Posted on 09/29/2003 4:49:10 PM PDT by Sweet_Sunflower29
Juan Martinez can barely pay the bills, even with the income from his second job as a security guard. Now he hardly sees his family.
Juan Carlos Martinez sits in a lonely Miami office tower late on a Sunday night, fighting back yawns as the rumble of passing trucks shake the empty building.
He's miles from home, where he'd rather be, helping his children get ready for bed. But he needs this job as a weekend security guard.
Martinez is a Miami-Dade teacher with a master's degree in education and ten years of experience. For that, he earns $38,050 a year teaching technology at Paul Bell Middle in West Miami-Dade.
Martinez has a wife and three boys, a mortgage and a minivan. Some months, he can't cover the electric bill.
Every afternoon, his 4-year-old son, Matthew, climbs on top of a pint-sized toy lawn mower and peeks out the bedroom window. He waits there until his father comes home from school.
''Sometimes I miss him,'' Matthew says. ``I want him to play with me.''
This is where the betrayal of United Teachers of Dade boss Pat Tornillo stings the most, here in the modest home of a Miami-Dade teacher who works seven days a week to support his family and counted on the union to make life easier.
This is where the anger still sizzles because Martinez paid his union dues even when he couldn't afford it.
He is one of 19,000 Dade County teachers who show up for work every day to teach other people's children, to coax and console and inspire, even though teachers haven't seen a raise in two school years and health insurance premiums have soared.
And their union flat-out robbed them.
Tornillo pleaded guilty last month to stealing teachers' dues. An audit found union leaders stole or diverted $3.5 million over the past six years, including $2.5 million spent by the 78-year-old Tornillo on trips, jewelry, artwork, antiques, liquor and clothing.
Using teachers' money, Tornillo and his wife vacationed in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the Far East.
Martinez can't afford to take his kids to Disney World.
Tornillo bought tailored suits in Hong Kong and designer clothing in New York.
Martinez shops the sale racks at Sears.
Tornillo dined on room service at pricey hotels.
Martinez and his family opt for spaghetti because it feeds more mouths.
THE SECOND JOB
To make extra money, Martinez works weekends and summers as a security guard, earning $9.25 an hour. One recent Sunday, he snuck out of a family party and scrambled to his security job, where he worked until 11 p.m. He got up at 6 the next morning to start another week in school.
''I have no life,'' Martinez, 37, said. ``Tornillo was living the life he wanted to and not taking care of business, which was taking care of us. It felt like a slap in the face.''
Tornillo has resigned from the union.
According to his plea agreement, he'll repay $650,000 to the union. He also faces about $400,000 in back taxes, penalties and fines, and up to 30 months in prison.
It will never be enough for Martinez.
Martinez was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, where his father worked long hours building the country's water systems.
In the evenings, he taught class at a nearby university. Martinez tagged along, and watched as his father loosened up and joked with students.
That's when Martinez decided he would become a teacher.
Two decades later, he knew he made the right choice.
Teaching in New York in the late 1990s, Martinez befriended a troubled student from an abusive home. But the boy abruptly quit school.
Martinez ran into him two years later.
''He started going on and on about our talks,'' Martinez said. ``It's a feeling I cannot easily describe with words. It's the reason teachers stay in it for so long.''
NEW LIFE IN MIAMI
Martinez moved to Miami two years ago, seeking sunshine and the suburbs.
He bought a small house near the Kendall-Tamiami Airport. His wife, Denise, stays home with their boys, ages 4, 2 and 11 months. She takes them for long walks because the family has only one car.
At Paul Bell Middle, Martinez's hearty laugh and lessons about hurricanes and race cars make him a favorite among students.
''He pulled me aside once,'' said eighth-grader Yamley Valdez, who was struggling to understand the theories behind sound problem-solving.
``He explained it three times because I just didn't get it, and I didn't want to flunk.''
Like many teachers in urban schools, Martinez must find ways to make a hungry kid care about how bridges are built, a sick kid interested in the meaning of ``conductivity.''
That's not to mention that he teaches in a middle school, where antsy teens giggle, squirm, whistle, toss pencils, beg for passes, brush their hair, pop gum and tap on desks during lessons.
