The Public Opinion Soapbox

DadB · Joined: 13 Jul 2008 Posts: 2

TEACHERS' SALARIES

Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up property taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do—baby sit!

We can get that for less than minimum wage. That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked, not any of that silly Planning time. That would be $19.50 a day (7:00 AM to 3:30 (or so) PM with 25 min. off for lunch). Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. NOW...How many do they teach in a class, 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! We're not going to pay them for any vacations. LET'S SEE....That's $585 x 180 = $105,300 per year.

What about those special teachers and the ones with master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage, and just to be fair, round it off to $7.00 an hour. That would be $7 x 6 1/2 hours x 30 children x 180 days = $245,700 per year.

Wait a minute--there's something wrong here! Average teacher salary $50,000/180 days = $277/per day/30 students = $9.23/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student. A very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even try - with your help - to EDUCATE your kids!

WHAT A DEAL....And the parents don't even have to buy them pizza!

(author unknown)
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JC Bodenberg

.45chel · Joined: 26 Oct 2007 Posts: 3093 Location: Chambersburg

Preaching to the choir, if you're talking to me DadB.

My disagreements lie with administrators, poor judgment calls made by management and the school board NOT teachers. Very Happy

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Nevermind.

mjr260 · Joined: 08 Apr 2008 Posts: 28

Maybe we could get prisoners with GED's to teach or better yet prisoners without GED's. Wouldn't want to pay any extra!

cookieclaygirl · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 2289 Location: shippensburg

ok...i'm gonna speak up here.....

i teach at an area college and my pay is crap. literally. my students leaving who enter the graphic design field make WAY more more money than i do.

teachers in public schools (ie, the one's you're b*tching about)....honestly, they deserve the money they get.....who'd want to put up w/whiny@ss snot nosed kids w/meddling parents who think they know better. perhaps they (the parents that is) *do* know better, and if that's the case, go home school. the crap teachers put up w/is alot. pre-teen/teen hormonal "i don't give a sh*t" attitudes (generalizing, i am aware), laziness, etc. albeit, again, generalizing, but the rotten apples usually spoil the bunch. and there is ALWAYS a rotten apple in the classroom (or two...or three)

i didn't want to teach public...i had my goal set for higher education so i could help others get their foots in the door (even if it takes some time as it's a tricky field)...

cookieclaygirl · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 2289 Location: shippensburg

sidenote: i'd like to see those who complain stand up in front of a classroom and lecture...prepare notes, handouts, syllabii, course description while jumping through academic hoops.

i'm thinking those in prison with or without their GED would not be the best choice.

if you have issues w/area education, go to montessori or homeschool.

if you want to cut the money back on teachers, the classrooms or programs....well, to me that's the "Wal-Marts" way....some things just shouldn't be "bargain priced"....

convoyducky · Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 100 Location: Mercersburg

I'm with cookie on this...
Unless you've taught..or in this day and age, attempted to teach, you really can't say what it's worth
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You can lead a fish out of water...but you can't make him breathe.

John Chambersburg · Joined: 25 Apr 2008 Posts: 55 Location: Chambersburg

My aspirations all thru school was to be a teacher. In college my education got diverted to another profession which i have enjoyed all these years, immensely. Now-a-days, talking with teacher friends and relatives, i am so very glad that i chose another profession. I don't see how anyone can judge what a teachers pay should be unless you have stood in front of a classroom as a professional teacher.For many many many years, teachers were not paid anything near what they were worth. In the last few years, I am happly to see their salaries are a little more comparable. BUT, i would venture to say, in many of the areas of teaching, they are still underpaid for their job performance (and their 9 month job is a mute point as far as i am concerned). The above is my lay opinion in a humble form. We need to take our hats off and give a standing ovation to all the teachers and school professionals for what they do each day for our children. My parents paid taxes for my education, i paid taxes for my childrens education and so the circle of life should continue, even it does cause more taxes. The old adage of you get what you pay for is pretty appropo here.

.45chel · Joined: 26 Oct 2007 Posts: 3093 Location: Chambersburg

Cookie, I luvbbes you, really, I do, but I feel I must point out that IMO not a single person on this thread has been anti-teacher.

(as long as Mjr wasn't serious....you weren't serious, right?---I swear these days you just can't tell with some people!)

Believe me, when I first arrived at this thread I was ready to type in all caps, but DadB was making a valid point.

BTW
DadB, Welcome to the Soapbox Forum. Glad you're here. Come on in and stay awhile. Very Happy

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Nevermind.

