[hsmomx3]

Cantoni is the only one in the Phoenix area who has the guts to write about this. The educrats probably have smoke oozing out of their ears this morning.

[LiteKeeper]

Anti-NEA SITREP

[wardaddy]

True...but money and teachers are less of an issue than the families who predominately send their children to public schools in urban areas.

Lack of familial support to be precise. No teacher can compensate for that.

[netmilsmom]

I love this article. Bookmarked and sent to my lesbian/teacher/flaming liberal/sister!!!

[hoosierboy]

Where else can you go to work for 6 hours a day, for 9 months a year, and make a decent living. Plus gubmint benefits too.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Teachers only work 8 months a year and if they hang on for 30 years they can expect to receive a pension that pays them ~80-85% of what they were making while in the classroom. Those who can, do, those who can't, teach.

[lilylangtree]

It's my understanding that teachers that work in inner-city schools are paid even more.

[Mini-14]

In one of the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, one of the teachers' unions recently threatened to go on strike because of "low pay". The salary range for teachers in this particular district is approximately $70K - $105K.

Poor teachers...

[Nea Wood]

All I know is, teachers I've known have it darned good, yet are constantly whining. After two months off in the summer, they dare to whine (in front of people who have to toil 50 weeks a year for less money) that "the summer went by soooo fast, and now we have to go back to work, oh, boo hoo!!" It seems like every other month they have a week off for this or that, ("oh, it's spring break, it's winter break," it's this, it's that.) They take fabulous vacations, which they then write off on their taxes because they supposedly use the vacations to teach their students about whatever culture they visited. They drive sports cars, then complain that the special, cheap car insurance that they get as teachers does not cover their sports cars. I have little sympathy for them.

[Porterville]

True, but only tenured teachers or teachers on a tenured track; 2/3 of higher education teachers are part-time like myself. I'm broke, but I teach as many classes and students as full timers who make 75% more money than associate faculty. I have more degrees than most of the tenured track teachers. The secret with full timers, is nepotism, in all levels of the educational industry.

[AD from SpringBay]

This is just wrong. We need to raise property taxes, build more school buildings, hire more administrators, give teachers raises, and start new papertrails - that's the only way to fix this nation's schools </liberalkneejerktoschooproblems>.

[VRWC_minion]

Next time you are at a school, check out the cars the teachers are driving and then compare them to the cars the parents are driving.

[VRWC_minion]

Long term prediction:

For decades the image of teachers has been one of underpaid devoted servants who value our children more than themselves and whom we are forever beholden to.

I see a quiet backlash forming. The ingredients to this backlash will come from the presure that the No Child Left Behind law, vouchers, state budget shortfalls, icnreased teachers salaries.

[Mr. Bird]

The quickest way to raising the level of education kids get in public schools is to eliminate the Department of Education and allow states (and then municipalities) to develop programs that work. The teachers' unions need to be fractured into at least 50 different entities. For the life of me, I don't know why a person of talent would belong to a union. Who wants to get paid the same as the slug co-worker just because you've been on the job for the same number of years?

[Ruth A.]

There seems to be a lot of knee-jerk reaction here.

I personally feel that the NEA does not serve the teachers well. I feel that administration is an issue that must be looked at seperately.

I am a substitute teacher and, therefore, am actually in some of theclassrooms and get to see it from that angle. I am also the mother of two elementary students. I also volunteer in different capacities around the school.

Driving time does not count and in Hawaii the commute is easily an hour. Schools start at different times. Here in Hawaii the first bell rings at 7:45 and the last bell rings at 2:00 (except on Wednesday, then it is at 1:10). The teachers arrive early and stay late. Some teachers arrive earlier and stay later depending on what is happening. As a sub, I need to stay until 2:45. Sometimes there are faculty meetings (quite frequently as a matter of fact), which last longer. Sometimes there are evening programs. There is yard duty that is rotated and sometimes kids lose their recess and the teacher has them in the classroom. Lunch is only 30 minutes. There are papers and tests to grade and lessons to prep. I use the recess and extra lunch time (I eat too fast) to review the teacher's lesson plans so that I am prepared.

School here lets out on 6/6. The teachers need to prep their rooms for either a move to another classroom and deep cleaning. They had the following Monday to do that. You don't know how much that work that entails if you haven't been in a classroom lately.

School will start again on 7/25 here. Wait, Meet the teacher day (at my boys' school) is the 24th and the parents will be bringing in school supplies (including paper towels, napkins, soap, etc.) So, the teacher also need to get the room ready in advance, is prepping lessons and materials.

I just wrote a letter of commendation for one of my boys' teachers. She always had time to talk to me; she tried to challenge my son when school was boring; she pulled in gifted resource people and lobbied to have him incorporated into the school program even if he was 2 grades lower than when it usually started.

I have been lucky. My sons teachers have gone the extra mile and have let me work with them. There are many good teachers out there--generally, I can tell when I sub what the teacher is like. There are some bad teachers out there. Overall, I feel they deserve higher pay.

The classes here are crowed. I had to speak with the school superintendant's regional rep to get extra teachers in my sons' grade two years ago. Teaching 27 kindergarteners is ridiculous.

The infrastructure is too old. Most of the schools in Hawaii are not air conditioned. The classes easily reach above 80 and the noise of planes, lawn mowers and traffic makes it difficult for me to hear students.

The schools have many challenges. Personally, I feel that the money should be spent wisely in that area. Unfortunately, the unions and the government tend to siphon money off and grease palms.

[r9etb]

Hmmmm. Given that Mr. Cantoni does not provide us with the means to check his computations, I can't say whether or not he's telling us the whole truth.

