Tolerance for Teachers

Teachers deserve more credit.

As I take a break from hours of essay grading this morning I am pondering the lack of respect teachers are being afforded by local communities and by the state government. 

Here are the facts:

Teachers make 4.8% less than workers in the private sector for their education and experience.  This accounts for benefits and our “summers off” but does not account for the money we must spend training to keep up our teacher certification.  http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/6759/

Teachers have some of the poorest working conditions for professionals:  Death threats, bomb threats, threats of bodily harm, insulting and insubordinate language directed at the teacher are a daily part of a teacher’s life in a high school. 

In addition, most of a teacher’s “breaks” during the day are used to help students or to catch up on grading or preparation. 

Furthermore, only 3/4ths of a teacher’s workload is accomplished at school leaving much to do at home, often limiting or interfering with family life. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs97/97371.pdf

Also, many teachers take on extra duties which require work much beyond the school day, and on weekends and summertime.  Many of these extra duties are done for no pay or for very little compensation. 

We are expected to work miracles with kids who have no sleep, no breakfast, no rules at home, and from students who have little respect for our profession.   

Good teachers are unfairly criticized in public, equated with the few bad apples, and accused of getting rich on the tax payer’s dime.  They forget that we pay taxes, too, and that the majority of property taxes go to support local government and services, not schools. 

Teachers work harder, for less money, and for little credit.  We don’t ask for much – just a living wage, enough health insurance to cover our job related stress “injuries” and a decent retirement for when we do, eventually burn out from the physical and emotional toll of our jobs. 

For the last 10 years, as health insurance costs have risen, many teachers’ unions have forgone pay increases to pay for insurance making our health insurance rich and our paychecks poor. 

Most private sector employees have been forced to pay more for health insurance, but their pay has increased with the cost of living. 

If Governor Walker’s proposal is passed, many teachers will have lost all the health insurance leverage we have bargained for in the past.  We could not have predicted this turn of events. 

 Teachers are a bargain at any price, but when the governor threatens to take away our bargaining rights, we are not just whining.  If we are asked to do even more with even less, we just won’t be able to physically do our jobs well and students will get less teaching and helping time. 

Please take time to contact your state legislators and your governor to oppose the attack on public worker’s rights; it’s unfair, lacks foresight, and will create an even more hostile relationship between schools, government and communities. 

Shouldn’t we all be working together?