Archives for category: Teacher Pay
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Detroit: Charter Closes, Teachers Won’t Be Paid

By dianeravitch
July 28, 2017 //
18

Michigan Technical Academy in Detroit closed its doors. Teachers who had worked there on contract just learned that they would not be paid, because the school has other debts.

Teachers at the Michigan Technical Academy had contracts that required the school to pay them through the summer for work they did during the school year. But the school’s management company, Matchbook Learning, alerted teachers in an email Wednesday that the money would instead go to pay off the school’s debts.

Tough luck for teachers who counted on that income to pay their debts, feed their children, meet the mortgage or rent payment.

That’s why unions were created.

Categories Charter Schools, Detroit, Education Industry, Privatization, Teacher Pay

Why Oklahoma’s Teacher of the Year Left for Texas, “Kicking and Screaming”

By dianeravitch
July 15, 2017 //
0

Jennifer Berkshire released this podcast about the Oklahoma Teacher of the Year who left his job to teach in Texas. It is part of the Have You Heard series.

Here is an excerpt:


When Oklahoma Teacher of the Year Shawn Sheehan decided to leave his job as high school math teacher for a better paying position in Texas, he didn’t go quietly. Sheehan left “kicking and screaming,” warning Oklahomans that the school’s notoriously underfunded schools are teetering on the brink, even as schemes to privatize education in the state gain momentum.

In the latest episode of the Have You Heard podcast, Jennifer Berkshire talks to Sheehan and other teachers who are leaving their jobs with a bang. Think resignation letters as a form of activism delivered via blog post or video, and sending a powerful message about the state of public education. And as Michigan State University researcher Alyssa Dunn explains, these very public “I Quit” letters are a sign of the time.

Have You Heard: These very public statements from teachers who are leaving the classroom are something of a trend. You argue that they’re a form of protest. Tell us more.

Alyssa Hadley Dunn: I think because so many teachers are experiencing challenging working conditions right now and so when some teachers write their resignation letters, they go viral, because people feel like they are saying what I am feeling and they are speaking for me, even if I feel like I can’t speak for myself. You hear teachers saying things like: “I feel like I have no voice when policies are handed down to me”, “I feel like I’m not as able to be creative in the classroom because my curriculum is being scripted or standardized”, and “I feel like I have to spend a lot of time teaching to the test in this era of high stakes testing and it’s not only harming my students’ learning conditions, it’s harming my working conditions.”

Have You Heard: The teachers you talked to are determined to change the system, even as they’re walking away from it.

Dunn: They feel like their hands have been tied, in terms of being the teachers that they want to be, and they feel like they’re complicit in a broken system if they stay. They’re not indicting the teachers who choose to stay, but they’re saying that “an act of activism, and an act of justice, that I can take is to leave the classroom and to tell people why I’m leaving, so that perhaps the people who stay, the administrators who stay, can use this to make changes for the better.”

Have You Heard: One of the most interesting things you found was that the letters and “I Quit” blog posts that young teachers are writing have a lot in common with teachers who are leaving the classroom after decades. Millenials often get dinged for “bailing,” but the young teachers you talked to seemed to agonize about giving up on their new careers.

Dunn: These were teachers who had really spent their whole lives thinking that they were going to be teachers and then got into the classroom and felt like it was a lot different than what they had anticipated. That was my story too. I’d wanted to be a teacher since 3rd grade. I became a high school teacher in urban schools in Atlanta and I loved my students, but I found the working conditions very challenging, because I was working in a system where it made it difficult to enact justice oriented and student focused learning. Tons of teachers do it every day, but for me, I felt like I was complicit in a system that was oppressing students, in particular students of color.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Oklahoma, Privatization, Teacher Pay, Teachers and Teaching

Arizona: Acute Teacher Shortage, 22% of Teachers Not Fully Qualified

By dianeravitch
June 24, 2017 //
35

After years of underfunding public education and diverting money to charters and vouchers, Arizona is coping with an acute teacher shortage.

“On a Saturday in late April, Principal Theresa Nickolich gave her best recruiting pitch to every person who walked in the door.

“Come teach at Clarendon Elementary School in the Osborn School District, she told the candidates at the job fair.

“You’ll be part of a system that will support you. You’ll feel like family in a professional environment built up over years of strong leadership. You will be an anchor of stability for children in need, many of them poor.

“You will have a rewarding career. You will change lives.

“But across from Nickolich stood both her biggest recruiting challenge and an emblem of one of the biggest crises facing public education in Arizona.

“Almost no qualified applicants walked in.

“It was the last job fair of the year in the Osborn district before the quiet summer months. In a school of about two dozen classroom teachers, Nickolich still had five jobs to fill for the fall.

“If Nickolich couldn’t fill her spots with qualified teachers, she would have to turn to teaching interns. Maybe somebody with an emergency teaching credential, maybe somebody who didn’t yet have a teaching certificate. In a dire situation the state could even let her employ a temporary teacher without a college degree.

