Teacher Responds
Written by Nick Caraway –
JJ brought an interesting thing to my attention when she brought up the Jetton bill in her recent post. People usually have thoughtful comments, but i noticed that a lot of people were not fully aware of teachers’ situation. First of all, I’m not for looking a gift horse in the mouth. Getting stuff tax free may not seem like much, but it’s something I guess. These days, we are just happy to get anything we can get our hands on.
Truth be told, a beginning teacher gets a very competitive salary in most urban school districts. Starting pay has nearly doubled in the 20+ years I have been teaching. That probably matches the rate of inflation. The problem comes after that. I have a masters degree. That gets about 1000 a year extra. I also get a small stipend for special education. Add all that up and my pay is not a heck of a whole lot more than it was when I started. I am worlds better as a teacher. I cringe when I think of stuff I did as a rookie. I think any other veteran teacher would say the same. However, I am not going to complain about pay. I live a comfortable life.
One of the things we used to get was a 250 dollar tax rebate on our income taxes for supplies we needed to buy for our job. It didn’t cover everything, but it made a nice dent into it. Teachers usually buy supplies for their students, bulletin boards, posters, and occasionally buy supplies for actual teaching. Sometimes budgets allow for these things, but they never go far enough and you often have to go through mountains of red tape just to get simple supplies.
If you are a parent you have noticed what some call compliance creep in the business. Every year we get the list for supplies from our daughter’s teachers. Every year the list grows and becomes more expensive. Most years we end up spending more than 100 bucks for the supplies. Many families can’t afford that. Unfortunately, that’s one of the reasons why the bill is so high. More than half of what we buy doesn’t go to our daughter. It goes to the other kids. If you have kids you’ve probably noticed the same thing. Teachers ask for kleenex, dry erase markers, multiple notebooks, pens, pencils, and paper. Some of these things are used by students. Most are used by the teachers or other students.
This is part of the hidden cost of bringing kids back to school. They provide us with the worst hand sanitizer money can buy. So, most teachers supply their own. You also have other associated costs with keeping classrooms safe for students. Some schools can afford that stuff, but many are doing good to remain open. So, the teachers foot the bill or they pass it down to parents that can afford to pitch in.
So, I’m not looking 8.25 percent in the mouth, but it’s also not nearly enough. Maybe the funds going to education in the new stimulus will help. The devil is always in the details and how the money actually gets dolled out. I’m looking forward to seeing how it will impact us in the classroom.
Nick
I have aided a 5th grade teacher with the students who need help in reading for about 10 years. I get paid $7.25 an hour, but that’s not why I do it.
1The problem with teacher’s pay is sports and entertainment pay is beyond realistic.
Yesterday the Denver Broncos signed Von Miller to a seven million dollar one year deal [for a player who did not play once last year] IN ADDITION to his 27.5 million $$$$$$$$$$$$ “salary”.
Rome failed when it valued entertainment more than education. The USA will too.
I suppose we could raise taxes to allow the schools to purchase adequate supplies, to avoid the Dickens-era idea of employees subsidizing the workplace by the equivalent of bringing a scuttle of coal to heat their workplace … no, that’s crazy talk.
2When my kids were in lower elementary grades, the teachers just asked the parents for $20 to cover all supplies and then he kids shared. The teachers bought what was needed, everything was the same brand so the envy monster stayed away and we parents didn’t have to go to the store and waste money on supplies not used. We all thought it was great!
3My daughter’s elementary PTA did something like that. They used common resources by grade level and you paid a fee to have the supplies delivered to your child on the first day of school. The best part is I’m sure they got bulk rates. That gets harder in the secondary grades unfortunately as each teacher has their own wishlists. That $20 (or whatever it would be today) would have to be spread around somehow.
4Nick, your dedication to our children is massively underappreciated. But everything about the system as it is now makes so many people think you’re lucky to get this “gift”. And that’s horseshit. My lady is a retired teacher, and she deserved everything she earned and a whole lot more.
5Thanks for what you do.
Where I live in the western burbs of Chicago, the teachers make an excellent salary. It does not start high, but for those that hang on they can do quite well. Their pensions are probably going to bankrupt the State in the not too distant future. Parents are expected to buy a boatload of supplies each year (my kids and I loved school shopping so it was fun) and there are active PTO’s that help out with classroom supplies as well. I think it all depends on location as to the state of schools.
6It used to be worse. My great grandfather was the first superintendent of education in South Carolina. In those days (1877) the state spent about $2.50/year on white students, half that on black students.
Go forward 100 years and in Virginia black students were given worn-out, out-of-date textbooks handed down from white students.
I was reporting in Norfolk at the time and the old Booker T.Washington High School was slated for replacement. The water system failed in the boys’ locker room. The school board concluded that it wasn’t worth fixing; it was only going to be a few years before the boys could take showers in the new school.
I kid you not.
The situation is bad enough today but you youngsters cannot imagine how bad it used to be.
7Many years ago (back in the early 80s) Fort Worth had a problem. Many teachers were quiting their jobs to take a better one with the city: garbage collectors. One or two made the shift, found they had less harassment from administrators, worked fewer hours, made significantly more money, and had better retirement benefits. So they told their fellow teachers. I had left for college by then, but one morning ran across a former math teacher dumping cans into the truck. And he was happy and smiling, even before I greeted him.
I don’t know how it was worked out. Probably the city council leaped into action and made the trashmans’ pay and benefits lower.
8It’s not only teachers.
920 years ago, I was a school nurse. Usually by March I had gone through my yearly budget. So from then on, I paid for all the supplies I needed for the office. There were over 400 kids in my school.
That’s a lot of band-aids!!!
The things school staff are asked to do would be unheard of in private business (and I was a business reporter and am no great admirer of private business practices).
A custodian old me his budget for maintaining a 3,000-seat auditorium at the high school (which was used constantly for community events) was $500/year.
10I didn’t know that Diane, but it doesn’t surprise me. The biggest issue is that kids need stuff now. If a student doesn’t have paper, pens, or a bandaid you can’t tell them to wait until next week or next month when our order comes in.
I was supporting an English class that was doing lit circles. We had a class set of books that kids could read during class but the books had to stay there. My students were falling behind and were in danger of failing. The school didn’t have additional books. They weren’t available in Ebook format so I went to Barnes and Noble and bought a few copies. It cost me maybe 20-30 bucks total with their teacher discount. Then, the kids could take those copies home and catch up.
Listen, I don’t say that to brag. ALL teachers do this in some form or fashion. We just don’t sit and wait for shipments to come in or for someone to step up. We do it and do it gladly.
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