“I’d like it better if they mandated the salary increase be awarded ONLY to teachers who achieved a masters IN THE SUBJECT THEY TEACH.”
I agree.
I have a masters of education in political science and a few decades of experience in the military and government.
You can’t believe the difficulty I experienced trying to get hired by a community college to teach government/political science.
I was able to get hired (finally) and found myself surrounded by the most radical left-wing indoctrinating fools I ever saw. These fools teach government as the solution to all problems, and when discussing contentious issues they always frame the right side of the argument as evil and the left side as compassionate and wise.
The acting chair of the department is head of the local teachers union (which I did NOT join), and she is the most vile mean-spirited nasty women you will ever meet. Totally committed to the union and nothing else. Oh, and ignorant as well. Story follows.
The union head gave all of us new hires a “welcome to the college” brief and tried to convince us to join the union. . .throwing in gratuitous bashing of republicans and conservatives, of course.
She then mentioned an annual regional teachers conference sponsored by the union. She made a point to say that when you are there all these vendors and book publishers will buy you breakfast, lunch and dinner, and give you all this great free stuff.
I asked a question: As state employees, covered by state law regarding bribery and ethical considerations, and subject to additional guidelines issued by the attorney general of the state, what limitations—monetary or otherwise—are we under when it comes to accepting gifts and dinners and such?
She stood stunned and mute for several seconds, eyes bulging and then she quickly said there are no laws covering those sorts of gifts and we are free to accept whatever they offered. Even a $400 dinner, I asked? Yes, she said.
Hmmmm. . .I did my own research and found, yes, the state DID have laws governing gift-giving to state employees and the attorney general HAS issued further guidance that made accepting gifts difficult.
I then wrote a sourced white paper on what I discovered, outlining the limitations on accepting gifts and other gratuities. I sent this paper to the chair/union boss, as well as info’d everyone in the leadership up to the college president.
Quickly the leadership responded and forwarded to the college my paper and cautioned ALL employees to follow the law and attorney general guidance.
This embarrassed the union head to no end. . .she now hates me and will not make eye contact. HAH!
I'm sure it was intensely satisfying to make her look like an idiot. I'm not sure of the wisdom in making the person who has influence (if not control) over your continued employment, and who may be called as a reference by future potential employers, look like an idiot in front of her bosses. Women in particular can be very spiteful and vengeful over such incidents, and have long memories.