DadB · Joined: 13 Jul 2008 Posts: 2

Thank you 45chel. The article which I presented here was meant to show the inequity of pay versus work performed. A baby sitter could make more money.
H**l, my wife is a teacher. I know how much she puts onto her job and how many late nights are spent preparing to face the next day of ungrateful kids AND parents.
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JC Bodenberg

Coppy · Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 2663 Location: Chambersburg

Teachers are perhaps the most underpaid and under-appreciated people in our community. It's amazing how worked up these local yokels are over their relatively low tax rates when you consider the importance of educating the future of our neighborhood.

There is a very direct correlation to the amount of funding public schools receive, and the QUALITY of people that reside in that area.

Unfortunately, quality matters little to many local Chambersburgers, and they would rather save a couple bucks (referred to by them as "skyrocketing property taxes") than provide for the future generation of our community.

No wonder so many people are leaving this fogeyville. People think whining about taxes is the easiest way to drum up support and get people shouting from the rooftops about their government-subsidized oppression. Well, I think it's time to make a stand against them because I, for one, would like to see our podunk neighborhood turn into something a bit more to be proud of. And the way to do that is through education.

cookieclaygirl · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 2289 Location: shippensburg

John Chambersburg · Joined: 25 Apr 2008 Posts: 55 Location: Chambersburg

I swear this will be my last post on these Public Opinion forums. Some of the people who post on here are so messed up in the brain…the way of thinking is indescribable. People are moving TO…retiring IN Pennsylvaina (many in the Franklin County area) because of low low low taxes. No taxes on retirement income. Low, low, low property and school taxes. Education should be a primary focus in our nation and in our community. One thing that has always blown my mind is how non-educational professionals can go to a school board meeting and give all of their lay input…and the school board accepts it. The people writing our school policies and procedures should not be attorneys, accountants, doctors, farmers, and what have you sitting on school boards. There should be trained educational professionals making those kinds of decisions. If people don’t like the Chambersburg area, then leave. Move somewhere else…Paris, or Russia or… I find this a great place to live in 2008. Having been raised here, then living in many large cities during my professional career and now retiring back here. What a life…and I wish more people saw it that way.

cookieclaygirl · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 2289 Location: shippensburg

agree'd on the school board thing. i've thought the same thing....as with a lot of the things in this area (which i love, don't get me wrong...it's why i'm back here as well as my family) it's status driven....it's a "who knows who" club....

doctors, doctors' wives, attorneys...fill in the blank...the ones with the "right" names are who dominates the town. and often the school board makes odd decisions....because they are so far removed from the situations that arise. they don't always (imo...since i'm coming from the classroom pov) a firm grip on the realities of our daily interactions w/in the classroom (and make decisions like giving the ymca 4 mil for their 4 divers...wth...i'm sorry...i'll let it go...that one makes NO sense to me..NO sense)....

we're still going to have space issues...adding onto our high school is just (again imo) a temporary fix to an issue that WILL arise again. why not build by the vo-tech? make an educational complex where we'd have the room to expand instead of bunching ourselves in a tiny quandrant in town.....with all these new school being built that have 4 deep classroom...where in the world do they think these kids will go to high school? i give it 10 years and we'll be back to the SAME problems of space. find a better, more permanet solution that an expensive quick fix rennovation. sigh.

i've thought about running for school board.

they'd hate me.

LOL....

cookie for school board! hahaha...but who would vote for me? lolz....

Coppy · Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 2663 Location: Chambersburg

John Chambersburg, please stay. You'll find most of us are in agreement with your assessment, and nothing changes unless folks like you speak your mind and provide clear, logical, coherent examples to backup your opinion... rather than these worthless, blanket complaints we hear far too often from the whine-patrol of Chambersburg.

You make an excellent point about how low taxes are here compared to other areas, that our large population of senior citizens is a direct result of this are being very retirement-friendly in the tax department. The least we can do is ask for a little help to fund our failing schools.

And I don't mean to build new stadiums or to downplay libraries, art departments and music programs; I mean to hire and pay for quality educators, and provide them with the resources they need to make our community better by preparing our younger generation to become positive, contributing members of society; OUR society.

apple · Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 27

You see, if we were getting what we paid for, if our money was used responsibly, etc,. etc., I (for one) would not be complaining about salaries, taxes, etc.

That is not happening and I have gone to board meetings and voiced an opinion, but you must understand, most of the decisions as to what goes on or how our money is spent is decided BEFORE it hits the meeting, And if you speak out you are labeled as against CASD and the students. If you speak out too many times you are just labeled "crazy".

What to do??