this, their students might think an economics text by Walter Williams or Thomas Sowell was worthy reading material. Or they could read what Whittaker Chambers tells of the Communist Party USA.
There is a computer curriculum called *Switched on Schoolhouse* by Alpha-Omega Publishers that a co-worker of my husbands used with a great deal of success. She had a troubled teen who the PUBLIC school wouldn't take any more. He was headed for JD. She had no alternative but homeschooling and used that program and they loved it. You can get the major subjects, English, Math, Science, and Social Studies. There's a five curriculum pack that also includes a Bible Study.
If the student is a teen and is really motivated, they can do an awful lot by themselves. This is not an unheard of situation and these kids are often highly motivated and will do the work on their own. That's really the key. If a kid doesn't want to learn, you just can't force it into him.That was the situation with the family above. She's a single parent who worked full time and he stayed home and did his school work. It's very reasonably priced per subject. Much of the curriculum is over-priced IMO. Here is a link to a curriculum provider that has excellent prices on material.
http://www.rocksolidinc.com/
The curriculum they sell has a distinct Christian perspective, which includes Alpha-Omega.
For math, however, I would not ever use anything other that Saxon Math. I learned a lot from it and is very self-explanatory. The lessons are explained clearly to the point that my kids really taught themsemves by the time they got to jr. high. They would ask my help when they came to something they didn't understand but other than that, they pretty much did it on their own, even as far as the calculus.
I'm sure that hardly covers it but don't hesitate to ask more.
There was a stiuation many years ago that I recall, where the teachers struck and they did it for such a long time that it threatened the kids ability to go to college. I don't remember how it all panned out but the kids were furious for the same reasons you mentioned.
Obviously, the teachers are not striking over working conditions. PA is a tough state to homeschool in, but that is an option. It would be the ultimate irony if the kids and their families boycotted the school by homeschooling for the year.
Any input?
Thanks for adding some usefull information for a student whose teachers have put him in a bind.
Thanks for your advice and support. There is one final set of negotiations tomorrow, and a large group of us are going out to protest the strike. Hopefully, it can be avoided all together.
Thanks again.
Keep us posted. I'd like to now what happens.
This freeper's school is on strike. Any input or advice?
This ping list is for the "other" articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. If you want on/off this list, please freepmail me. The main Homeschool Ping List by DaveLoneRanger handles the homeschool-specific articles.
1. Average Salary of $50,000.00
2. Full Dental and Medical and Life
3. Generous Vacation Package
4. Full Pension
5. Insurance untill they die
6. Paid Funeral
7. 401K and other retirment plans
And they have the balls to say they are underpaid and only want to help the "children". That is why they made the threat to strike. You show me another job you can get with a 4 year degree that has that kind of benefits package.
It's #3 that gets me. Weekends and holidays off, Christmas, winter and spring breaks and all of summer. All for what the average worker has to work full time year round for, well, actually for MORE than what the average joe gets when you include benefits.
I'm moving to PA from CA, so this is of interest to me. I found these sites that may assist you & your fellow students (teachers post here too, not necessarily from your township), but there is quite a bit of information on PA teacher strikes in and around the Wayne, PA area.
http://www.topix.net/forum/city/wayne-pa/T9F7FN5JJR38C9AOV/p56#lastPost
The link is to the last, current, page of comments. You can go back to read previous, more relevant comments.
I also found this page directly concerning PA teacher strikes:
http://www.stopteacherstrikes.org/
Best of luck to you.
What if the whole district threatened to homeschool? How effective would a strike be if there were no students left to teach? Then they couldn't blackmail the parents and students.
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