Public School Teacher To North Carolina Senate: 'I Am Embarrassed To Confess: I Am A Teacher'

BI ^ | 5-14-2014 | Caroline Moss

[blam]

Public School Teacher To North Carolina Senate: 'I Am Embarrassed To Confess: I Am A Teacher'

Caroline Moss

“I am embarrassed to confess: I am a teacher.”

That was the subject line of an email Sarah Wiles, a science teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina, sent to all 170 members of the North Carolina General Assembly last week.

Wiles talked about her concerns that teachers were not being paid enough. She says she personally has only seen a pay increase once in six years, even though she says she loves her students and has always gone above and beyond to do her job well.

"I am also sick and tired of politicians making my profession the center of attention and paying it lip-service by visiting a school, kneeling next to a child, shaking my hand and thanking me, telling the nightly news that I deserve a raise," she wrote.

In short, she feels like the state doesn't care about educators like herself, and is embarrassed for and by her politicians. (You can read her full email below.)

On Monday morning, North Carolina Sen. David Curtis (R) hit "reply all" and sent a message back.

The email basically says since she's so ashamed to be a teacher, she might as well get a new job.

In his email, he offers Wiles four suggestions for what she should tell her potential new private sector employer, including asking for eight weeks paid vacation per year because that's what taxpayers gave her. (He is misinformed, as teachers are not paid for the summer months when school is not in session, leaving many teachers working summer jobs to make ends meet.)

Though he does say at the end of his email that he supports pay raises for teachers, it was a pretty harsh reply.

(snip)

[Parmy]

Your point? I said a ‘former teacher’.

[C. Edmund Wright]

My point is that all non teachers are likely to have to work hard 12 months a year - and no tax payer funded retirement afterwards. You can take this personally if you want to, but my point is that teaching is a realtively over paid gig remains - and it’s clearly true in the general, if not in every specific case.

And there’s nothing you can say to disupute that.

[struggle]

>>(He is misinformed, as teachers are not paid for the summer months when school is not in session, leaving many teachers working summer jobs to make ends meet.)

BULLS***. You can’t get a 10-month salary anymore because too many teachers wouldn’t save for their summer vacation and would go moneyless over the summer. EVERY salary is 12-month. You get paid throughout the year, even though you’re not paid for summer months. Your summer job is EXTRA PAY in ADDITION to your monthly paycheck.

[Senator_Blutarski]

I was recently at a party and spent considerable time talking to a couple who are recently retired Wisconsin public school teachers. They complained about their pay, their pensions, the lack of public respect for teachers, Scott Walker, and the rest of the usual litany of complaints.

Near the end of the party the wife went on a loud rant about poor pay for "highly educated" teachers and how she had been cheated by the system. So I asked her: "If teaching was such a bad deal and money was so important, why didn't you find a different career?" She then finally shut up.

[wbill]

I'm sure there are different districts that spread the pay over the entire year rather than simply the time school is in session

My understanding is that you have a choice to be paid on a 9 (10?) month scale, or a 12 month scale. Either way, if their salary is 48K / year, they make ..... 48K / year.

I'd never say that teachers have it easy. However, I'd also say that 1) They have it a whole lot better than they think. and 2) I've never met a teacher who didn't think that they were the most abused, picked-on, trodden-down, underpriviledged, underpaid poor old soul in the world. It must be a job qualification, or something.

Frankly, I agree with the represenative: If they hate their job, they can find a new one.

[Balding_Eagle]

I’m embarrassed to be a taxpayer paying these teachers a salary.

[Orangedog]

Wiles talked about her concerns that teachers were not being paid enough

I think it's horrible how this poor woman was drafted and forced to go to a college and get a degree in "education" and made to labor away in a job that doesn't pay her what she thinks she is worth. It is an outrage that this kind of forced servitude at the barrel of a gun exists in the 21st century!

[kalee]

I live in NC and I am embarrassed by the poor quality of public education in the county where I live. It’s a poor, rural county, ranks extremely low in the state for test scores but our superintendant is one of the highest paid.

