Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Baltimore County Teachers Out of Touch With The Real World



WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD YOUR STUDENTS' MOMS AND DADS ARE FACING, TEACH!!!


It's time to get over a much publicized notion, school teachers are not paid enough. Perhaps it can be argued that effective, excellent teachers are not paid enough; however, in Baltimore County, Maryland career teachers are doing darned well and have benefits including full pensions that folks working in the private sector could only dream of. Plenty of folks are feeling fortunate their job is not going away. A pay increase even for cost-of-living this year might be hard to imagine. That Baltimore County teachers have the audacity to even consider a job action shows how out of touch with the real world the profession has become. Yet, during this horrible week when so many headlines are dedicated to one more sector of the economy in real trouble, career teachers can rest secure their jobs are secure and they will be able to retire with a nice income including paid health care.


Here's the details from WBAL-AM radio:



Besides that, teachers are paid for ten months, and years 1-10 get an annual seniority step, 1-15 with a Master's Degree, and then get seniority steps every five years. Yes, teaching is a tough job especially in some subject areas if a teacher lives up to the full responsibilities of his or her job, but teachers also typically must only be present for no more than seven hours, have decent vacations, with accumulating sick leave benefits, and personal days during those ten months. Teachers have two months to seek additional employment and generally have the kind of hours that allow for some additional part time employment.


This is the wrong time to be talking about "job actions" when their students' parents could very well be living from paycheck to paycheck wondering how much longer they might get one at all. Some have no health care. Some have no retirement plan. Many have retirement plans such as 401K's that have busted.


What's the buzz in the faculty room, aside from whining teachers aren't paid enough one of the most often heard complaint is the lack of support at home.


Given the situation discussed above, parents have little motivation to support their teachers and any hope of sending their kids to private schools or move to a community with better schools has evaporated with the current financial mess.


Teachers are assured of a baseline existence. Only once the economy improves and the profession agrees to things such as performance based pay can we honestly have a discussion of any kind of serious higher pay for deserving but not all teachers.
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The writer of this article is a former ten year veteran of Baltimore County Public Schools who left not for financial reasons but for philosophical differences for where the system was heading.
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