Just as much as teachers do every day in the classroom! At least, that's what our high paid District spokesperson (@ approximately $130,000 a year salary) stated when I questioned in front of news camera rolling.
Of course, I told him that I would wager to guess that if I said his name to the students in my District, most would not know who he was. The arrogance of this man to actually think that he directly impacts the lives and learning of my students is astounding.
In the meantime, we get to deal with the potential laying off of almost 200 teachers with possible elimination of class size reduction. Now, the District will also send out notices to their administrators, looking at eliminating ALL counseling positions at the high schools and all VPs. None of the administrators working at the District office were willing to say that they would accept a reduction in their salary to reduce the number of lay offs. In fact, when the same high paid District spokesperson was asked directly by a first year teacher (who was as cute as button, btw) if he was willing to take a cut in his salary in order to save jobs, his reply was that he needed to get back to the board meeting.
We say we want young people, especially young people of color, to become teachers. We crave the energy and the enthusiasm that they can bring to a classroom and yet, we repay them by allowing them to be faced with the possibility of being laid off every single year for the first five or so that they teach! Why would anyone go into teaching at this point in time with all of its uncertainty?
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13 comments:
I've been asking myself the same thing lately.
One of my local teacher friends who is in her first year, just got her notice that it is her last.
You're right.
I'm in my 3rd year. I'm a mid-life career-changer, and a darned good teacher if I do say so myself. And I'm pretty sure I'm getting a pink slip next week.
If it turns into an actual layoff, I don't know that I'll ever return to teaching. It cost me everything I had to get into it the first time, and I did it not because I had to, but because it was a calling.
Sigh.
And if the layoff notices aren't enough to turn you off in the first five years, there are waste-of-time meetings, clueless administrators, and high stress levels to help out!
It is my seventh year teaching and I only have one person below me in seniority. If the budget goes South, and they make cuts and get rid of our spokesperson (who is still on my list)...I'm out of a job. We are losing btwn. 44-60 positions and that is pretty typical around the Hudson Valley.
Maybe young/new teachers that get laid off could get somekind of grant from the Obama Administration to start Charter Schools? Put that youth and energy to work.....
Read that a district in Imperial County, Calexico, plans to pink slip ALL their administrators except Superintendent. However, this district routinely fires many newer teachers. Most of the cynics don't believe too many administrators down there will lose their jobs. Calexico, like way too many public schools, is in dire straits.
My blood pressure just goes over the top when hearing all the stories like this one!
When will anyone on the outside (and district people ARE on the outside too!) ever GET what we do and HOW crucial it is to treat us with the dignity and RESPECT we so deserve!
ALL counseling positions?! Talk about making the teaching profession even harder!
I can't even imagine!!
I think this is the same for all schools all over the country right now.
We are going to be having cuts too in MA.
And, the higher administrators are clueless - NONE of my kids even know what the Superintendent looks like let alone his name. They have NO direct interaction with our kids and make NO impact on their lives except when they cut good teachers to save their precious high salaried positions! UGH!
PREACH SISTA!
The politics of education is WILD! your district is doing the same things mine is. . . we MUST live in the same place! LOL! Or they are doing the same DUMB things.
In my state, some congressmen are propose to eliminating tenure for ALL newly hired teacher. And the option within the first 4 years of teaching, FIRE FOLKS if their "teacher effect" score is not high enough. Uhm, have they accounted for the fact we live in a highly urban area and they come to 9th grade unable to read an entire paragraph or that their home life affects what we do at school. And NEW TEACHERS, as a general rule, pretty much suck! I sucked my first few years b/c I still learning the ropes and you don't know who you are as a teacher. How in the WORLD do they plan to get teachers to be LIFETIME/CAREER teachers with ideas like this!
THANK YOU. I'm a first year, and even though I've known throughout student teaching that I'd be laid off every year until I earned the seniority (as that's how our district works), I also figured I'd be invited back once the budget didn't look so scary. Now, with the economy and CA budget in the pooper, I'm almost definitely going to lose the position I have at a place I really LOVE teaching at, AND I have to suffer through job hunting AGAIN in an even SCARIER market.
The CA lawmakers stink. What a bunch of awful money managers.
LOVE this post! I've featured it in this month's accolades at The Cornerstone:
http://thecornerstoneforteachers.blogspot.com/2009/03/cornerstone-accolades-march-2009.html
Same story here...a few months ago our governor suggested a 6% pay decrease for all state employees, including teachers. In the meanwhile, we are also taking major cuts in staffing and materials so we are faced with having teach more students with less staffing on a shoestring budget for less pay. Good times. Good time.
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