Thursday, March 03, 2011

EDUCATION - Why Do We De-Value Teachers?

"Teachers Wonder, Why the Scorn?" by TRIP GABRIEL, New York Times 3/2/2011

Excerpts

The jabs Erin Parker has heard about her job have stunned her. Oh you pathetic teachers, read the online comments and placards of counterdemonstrators. You are glorified baby sitters who leave work at 3 p.m. You deserve minimum wage.

“You feel punched in the stomach,” said Ms. Parker, a high school science teacher in Madison, Wis., where public employees’ two-week occupation of the State Capitol has stalled but not deterred the governor’s plan to try to strip them of bargaining rights.

Ms. Parker, a second-year teacher making $36,000, fears that under the proposed legislation class sizes would rise and higher contributions to her benefits would knock her out of the middle class.

“I love teaching, but I have $26,000 of student debt,” she said. “I’m 30 years old, and I can’t save up enough for a down payment” for a house. Nor does she own a car. She is making plans to move to Colorado, where she could afford to keep teaching by living with her parents.

Around the country, many teachers see demands to cut their income, benefits and say in how schools are run through collective bargaining as attacks not just on their livelihoods, but on their value to society.

Even in a country that is of two minds about teachers — Americans glowingly recall the ones who changed their lives, but think the job with its summers off is cushy — education experts say teachers have rarely been the targets of such scorn from politicians and voters.
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Some experts question whether teaching, with its already high attrition rate — more than 25 percent leave in the first three years — will attract high-quality recruits in the future.

“It’s hard to feel good about yourself when your governor and other people are telling you you’re doing a lousy job,” said Steve Derion, 32, who teaches American history in Manahawkin, N.J. “I’m sure there were worse times to be a teacher in our history — I know they had very little rights — but it feels like we’re going back toward that direction.”

Even though it is anecdotal, my local experience on teachers, public schools, etc, demonstrates the disconnect.

Starting with California's Prop-13 (People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation) I experienced the disconnect on these issues in my own neighborhood. California, like many states, funds Public Education from property taxes which Prop-13 limits.

Neighbors applauded and supported Prop-13 (and still do) while complaining about teacher/student ratios in classrooms, condition of schools, and other issues in their children's schools. In ADDITION they voted against local School Bonds that were purposed to address the shortfall between state provided funding and what our schools needed.

Essentially my neighbors wanted better schools and education for their children but didn't want to pay for it.

My belief is that our public school teachers are vitally important to our nation and SHOULD be highly valued. Valued as high as our nation's emergency workers (Fireman, LEOs, etc).

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