[Parmy]

Well, while my wife was a teacher, she fully understood the other side. Especially since I worked in agriculture as a salaried, management person. For your information that meant long hours, when necessary. Weekends, when necessary (frost control, harvest, etc.). Going for years without pay increases.

Understand, I am not complaining because I enjoyed it. I am 71, now, and retired. We saved our money, over the years. We were Dave Ramsey's before Dave Ramsey was. We are very comfortable in our retirement.

So, we have lived both sides of the fence, so-to-speak.

You are not telling me anything I don't already know or have experienced.

[Salvation]

‘Passing the trash’

Too often, problem teachers are allowed to leave quietly. That can mean future abuse for another student and another school district.

“They might deal with it internally, suspending the person or having the person move on. So their license is never investigated,” says Charol Shakeshaft, a leading expert in teacher sex abuse who heads the educational leadership department at Virginia Commonwealth University.

It’s a dynamic so common it has its own nicknames—“passing the trash” or the “mobile molester.”

Laws in several states require that even an allegation of sexual misconduct be reported to the state departments that oversee teacher licenses. But there’s no consistent enforcement, so such laws are easy to ignore.

School officials fear public embarrassment as much as the perpetrators do, Shakeshaft says. They want to avoid the fallout from going up against a popular teacher. They also don’t want to get sued by teachers or victims, and they don’t want to face a challenge from a strong union.

[Salvation]

Forgotten Study: Abuse in School 100 Times Worse than by Priests

 

[C. Edmund Wright]

not surprising, and again, nothing personal, just using your words to demonstrate the truth of what my bigger point is…..so only bouncing off your example, not making an example of your wife.

[Salvation]

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Sex Abuse by Teachers Said Worse Than Catholic Church

WHEN BOYS ARE MOLESTED BY TEACHERS AND OTHERS IN POSITIONS OF AUTHORITY

 

Former Manassas teacher to get 25-year term in child-porn case

 

[AppyPappy]

I know a lot of teachers who refuse to get a job in the summer so they can complain about their pay.

They get three weeks off at Christmas and summers off. Pretty sweet deal.

[Parmy]

I fail to see your logic at all. Yes, you are bouncing.

[RightOnTheBorder]

In my wife’s school district every year they have 500 or so applicants for 60 or so open teaching positions. I would invite any teacher who feels underpaid to change careers and get the salary he or she “deserves.” I am sure that the district could easily replace a teacher with one of the 440 other applicants who apparently find the pay acceptable.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Okay fine: then I’l use you as an example. You tried to defend teacher pay by saying your wife worked hard.

So when I asked how hard she worked in July? Crickets from you.
When I asked how hard she is working now, while she is being paid of course…crickets from you again.

I was being polite, but I’ll stop. You and your wife are also part of the problem. Maybe you can change from FR to a liberal forum now.

Is the CLARIFYING for you????????

[kearnyirish2]

Public school teachers in NJ are among the highest-paid in the nation; the Asbury Park Press released their salaries (as public information) a few years back and I’m sure it helped Christie get elected in a big way. These people work 180 days per year, 6 1/2 hours per day, and once tenured (after two or three years) they can’t collect unemployment because they are considered employed. None of the public school teachers I know have ever worked a summer job, and all of them have employment for life. They are draining taxpayers to pay for their ridiculously high salaries, scamming them with additional “degrees” from diploma mills to drive up their salaries (regardless of whether or not the degree is relevant), and American taxpayers (individual and corporate) are fleeing the state in droves to escape their clutches.

In NJ they have become a class unto themselves, intermarrying or doing so with other public servants (cops, firemen) equally removed from the realities confronting the people they bleed dry for their livelihoods. Oh, and they don’t teach anything either...

[C. Edmund Wright]

In my wife’s school district every year they have 500 or so applicants for 60 or so open teaching positions.

Proof that teachers are over paid according to reality…..and market principles….

[C. Edmund Wright]

so glad you mentioned the cop/firefighter thing too….it’s a huge incestuous robbery scheme.

Just like the family on BLOODS or whatever it’s called, a pretty good drama, but they’re all on the dole.