“The recruiting challenge Nickolich faced that day in April isn’t unique to Osborn, or even to her region. It’s a crisis that school administrators recognize statewide:

“Every spring, thousands of teaching positions open across the state.

“Every spring, fewer qualified people apply to fill them.”

How can “reformers” expect to improve education if they drive people away from teaching?

Of the state’s, 22 percent lacked full qualifications.

“Many in that 22 percent did have a college education and teacher training, but had less than two years in the classroom, a time frame when they don’t qualify for the state’s full credential — a standard certificate.

“Many others lacked even more basic qualifications. Nearly 2,000 had no formal teacher training. Dozens lacked a college degree.

“Parents, educators and advocates argue the proliferation of teachers with less than full credentials harms student performance.”

No kidding.

“Experts frequently place poor teacher pay and low education funding among the primary causes of the shortage. Median pay for Arizona elementary teachers is $40,590 per year, compared with $54,120 nationally. In 2014, Arizona ranked 48th in average per-pupil spending at $7,457, compared with $11,066 nationally.

“For years, state finances reeled from deficits that resulted in cuts to education. Gov. Doug Ducey calls teachers and public schools “winners” in his most recent budget, which allocated $167 million in new money for education and 2 percent teacher raises spread across two years.

“Other factors driving the shortage include stressful working conditions and diminished respect for the profession. The problem has grown as older teachers retire; among the flood of newcomers, many try the profession, then leave shortly after.”

Obviously, Arizona doesn’t care about educating its children. They don’t care about having qualified teachers. They aren’t willing to pay professional salaries. Very sad.

Arizona has placed its bets on choice as a substitute for funding its schools and attracting qualified teachers.

A bad bet.

Categories Arizona, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage

New Jersey: Charter School Closing, Won’t Pay Teachers for last Two Months

By dianeravitch
June 23, 2017 //
23

The Merit Preparatory Charter School in Newark has been ordered to close down at the end of June due to low test scores. The school’s teachers are paid on a 12-month schedule for ten months of work. That means they are owed salary for July and August. At present, the school does not plan to pay what it owes the teachers. The teachers have turned to the Newark Teachers Union for help, even though they are not members of the union.

“Teachers at Merit Preparatory Charter School in Newark are not unionized and have individual employment contracts stipulating they work during the 10-month school year and have their paychecks spread out over the 12-month calendar year, according to the American Federation of Teachers New Jersey chapter.

“Some of those teachers’ contracts began in September 2016 and run through August 2017, with as much as $12,000 per teacher scheduled to be paid over July and August, the union said.

“The school, however, has informed teachers they will not receive their scheduled paychecks in July and August after it closes on June 30, a breach of teacher’s contracts, said John Abeigon, president of the Newark Teachers Union.”

“The bottom line is these people are employees in the state of New Jersey, they worked and they are owed and entitled to this money,” said Abeigon, who along with the AFT-NJ is helping the teachers try to secure their full pay though they are not union members.

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, New Jersey, Privatization, Teacher Pay

Miami-Dade Teachers’ Salaries Are Lower than Ten Years Ago

By dianeravitch
May 16, 2017 //
37

A blogger called Kafkateach writes that teachers’ salaries are lower now than they were ten years ago, with any gains wiped out by inflation.

“In 2007, a 15 year veteran would be making almost $47,000. In inflation adjusted dollars in 2017, that amount would be almost $56,000. Most 15 year teachers currently working in Miami Dade currently don’t break $45,000. And apparently, that’s exactly what Miami Dade County thinks 15 years teaching experience is worth if you look at the bottom portion of the 2017 salary teachers who transfer in from another state or district, $45,000. Back in 2007, if a 22 year veteran transferred into the district they would have been entitled to $64,000. Now they will get paid $46,000.”

“In 2007, a 15 year veteran would have made $10,000 more than a first year teacher. Most 15 year veterans in Miami Dade currently make about $4,000 more than a first year teacher.”

It’s trends like these that explain why veteran teachers are leaving, and the ranks of new teachers are shrinking.

Categories Florida, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage

Busted Pencils: Teacher Licenses Are Under Attack!

By dianeravitch
May 9, 2017 //
8

Tim Slekar, dean of education at Edgewood College in Milwaukee, warns of the strategy that corporate reformers are using to undermine and destroy the teaching profession.

They say there is a shortage. They ignore the fact that the “shortage” is caused by the exodus of experienced teachers due to policies that create intolerable working conditions. They then say that the “solution” to the manufactured shortage is to eliminate entry requirements for teachers, thus lowering the bar to anyone with a college degree.

He writes:

It is happening all across the country. Policy makers, pundits and idiots keep screaming teacher shortage. And, in the same breath advocating and putting forth policies that do away with teacher licensing. Why?