We can see from the rest of the piece that he has an anti-NEA agenda. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but given that he leads off with this arm-waving about the salaries, I find myself unable to trust what he says.

[Straight Vermonter]

We have had repeated strikes (or threats of strikes) in Vermont by teacher's unions over benefits. The teacher are not willing to pay 1 dollar of their healthcare benefits. The teachers in my town threatened to go on strike if they did not get 21 sick days a year. Can you imagine 21 sick days a year?

[KneelBeforeZod]

My friend's mother in law teaches "home economics" in Modesto, CA. She gets $50K a year, and doesn't even have a full day of classes.

This is probably twice as much as most of the people in Modesto make.

Just another lie by the unions, like the "class size" nonsense. I'm still waiting for the CTA (CA teachers assoc) to explain how class size has anything to do with learning... when foreign kids who speak zero english, had 50-70 kids in their class overseas show up and are on the honor roll 3 years later.

lazy, uninterested parents make for lousy students...and teachers are taking advantage of this opportunity

The most transparent of the teachers unions money grubbing lies is that charter/challenger schools are racist/elitest because they shut out poor kids... then they turn around and oppose vouchers.

[ReagansShinyHair]

The thing that I think is so funny about people who complain that teachers are so highly paid is that they are usually people who have kids. They should care about kids, even if they're not their own. Do they want kids taught by the dregs of humanity? Educated people who put up with low pay are usually just not the type of people who excell at what they do. That's not who I want teaching my kids. Well, I want to homeschool, but that's another story.

Yes, there are many bad teachers. I had many of them. They should have paid ME to put up with their stupidity and meaness. There. I admitted it. Some teachers are terrible. There are probably many of them out there.

But teachers' hourly pay rate? That is such a total crock.

It's easy to lie with stats. I work a 10-12 hour day, not 6-7, which is just the time I spend with students. How does that figure out? I work weekends, often. Did he factor that in to my hourly wage? Usually I only work about 4 hours per weekend, so it's not that bad. I guess maybe we can let that slide. Although there are about 4 weekends per year that I work 20 hours. I do not take summers off, I spend at least 20 hours per week planning new units, reading teaching literature to be more effective, and getting ready for the new school year. Oh, but I suppose he factored THAT into the hourly wage as well. Of course he did. Then, there are the nights I wake up in the middle of the night every half hour, wondering how I will deal with different school problems. I guess I don't get paid for that, since it's only a high-stress job that's interfering with my sleep, and many people have those. That doesn't count. There are also numerous after-hours staff meetings. But, you know, I guess I should trust that he took those into account as well.

What about the fact that I have to attend many hours of extra training each year? What about the fact that I voluntarily attend extra training each year? You know, I'm just guessing that he probably forgot to add in some of these hours...

Starting pay for teachers has come up nicely in some areas. In others, it is dismal. In many districts across America they start you out at $24k per year. $24k per year? For 6 years' worth of education? Intelligent youth of America, would you like to be a teacher? I thought not. I moved out of my district this year, but if I hadn't I would have taken a $5000 pay cut. Oo, fun. Stable government job, my eye.

The only reason I actually started teaching was because teacher pay had increased so much. I always loved kids and teacher but wasn't stupid enough to put up with the low pay. I still took an $8000 pay cut when I began teaching. I thought I would work less hours. Hah! My yearly hours of actual work time have not decreased. You see, I used to be able to do my job in business in about 4-5 hours per day. The rest of the day I spent in my cubicle, websurfing and having fun. I was not CONSTANTLY ON CALL AND RESPONSIBLE FOR 20-34 little people. I could go to the bathroom whenever I wanted. Imagine that! My employer loved me, by the way. All my employers have loved me. It's just much easier to spend 40-50 hours in a cubicle than it is to spend 6 with kids, then another 2-4 prepping and grading. But, I'm sure he must have factored that in. Right?

Do not dare lump me in with the few slackers who do the bare minimum and then complain that kids are just dumber now. Most teachers do not slack off, either, it is only the few really bad ones that make the rest of us look bad.

I happen to be using teaching as a stepping stone to another, highler degree. I can go to school and do summer internships during my even *more* years of education. I fully realize that the public school system is terrible. However, I am well educated as to the real problems facing it, such as a hugely bloated beauracracy. The school system has worked before, and it can work again. The solution is not to prattle on with useless, slanted stats about "averages". Anyone who understands basic statistics knows how very easy it is to lie by using averages, and they really do not apply to any particular teachers.

Now, sorry if I sound bitter or something, I'm just very tired of hearing my profession slammed over and over again by people who mostly have no experience teaching. Get in the trenches, fight it out, and then come back with some solutions, not just complaints. I went into teaching to help kids and make the profession better. What has this writer guy done about the poor education system? Write about low teacher pay? I hardly think that's brave. We've been hearing that for as long as I can remember. It seems to be extremely popular to slam teachers and the school system in any way, shape or form.

It's drawing attention away from the most serious issues in education today.

[ReagansShinyHair]

Oh, yeah, I forgot. Do you have drive-by alarms at your place of employment? See, if there's a car that's doing a "drive-by" (you know, where they shoot out the car window at stuff/people on the street...you've probably seen lots of them), anyway, if they do that, there's a bell, and we all lay flat on the ground, whether we're outside or in. I'm sure you've done that lots of times at your work. There's another special alarm that says we all lock our doors and not open them for anyone, because someone dangerous is on campus. If the kids need to use the restroom before the all-clear, I get to make a tent out of jackets so they can pee in the trash can. I'm sure you've all peed in the trash can at your work because you were worried about someone killing you or the small, frightened children around you. Hey, how is that different from any other job? Teachers should just quit whining.

[Centurion2000]

bump