Posted on 05/03/2018 3:25:54 AM PDT by ImaGraftedBranch
The latest screamfest from the various teacher's groups is that they're "grossly underpaid."
Well, no.
First, let's not forget that teachers are paid for 12 months but work 9. Indeed the "standard" school year is 180 days. The standard man-year of work is 2,000 hours -- 40 hours across 50 weeks.
But 180 days is 1,440 hours, not 2,000, or 72% of a standard work-year.
And before you talk about "overtime" do realize that professionals don't get paid overtime. I never did as a professional writing code or building networks for other people. It's a professional job, and is exempt -- just as is being a teacher.
So that "horrible" $40,000 salary (which, I remind you, typically comes with 100% health care coverage for the entire teacher's family, an expense that is nearly always over $10,000/year) is actually $50,000 / 0.72 or approximately $70,000 in salary.
That's underpaid?
Uh, no. It's grossly overpaid, especially considering this:
Earlier this month, the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka The Nation's Report Card, was released. It's not a pretty story. Only 37 percent of 12th-graders tested proficient or better in reading, and only 25 percent did so in math. Among black students, only 17 percent tested proficient or better in reading, and just 7 percent reached at least a proficient level in math.
Leave the racial disparity behind for a minute.
Exactly why would anyone get paid anything if only one quarter of those who were the "product" of that work met the objective requirements to be considered acceptable?
Why is not that the question put to these "teachers"?
Is there some "reject rate" acceptable in any production of anything? Certainly. Some percentage of parts made in a factory fail to pass inspection, some percentage of wafers in a fab don't make it into the final output as a computer chip, etc.
But if your success rate is only 25% on the basic facts that define the ability to function as an adult in society, say much less understand the physical and economic world around you then you have no right to be out pounding the street demanding more money.
You ought to be cleaning toilets with a toothbrush and the taxpayers should be taking up arms at the rank theft you demand from them to produce defective output on an everyday, every year basis -- and have been for decades.
This is not a new problem. When I ran MCSNet after a series of bad experiences with so-called "graduates" with nice, polished resumes who couldn't make change for a $20 without a computer telling them exactly how much it was it became obvious that (1) they didn't write their own resume and (2) they were functionally illiterate and innumerate.
Yet they had in their hand a credential that said they (1) could read and write and (2) could perform mathematics both at a 12th grade level.
Those credentials were lies.
I instituted two tests before you could get an interview; when you came in and presented a resume you were shown the conference room and given a pencil, piece of paper and the two tests; nothing else was allowed inside. The first was a request to write a basic business letter informing a customer that his account was disabled because he hadn't paid his bill, and to please remit the balance to continue service. The second was a four-function (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) mathematics screening with 20 questions on it. You needed a 90% on the math to pass and the letter had to be grammatically correct and formatted as a reasonable business letter.
90% of the applicants failed one or both and more than half failed screamingly, either being completely unable to compose a business letter that could be read and understood as reasonably correct English or failing to get even half of the math correct. More than a few applicants literally walked out leaving behind two blank pieces of paper for "answers", unable to do any of it. A couple actually wrote things like "**** you" on the test before walking out, clearly unable to do any of it.
Most-alarmingly was the fact that more than a third of those who claimed to be currently enrolled in college, including at UofC, applying for a part-time job while in school, were unable to pass these screens.
I kept every single test and associated resume in a large horizontal file for what I expected would eventually be an inevitable allegation that I was "discriminating" in some form or fashion. This was downtown (2 Prudential Plaza) Chicago. Let me point out that of those who were unable to write said business letter not one of them could have possibly also written their own resume and as such they had already lied in the application process (and thus were not going to get hired) before coming in the front door.
The enabling liars who issued these people their diplomas are the same people pounding the streets right now. They were the ones who gave out the "As", "Bs", "Cs" and even "Ds" to these students -- but passed them instead of handing out well-deserved "F"s for years from one class to the next without actual achievement having taken place.
These very same teachers are openly and publicly being paid to commit fraud upon the taxpayer and the US marketplace on a literal daily basis. Three quarters of those who they deem "competent" through a 12 year cycle of fraud are in fact not competent and this number includes high-achieving areas.
In most major cities I assure you that the actual percentage of incompetent "graduates" is at or above 90% because it was in the 1990s and this report's statistics make clear that it still is.
Think about this folks because everyone's excuse is that oh, there are a few bad teachers, but most are good.
What are the odds of someone getting through 12 years of schooling, the first six or so taking place with one or two teachers for the entire year, then in the subsequent six year or so with a half-dozen teachers each, 75% of said students are incompetent when they graduate, and it is not true that basically every single one of them is guilty of fraud?
Let's put some math to it -- if three out of four students are incompetent at graduation then with a single teacher for a single year a minimum of 75% of all teachers must be committing fraud by certifying acceptable performance when it is not true.
That is, only 25% are performing honest work with a single year of experience -- that is, a single trial.
But it's not one year. It's 12 years, and for roughly six of them the student has a half-dozen teachers each year, not one. So we have 6 instances in the first six years and then 36 more over the following six, for a total of 42 instances, any one of which could fail said student and prevent them from going forward.
What are the statistical odds of running that gauntlet where only 25% of the teachers do honest work against 42 trials?
