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Thursday, February 24, 2011

A Letter To The Editor

Teacher Salaries
Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit!  We can get that for less than minimum wage.
That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours).

Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.

LET'S SEE....

That's $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).

What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.

Wait a minute -- there's something wrong here.
There sure is!
The average teacher's salary (nationwide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days= $277.77/per day
30 students=$9.25. 
6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student: a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

oh you got me, at first when I started to read this my blood started boiling. Like are you freaking kidding me. My fiance is a 4th grade teacher and spends hours on end at home, planning, grading etc. She also spends hundreds of her own dollars on supplies for kids. She gave her kids a pizza party on her expense for everyone improving their state test scores..I'm agree with this post %100 thanks for posting it

lastword said...

You wanna apply that same logic to senators and others who serve millions of people?

I don't wish to bash teachers but there is at least 25% of GRADUATES who don't have the BASIC skills to pass, of all things, a military entrance exam.

Sure, I know some teachers work hard and go above and beyond, but the reality is our education system is lacking.

dan said...

lastword - For the large part, the problem does not rest with the individual teachers, but the administrators who feel compelled to promote graduation rates, and parents who are, at very best, disconnected. The system is lacking in several regards, but that is not the fault of the teachers.

If the principal comes to you and says "too many kids are failing your class, fix it," what do you do, especially when, of those failures, most have never done one bit of class or home work, some of them do not speak one word of English, and the others never attend class? If you want to keep your job, everyone gets a D, and the problem moves to the next year.

As a teacher you are part babysitter, part warden, and part drill instructor. The problem starts and the top (call it a "trickle-down" effect.)

The popular attacks on teachers are good to fire up a politcal base and get blood bioling by some righties, but the focus is misguided. Allow teh teachers to teach, eliminate the idea that every kid is teachable, and base instruction around the most capable students, and things will get better.

Alas...

dan said...

Of course, like most everything else in the world, this would all be fixed with competent parenting too. But now I have gone and asked for too much.

Anonymous said...

This is truly sad ! Teachers should be paid on par with doctors and lawyers and athletes and your kid should already know how to read when you dump it off at school and it should be well behaved and respectful as well. There was a day when an education was the most important thing in this country now everyone is ignorant and suspect of everything maybe its time too look at some of these newcomers that work three jobs to send their kids to private and catholic schools to get a foot up.....Americans have become complacent with an inflated middle class sense of entitlement.....well they had better humble themselves a bit....middle class these days is just debt ridden white trash with delusions.

lastword said...

3:38 PM

Yes, that's why I said I didn't wish to bash teachers but that the educational system was lacking. That would include the things to which you refer.

lastword said...

lol what?!