[geeks] Teachers

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Geoff Reed <geoffr at zipcon.net>
>Date: 2007/09/08 Sat PM 11:21:49 CDT
>To: 'The Geeks List' <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Teachers

>Here in Washington, the bethel, Issaquah and Shoreline school districts just
>recently walked out (didn't start) classes on the day they were supposed to.
>The issues were:
>
>A: healthcare 
>And
>B: Cost of Living raises.
>
>The school districts were saying that to pay the teachers the cost of living
>wage increases, the teaches would have to pay 20-30% of the cost of their
>healthcare above any they were already paying, the problem with that is that
>what they district wanted them to pay for the healthcare was MORE than the
>cost of living raises that the legislature passed last year for teachers.

In a way that makes sense - here in NJ, the state has decreed that school budgets can only grow 4% over the previous year's budget. IF teachers want a 4% raise (which, of course, they do :^), that leaves exactly 4% to cover increases in heatlh care expenses, without "eating into" the other expenses of the school district (you know, books, maint., admin., etc.)...

>My ex was (and presumedly still is ) a full-time school teacher, she made
>around 30K a year (40K on a good year).  ($15 to 20 an hour) unless she was
>teaching "at risk" kids (formerly known as juvenile deliquents) then she got
>a couple dollars more an hour.  She's been teaching for about 10 years, and
>in addition the the bachelors she had to have to get the job, and the
>certifications, she has done another 2 to 3 years worth of classes to keep
>her certification current.  The district she is teaching in paus their
>teachers only in the months that school is in session, yet when reporting
>teacher wages they multiply the base wage by a full years worth of hours
>(2080) and report THAT as the pay that the teachers are making.

Reports that where? To the press? If so, then they are lying (unless they call it a pay "rate" which leaves just enough wiggle room to keep a straight face when you say it).

>And the argument that teachers only work 180 days out of the year?  She was
>working on class stuff on the weekends during the school year and they were
>getting a deal the times she has worked salaried, as it only works out to 8
>hrs a day 5 days a week max that the salary equals if she was hourly, as she
>averaged 10 or 11 hr days, 6 or 7 days a week. (and had to buy much of the
>eachers by any materials used in the classroom herself)

Other people work weekends/evenings - it isn't exclusive to teachers.

>At the same time the administration staff (including maintenance people) and
>superintendents of the 3 districts mentioned earlier all got raises and they
>would not have to pay any of their own healthcare costs, only the teachers.

Were their contracts up for renegotiation? If their contracts stipulate the pay raise they get them, no matter what (or risk going into breech of contract).

Lionel