He leaves exhausted.
''OK, ladies and gentleman. Now is the time to quiet down,'' Martinez called in a soothing voice one recent afternoon, before launching into a lecture on metals.
TURNED TO UNION
Martinez joined the union as soon as he started in Miami, forking out $840 a year.
He believes in unions, and hoped the UTD would push for raises and affordable healthcare.
But insurance costs soared this year. Martinez earns about $3,200 a month. But $639 -- or about one-fifth of his pay -- is deducted for health insurance. After taxes, union dues and other expenses, he clears less than $1,700.
For years, the school board has been criticized for awarding lucrative insurance contracts to politically connected companies -- including one with ties to Tornillo.
Now for the first time, Martinez has considered dropping his health insurance.
''It was devastating to us,'' he said. ``But we cannot afford not to have it.''
Even as insurance costs surged, raises for Miami-Dade teachers froze. Teachers have not received a pay increase since the beginning of the 2002-2003 school year.
So, while Tornillo racked up an annual salary of more than $243,000, Martinez found a second job.
''He works nonstop,'' Denise Martinez said one recent afternoon while cutting a hot dog for one son and putting another down for a nap. ``It would be great to have some help . . . But we need the money.''
Martinez arrived home an hour later after a nine-hour day at school.
''Matthew, come and get the spoon off your brother's head,'' he called to his oldest son, who was shoveling carrots and bananas into the baby's mouth.
OTHER OPTIONS
There are moments when Martinez considers quitting, maybe taking a computer job.
And he has thought about leaving the union, too.
But new union leaders are fighting to win back the trust of teachers. They're working to straighten the union's finances. They've reduced dues by 10 percent.
And they are taking on the school district.
Earlier this month, the union declared itself at an impasse on negotiations for teacher raises and insurance. Now, the case will head to an independent reviewer or go directly to the school board.
Teachers ''are absolutely right in every way shape and form to be outraged by the scandal. It is indefensible,'' said Mark Richard, who is overseeing the UTD overhaul. ``But now more than ever, educators need to defend their profession.''
Which is why Martinez hasn't quit.
Not the union. Not the teaching.
''When I started, I had this naive idea that I could make a difference,'' Martinez said. ``Now? Now, I'm not so sure.
``But I can still try.''
If they could put their services on the open market, like lawyers and other professionals, the pay and benefits would rise dramatically.
And you base this on what, exactly?
My wife teaches in private schools, and they make considerably less than their public school counterparts. Since we already have this market, and it provides less pay, why will expanding that market (and the benchmark pay it provides) suddenly increase their value?
Drew Garrett
BTW, the same can be said about any other so-called professional who gives up their professional status to the union hall: Those with an BSN, PT's, OT's, MSW's, etc.
Currently, public school teachers, as state employees, are all paid the same based upon years teaching. The excellent, the mediocre and the downright awful teachers are all on the same pay grade.
Take away the NEA and the state employee status and all that is left is merit. The lousy teachers will not find work, and the best teachers will find their services in the highest demand, thus pay will increase.
That is a drop of about 45% from his gross salary. That is a crime. There are people who lose almost that much just in taxes. That is a crime too.
The union head should get 20 years.
Those making the minimum wage get only $10,712 a year.
So millions of American families are getting by on less than what this teacher makes. How are they able to do it while this teacher can't?
As for not being able to take his family to Disneyworld, well boo-hoo. Join the club, pal. I took my family to New Hampshire this year because it was cheap, cheap, cheap. We played miniature golf and went swimming in the lake instead of riding Magic Mountain and seeing Mickey Mouse. But you don't see me whining about it.
Anyway, unlike the schoolteacher, I have to work all summer. But I'm still not complaining.
I was jealous, that's how I remember.
We could not vacation this summer at all. Built a house. I promised the family I would take them to Florida next summer, though. Disneyworld or Universal Studios if we can afford it. The beach at Destin if we can't.
Teachers sometimes go along to get along and join the NEA by subtle coersion.
Cash flow is tight because I want to keep on saving in these uncertain times.
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