The answer is in scientific notation and has 25 zeros to right of the decimal. To put not-to-fine a point on it you're more likely to be hit by an asteroid while getting your mail this afternoon, then struck by lightning on the walk back to your house by a factor of several orders of magnitude than to encounter a string of honest teachers given these rates.
Bluntly: Essentially all are guilty of fraud upon the taxpayer and the public.
This is one of the largest and longest-running frauds perpetrated against the American population and taxpaying citizen ever and anyone in this profession deserves to be consumed by a rabid coyote.
Not only should every one of these "teachers" be fired they should all be criminally prosecuted and tossed in prison; the United States would be better off if the kids of this nation spent an hour a day in the library doing whatever they wanted instead of attending school.
teachers in my day were in it because to a Catholic school student it was considered a "vocation"...something you devote your life and being a good person...
now, its just a govt job..period...
I can count on one hand the number of people who I consider really loved their jobs, loved the kids, and never wanted to quit...actually, its probably only one person, sadly not my own sister, who skedaddled as soon as she could...
the two best math teachers in my whole life were older nuns....they didn’t take any crap and they knew their stuff....
a pharmacist I know talked about being in college and while they were in class and taking labs the education majors were partying....nothing like easy classes to get you a nice govt job...
They aren’t paid for 12 months. Those that draw checks for 12 months have deferred their salary. So the article starts with a lie, and is crap from there on out.
The salaries are less of a problem than the pensions and health bennies.
No, they make self-protective rules because parents sue the schools for anything that hurts their child’s feelings.
Far more teachers than bureaucrats. In any case, it’s the pensions and bennies for all of them.
One of my kids is a teacher as well. His experience is that he transferred into a state where he was not originally certified right at the time of a Republican takeover. HIs salary was locked down for most of the last ten years, his pension partial vesting took ten years, his insurance was high and he paid for it and he will probably never again vote R.
Yes it is true that he came into the state where teachers had politically abused their power. But is rectifying that, newer teachers were overly penalized because the older teachers already had their benefits locked in.
He is a dedicated professional recognized repeatedly as a top teacher by districts, students and peers.
Ah! Good point.
They’ve had tests since schools began but these tests the students are forced to take & the teachers are forced to teach are a farce. Just like Obamacare had nothing to healthcare these tests have nothing to do with education. I believe they actually detract from teaching & learning. There are many reasons for our low performing educational system, but I believe the biggest reason and one that effects society as a whole is that over half the kids in school only have one parent at home.
‘End mandatory schooling at eighth grade, and everything will get better, instantly.’
interesting suggestion, but if we don’t like seeing teachers hitting the streets now, imagine what would happen with all the layoffs necessitated by the reduced student body...
‘My wife worked in education 30 years and her SHORTEST contract was 215 work days, not 180. Some years, she worked a 255 day contract.’
hmmm...standard instructional time by year in Texas is 180 days, as cited by the Education Commission of the States, or 900 hours per year in order to qualify as an instructional day. or 5 hours p/day...the above are minimums, perhaps some teachers are contracted to work more, but your post attempts to make it appear that 200 plus work days are standard across the board, which in fact, they are not...
‘Many teachers just want to get through the year with a functional liver, not be physically assaulted, and no lawsuits.’
so why are they out on the streets complaining about pay and benefits, instead of the issues you listed...? the walking off the job is entire reason this screed was written...
‘The system doesn’t allow for any discipline.’
if I were to grant any leeway to teachers (and I would rather pull out my own teeth, if I had any left), this is where it would be; they need to be backed by the administration...any damn student who wishes to disrupt the learning experience, he/she needs to be sent directly to the office, where a drill instructor type can deal with them...my high school had a vice-principal who looked like he walked right out of The Godfather, and had a stare that could kill...
‘They aren’t paid for 12 months.’
his point is they are making a 12 month salary for a 9 month work year...should be able to read between the lines...
And that’s a lie. They’re paid for 9 months. They’re not paid for a year. There’s no between the lines. There’s the truth and there’s lies, and anybody saying teachers are making 12 months of salaries is lying.
Yes, and the only thing I ever objected to was the Hollywood perspective that teachers were these persecuted underpaid victims. I think the truth is in the middle somewhere. And I think what many hear about are teachers mid or far into their careers in very liberal states like New York where they have the rubber rooms.
I live in British Columbia and my issue is more with the teacher unions. They hate the private schools and would love to see them defunded. Our kids go to private school so I don’t appreciate that. :).
But yes I learned many things since she started teaching:
1) While teachers after 10 years make good money, starting pay is pretty pathetic
2) The annual pay is a salary that must last the entire year. So as a sub, she was, sure getting decent pay, but we had a 2 week spring break. That is 2 weeks with NO pay. The summer will be 9 weeks with no pay.
3) There are crappy teachers, sure, but good teachers, spend plenty of time prepping and marking.
FWIW, I don’t know where my wife will end up. Full time public system jobs are hard to get, as in our district, we have plenty of teachers with 25 to 42 years of seniority. She may end up in the private system, where the pay doesn’t even come close to public school, but she would probably be happier.
That would be terribly foolish. You would end up with many more people who couldn’t balance their own checkbook, couldn’t get a job with even the military, and more voters who have no basis for making good decisions. It is already bad enough as it is.
I would not let anyone who did not graduate from a legitimate high school vote.
Next question.
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