The most recent edition
of the Aurora Sentinel had three education related articles that I would like
to address.
The first, APS teacher pay plan makes the grade, talks about
raising the pay of teachers in the Aurora public school system. This is an
issue to me that brings up old anger. In grade school I would always hear
teachers complaining about how much they got paid. At one point I got curious
and decided to look up what they were paid. I found out that the base pay that
they received was more than $10,000 than what my mother as a single parent was
making and that was just the pay difference for a first year teacher. At that
point I lost all respect for any teacher that complained about how little they
made and I just get angry when I hear on the news about teachers wanting more
pay. People say that education does not pay, but teachers actually make more
money than people in many other industries.
Let’s not take my word for it,
but let’s look at what teachers in APS are making. Based on the pay
scale on the APS site 1st year teachers with no experience start out at $43,471
(hr.aurorak12.org). If a teacher were to work a full 40 hours per week, 52
weeks a year, they would make $20.89 per hour. This is well above minimum wage
which is still trying to work its way up to $15 per hour. Teachers also do not
work that much. They normally get holidays and ‘breaks’ off, possibly summers
as well, not to mentioned the much loved snow days. This means that they also
get more time off of work (paid) than workers in other industries. Also APS gives
teachers up to 10 years of a salary credit for previous teaching experience
which means that a 1st year teacher to the system with only a BA
could get up to $61,916 if they have 10 years of teaching experience with pay
leveling up each year from the base pay (hr.aurorak12.org).
As
the article points out, that teachers are paying half of their pay out for
rent. First off, rent is high for everyone, even people that make less then
teachers. In Aurora One bedroom apartments can go for around $1500. This is a
larger issue that needs to be addressed for everyone. Instead of raising pay
for teachers, why do we not actually address things like putting limits on how
much apartments can charge for rent. This would help everyone, but since
teachers have a habit of being louder (mostly due to teacher unions) the needs
of the many are over shadowed by the few. It is also many times cheaper to
actually have a mortgage than to pay rent. For a whole house I am actually able
to pay under a thousand and then have the options to rent out rooms to get
money back if I wanted to. Also $1500 for 12 months is $18,000. This means that
even if they are paying rent on the higher side they are not paying half of
their pay in rent. I would hope that your average teacher with a BA can do
better math than that. Even if you take into account that they have to pay for
things like taxes and health insurance, these are things that a lot of workers
have to pay for.
The
next issue used a lot to support higher pay for teachers is that they have
student loan debt….most people with a college degree has student loan debt and
depending on the degree it could be a lot higher. Student loan debt is can also
be higher for some than others. Some people take out the max loan amount rather
they need it or not. Some use this to live on so that they do not need to work
and some take it out just because they can. When I worked on financial aid I
would regularly get angry calls from students demanding to know where their
stipend check was because they wanted a new T.V., had to buy Christmas gifts,
or wanted to go on vacation. All of which student financial aid is not supposed
to be used on. Also where people go to school can make a difference. A teaching
degree from an Ivy League/private school will get you into a job as just like
one from your state school, but I’ll let you guess which one will cost you
more. Some people just like going to more expensive schools for the prestige
they think it will give them or they want to go out of state (paying higher
non-resident tuition rates) to get away from their parents. This means that
many people have control over their student loan debt before they even take it
out. I worked my **tt off so that I would not have student loan debt. I also
had a family I had to take care of financially and sometimes worked several
jobs to do so. A good chunk of time I was at CSU I was working 2 jobs and going
to school full time. It can be done, but it is hard and not everyone can or is
willing to do so.
I
think that if it is a known issue that teachers have finance issues when
compared to other people is for both schools teaching future teachers and the
school districts to have courses on financial literacy. Maybe teachers just do
not know how to handle money. I know that probably just pissed off a whole
bunch of people, but hear me out. Most grade schools do not teach financial
literacy to any student. I am probably from the last generation to even have a
good home economy education because a lot of schools are phasing it out for
more of a focus on STEM fields. If people’s parents did not teach them about
money, than no wonder they are missing this. Teachers say that they have to buy
supplies for their classrooms. People in other jobs have to do this as well.
Since I have been in leadership positions, I have had to shell out money not
only for my own office supplies at some jobs, but also had to by party items
for employees birthdays, going away parties, baby showers…it goes on and on.
The trick is the dollar store. Yes I could get much better items by going to
Party City, but I would also be broke really fast. In Colorado we have the
Dollar Tree and I do a lot of shopping there. It is survival 101. Even when I
was in school and living off of Raman, I could get amazing finds at the dollar
store. A teacher could stock up on supplies for a whole year for under $50.
Also, when the stores mark all their school supplies on sale in late
September/early October, they could make a killing and stock up for years.
Problem is that most don’t take advantage of things like this. Also how things
work in the classroom can be adjusted so that it is low to no cost. There are
many free resources for teachers and open source materials that they can use to
help their students learn.
The
take away I want people to get from this is to actually not look at how much
people actually make when they complain about their pay, but also how they use their
money. Also by addressing larger issues (like rent fixing) it would help
everyone not just those that yell the loudest.
The next article, Aurora
city - college officials oppose proposed new bus and light-rail service, scared me a lot. First there was some big mistakes made
in the first place when the light rail was built in not bringing it one street
further out east so that it could provide service to the students at CCA. Many
students have to deal with horrible public transportation options to get to the
school let alone if RTD is going to start cutting routes. Most mornings I watch
the news and most days it seems like Fox 31 is warning riders about canceled
RTD routes due to lack of drivers. I feel that RTD has fallen apart and needs a
clearing of the house. RTD is also saying that people are ridding less, but
they do not understand that with them raising prices that less people can ride.
The people who need public transportation the most cannot afford to ride. They
need new leadership that will lower the prices and address why RTD is having so
many issues. Reducing services is not the way to fix the problem, but will only
make things worse.
The last article I want to
address is Crowd Protests Cherry Creek
Schools Effort To Fire Overland Teacher After Racism Accusation. This was the
high school I graduated from and I still go to the craft fair there each year.
I never had him as a teacher so I cannot speak of his teaching first hand. Jay
Bennish has been in the news in the past for relating Trump (or Lord Dampnut as
I like to call him) to Hitler. As a historian, educated person, and Democrat I
cannot say that I disagree with this comparison. At the same time I also know
to whom to share comments like this with. I would never share these personal
feelings with students I work with, but I know that at least most educators I
work with would agree with these sentiments. As to the current charges against
the teacher I do not feel like there is enough evidence. I have not heard of
any videos or recordings at this time of him acting in this way and I feel that
these would be needed to do anything formally against him. It is very possible
that a group or even a whole class could come together and make up a story to
try and get rid of an unpopular teacher. When I was in grade school I saw
students trying the same thing, but they knew as soon as I was aware of it to
give it. They knew I would not support them in their lies. This many times got
me the title of teacher’s pet for every teacher in the school. I think I acted
differently in school, because I was raised to respect people and not pull BS.
I also protected fellow students from school bullies, but that will be a story
for another day. My main point here is that the students may not be telling the
truth and without video or audio evidence, there is no way to tell if they are
telling the truth or not. This teacher has received a lot of support from both
current and past students for his reinstatement as the article points out. If
this was truly a ‘bad’ teacher than he would not have this kind of support. We
will just have to wait to see what the district’s investigation finds.
Works cited:
Check
out the pay scales for teachers in APS.
An
amazing deal that APS offers teachers. How many other industries offer an
incentive like this?
https://sentinelcolorado.co.newsmemory.com/
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