(CNN) -- This is Linda DeRegnaucourt's last summer off. When school starts in August, it will be her last year to think about high school classes, advanced placement tests and calculus.
If all goes as planned, this will be her last year teaching at Palm Bay High School in Brevard County, Florida.
She doesn't want to go. After 13 years of teaching high-level math, she has a tested stable of learning methods that helped all her students pass the AP calculus exam. Her room is a popular place for students to escape the drama of the high school cafeteria. Few jobs can indulge her excitement for linear functions and matrix calculus.
"I hate to have to leave it," DeRegnaucourt said. "I really thought I was going to be that teacher, 65 years old and retiring from the education field. That's not going to happen."
She's quitting, she said, because she can't afford to stay.
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16 comments:
Here we go again--call the waahhmbulance!!! I am so sick of hearing how bad the "poor teachers" have it--try being a nurse in the hospital and see how you like it. Nurses work with every single type of human excretion, they work nights, weekends holidays AND summer for the same pay as teachers--CRY ME A RIVER.
Thank you for this piece. I am a retired teacher who can understand this lady's plight. Our salaries in this area are much higher than what she makes, as teachers start in the low $40's (She makes $38K after 13 years). Teachers are leaving these days for reasons other than salary. The NCLB rules and all the associated testing are one main reason. Another, as she points out, is the lack of respect for teachers, both from students and parents. At least she has upper end math classes, so she doesn't have that issue so much; kids in those kinds of classes are motivated and appreciative of what teachers do. I cannot imagine being a teacher the way things are now. It is sad to see such good teachers leave.
Your not supposed to get rich being a public servant. If you want to get rich the private sector awaits you.
Here we go again--call the waahhmbulance!!! I am so sick of hearing how bad the "poor teachers" have it--try being a nurse in the hospital and see how you like it
Actually she is going back to school to become a nurse. If you had paid attention to YOUR teacher you might have understood that IF you read the article.
If you make $39,000, ( the starting pay for teachers ), something is wrong.
I don't like to hear teachers whine either, especially ones that are union.
But if high results are wanted, you should be prepared to pay for it.
The shore is notorious for low paying salaries, not only for teachers but all occupations. I'm not sure but I would guess that would apply to national rates as well.
Personally I could not stand in front of 30 students, ( or whatever the class size is now ), day after day. But that's just me.
I think you are on low side of pay scale by your attitude. Jealous of anyone who might earn more than you.
Maybe that's why this country is lower than most others in terms of education.
You still want that wahhhbulance?
Your not supposed to get rich being a public servant. If you want to get rich the private sector awaits you.
July 22, 2011 10:02 AM
Tell that to the politicians.
She isn't complaining about not getting rich. She is complaining about not being able to pay her bills regardless of the fact that she's a great teacher. You guys are all the same. You want to pay people peanuts. Well, thats fine but you will get lower quality employees. There they go walking out, just as you instruct them to every day on this site. Soon you'll be complaining again about how your kid's teacher sucks. Blame yourself at that time. You've got an article up here on SBY today about cops getting killed on the job in record numbers but in Republican dominated states like Wisconsin you've got union busting. . .stripping their collective bargaining rights! Same with the firefighters that you guys love from 9/11? Guess you forget pretty quickly who is there when you need them. You'll learn though if things keep going this way. When times are tough everyone wants to blame the public sector employees. In good times you wouldn't even be looking at them. . .you're too busy "getting rich in the private sector" as 10:02 says. Well, the reason you're not getting rich NOW is because the middle class is often made up of cops, teachers, and firemen/women who can't afford to buy your wonderful products, services, houses . . .stop the war on the middle class and you'll start making money again. Pay your fair share. Main street is paying the bills and Wall Street is going through the roof.
So what your asking for is someone else to pay your way. 50 % of the public don't pay taxes why don't we start with a fair tax so everybody pay something instead of raping the job makers so you don't have to get out there and provide for yourself. How much is the "fair share" for our corporations to pay? they already pay over 50% of there earning to the government to feed couch potato socialists like you.
