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Friday, January 2, 2015

Why are Teachers that want to take care of their families and get paid a reasonable wage bad guys?

For some reason education reformers many of whom are seeking to profit off of education feel they can criticize teachers for wanting to have a reasonable wage, decent benefits and a manageable workload. How dare they be so selfish right?

When explaining that teacher unions really aren't that powerful, because if they were then my salary would be higher and my work load would be smaller, I was instantly accused or not being in education for the children.

I guess they don't think teachers should be allowed to put food on their table or to be able to take care of their families? I get it teachers became so knowing they would never be rich but come on, aren't we allowed to have something? According to US News and World Report a little over one in six teachers hold a second job though other sources have that number as high as half.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/07/23/more-than-1-in-10-american-teachers-rely-on-second-jobs

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130320/ARTICLE/130319547

Teachers are some of the lowest paid professionals around and increasingly districts are breaking the covenant for a pension and good benefits to make up for the lack of salary that teachers in the past were willing to trade.

The powers-that-be have long banked on the selflessness of teachers. They have taken advantage of it too and it's time teachers said no more especially if we are going to be the scapegoat for all of societies problems.

In Florida nearly half of all new teachers don't last five years but instead of working to make the profession more attractive they are doubling down on blame the teacher evaluations designed to drive more and more teachers out of the profession. This is how highly they think of us.

It's time we pushed back.

9 comments:

  1. Why aren't the Universities as well sounding out against this barbarism against teachers. Its just a matter of time before the waves swing against universities' education departments with sunamee-like forces. Peolpe will just not enroll to become teachers. Already, current teachers are advising high school students to stay away from teaching. I talked my own daughter out of that idea; she had an obsessive compulsion for being a teacher.

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  2. Teachers should sick out 4-5 days this year, maybe a week before the state testing cycle to give them a taste of what happens when teachers have had enough. Maybe then, Vitti will respect our collective bargaining power and make some concessions. DTU wont do anything, they're a cheap puppet organization. Toothless would be an upgrade as it would imply that they wanted to do something, but did not have the power to do so. They're so in bed with Vitti.

    I remember the days when I first began teaching 12 years ago. Teachers would openly challenge/stand up to the principal in staff meeting if that principal tried any of the stuff that is common place at the school that I work at now: THEFT of planning, uncompensated long meetings and mandatory extra duty, elimination of printing privileges etc etc. If you didn't know any better, you wouldn't even know that we had a union.

    Vitti's policies and administration are a pack of skunks and the smell is getting too strong to ignore.

    When will teacher realize their collective consciousness? Organized labor in this country is near death.

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    Replies
    1. We can't even get half of the stewards to show up for a rally! This is part of the problem, they will NOT stand up for themselves & those of us who do, are getting tired and are getting close to retirement.

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  3. DTU costs $54/month! I have never been satisfied with their so-called service. Can we get 200 people to quit on Feb. 1st? Who can think of something you could do with $54/month besides being treated like a pain in the neck anytime you call them? How many times have you heard (referring to admins), "They can do whatever they want." Really? Then why have DTU?

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    Replies
    1. I quit last year. These union people need to get back into the classroom and live the real life.

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  4. Ive heard that one a billion times. DTU works for Vitti.

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    Replies
    1. Ive always heard that educators were supposed to take a vow of poverty to be true to the profession and the students. "You don't get into this profession to become rich", said just about every principal Ive met. Funny how that message was always handed down by some administrator making 6 figures.

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  5. They sure don't work for teachers!

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