"50 % of the public don't pay taxes"
>That is a popular conservative lie. You are right ONLY if we are talking about FEDERAL INCOME TAX!The majority of Americans who do not pay FEDERAL INCOME TAXES don’t make enough money to qualify for even the lowest tax bracket, a problem made worse by the economic recession. That includes retired Americans, who don’t pay income taxes because they earn very little income, if they earn any at all.
And while many low-income Americans don’t pay income taxes, they do pay taxes. Because of payroll and sales taxes -- a large proportion of which are paid by low- and middle-income Americans -- less than a quarter of the nation’s households don’t contribute to federal tax receipts -- and the majority of the non-contributors are students, the elderly, or the unemployed.
The top 400 taxpayers -- who have more wealth than half of all Americans combined -- are paying lower taxes than they have in a generation, as their tax responsibilities have slowly collapsed since the New Deal era
Working families have been asked to pay more and more.
There’s nothing surer -- the rich get rich and the poor get poorer. Tax loopholes galore. The rich don't need any help from people like you, buddy. They're laughing at you.
"couch potato socialists like you."
> Hey, I work. Lets not get any further into the realms of fiction here.
Wait a minute people, your missing the most obvious point of this story. That lady is HOT! What a beautiful sexy lady. She can practice her nursing skills on me anytime.
What the hell is happening? Florida has nothing but old people.
Who was she teaching?
Democratic Socialists of America: You are talking about the top 1% of earners. I'm just curious, what percent of the income taxes do you think WOULD be fair for them to pay?
Or, if you would prefer to look at it on an individual basis, what percent of someone's income is a fair amount to pay in taxes if they are in that top 1%?
It doesn't matter how much we pay the teacher as far as what we get from them.
Teachers don't "teach" anymore. They educate their students as to what will be on the state testing and that's it.
They teach to the test. No more.
THAT is what is wrong with the system.
I'd rather raise the pay for teachers and take the schools back to being learning institutions where the kids can read, write and do proper math.
Kids can't do this anymore! They're graduating and can't read. They're graduation and they can add and subtract.
They're graduating because they PASSED THE TEST they were taught to pass! Plain and simple!
Parents need to get off their duffs and change this or we're all in REALLY big trouble. The youth is our future and I don't like what I see, for sure!
Teachers are so busy managing behavior they don't have time to get down to the basics. It used to be that children came to school displaying good behavior, and parents taught them the value of treating people with respect and where did "manners" go. Teachers are spoken to in any way, kids are not accountable and parents are "absent." This is a good part of what our teacher's deal with today. No, they don't teach....they manage behavior!
Just for the record. Nurses make TWICE as much as teachers. And quit whining about teachers and their pay. Most work UNTOLD hours at home and after school. Their day is NEVER 8-3pm. NEVER. And most teachers buy supplies and other things necessary for their students and their job from their own pocket. And have to put up EVERY day with foul mouthed, threatening, and inattentive kids, who, any day, could cost them their careers. A cop shoots a guy in the back and gets suspended with pay until the police review board says he did nothing wrong. A teacher pushes two fighting students apart, gets charged with assault and is fired for assaulting a minor. After 16 years of exemplary teaching, her/his career is over. No retirement. No pension. No "reinstatement". Not even a "thanks". Quit dogging teachers.
I agree with that statement as well 1:59 Anon.
We took away a parents right to discipline their children. The fear of being reported for abuse has kept parents from discipline like we had growing up.
We also took corporate punishment out of schools because lame parents didn't want their little Johnny or Sarah spanked at school.
Two HUGE mistakes made.
If I talked to my parents like these kids talk to theirs today, I wouldn't have had any teeth left in my mouth!
I was also raised to play outside. We didn't have the perks and electronics we have now for the kids. They're stupid, they're lazy and they're totally out of control.
This world will NOT be a better place for our grandchildren no matter what the government does. The parents and schools of today are making sure of that!
lmclain please site your statistics source to back up your claim that nurses make twice as much--and don't forget that teachers have extra benefits that nurses do not, as well as the entire summer, and every holiday off.
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