First the BS answer: Allowing license flexibility or doing away with teaching licenses altogether will fix the shortage and if “we” don’t do something fast children will face empty classrooms.

The TRUTH: Softening teacher license policies or doing away with the license altogether will kill the profession of teaching.

Its that simple. Yet trying to get media and policy makers to understand this seems almost impossible. Trust me. I have been trying for 4 months.

Now it’s up to you. Take what you learn below. Call your legislators. Call your local media. Chain yourself to a tree naked. Oops. That was supposed to say “chain yourself to a naked tree.” Do whatever you can to get this ALEC backed attack on the profession of teaching to the people.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage

The Scariest of Tweets about the Teacher Shortage

By dianeravitch
April 14, 2017 //
42

I kept going back to this tweet because it is surreal.

It is a teacher job fair at the University of Michigan.

The tables are around the room, staffed and ready to hand out fliers to prospective teachers.

But the hall is empty.

There are no prospective teachers.

Thanks, No Child Left Behind.

Thanks, Race to the Top.

Thanks, inventors and promoters of VAM.

Thanks, teacher-bashers.

Who will teach?

Oh, right. Computers.

Categories Education Reform, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage

Colorado: Teacher Shortage Approaching “Crisis” Proportions

By dianeravitch
April 14, 2017 //
10

We have heard from corporate reformers that Denver is the best city in the country when it comes to school choice (although DeVos says we shouldn’t be so quick to praise Denver because it doesn’t yet have vouchers). Teachers should be flocking to Colorado, especially Denver.

Yet the Denver Post reports that the state of Colorado has a teacher shortage that is becoming a crisis. Teacher salaries have actually declined in Colorado by 7.7% over the past decade. In 2010, the legislature passes a teacher evaluation law that bases 50% of teachers’ rating on standardized test scores of their students; the law remains on the books even though it has had zero effect, and the underlying theory has been widely discredited. (The author of the bill, former State Senator Mike Johnston, plans to run for governor.)

Rural districts, where salaries are lowest, are hit hardest by the shortage.

The state’s teacher shortage, which mirrors a national trend, grows larger each year. As many as 3,000 new teachers are needed to fill existing slots in Colorado classrooms while the number of graduates from teacher-preparation programs in the state has declined by 24.4 percent over the past five years.

Meanwhile, enrollment in the state’s teacher preparation programs in 2015-16 remained flat from the previous academic year with 9,896 students. On top of that, at least a third of the teachers in Colorado are 55 or older, and closing in on retirement.

Plenty of factors — low salaries, a culture obsessed with student testing, the social isolation that comes with teaching in small towns — send students scrambling from teaching careers, say experts.

There is also a pall that hangs over teaching that hasn’t existed in the past, said Mike Merrifield, a 30-year teaching veteran and now a state senator.

“Teachers are constantly being bashed,” Merrifield said. “It’s not the same job it used to be….”

Urban school districts are slightly more immune to the downward trend than rural districts. The highest average salary for K-12 teachers in Colorado is $63,000 in Boulder Valley. At Colorado’s rural schools, the average teacher salary is about $22,700 — $14,000 less than the state average for teachers.

Metro areas can offer teachers higher salaries, greater housing options and more opportunities to teach specialized classes. But the secluded nature of rural schools may be the biggest drawback for many new teachers.

Categories Colorado, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage

Tulsa Teacher: “I Resign. I Can’t Afford to Live on This Salary”

By dianeravitch
April 12, 2017 //
14

Here’s another story of a teacher who is leaving. She can’t live on her salary.

“Local schools are facing their new spring rite of passage — waves of resignation notices from teachers leaving Oklahoma for higher-paying jobs out of state.

“Shelby Eagan was recruited here from Missouri four years ago, but she wasn’t a hard sell.

“Oklahoma is home. My mom was born here, my grandma lived in Bristow. When I was a kid, we came here once a month and sometimes from Bristow, we’d come to the ‘big’ city — Tulsa,” Eagan said. “I planned on staying.”

“She strengthened those ties with a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma and by establishing herself at Tulsa’s Mitchell Elementary School, 733 N. 73rd East Ave.

“She volunteered her own time to provide 20 to 30 less-fortunate students with dance instruction — in acrobat, tap and ballet — and this year, her colleagues even voted her the site’s teacher of the year.

“What derailed her plans?

“The realities of living on an Oklahoma public school teacher’s take-home pay and ever-declining school budgets.

“I get $2,000 a month. I had a tire go out and a health scare this year that required me to get a procedure unexpectedly,” Eagan said. “I’m 28 years old, but I did the only thing I could do. I called my mom and dad. I shouldn’t have to call my mom and dad for money — I’m a professional with a master’s degree, and I’ve been working four years.”

“Eagan said when she traveled with a group of Tulsa teachers to visit with lawmakers at the Capitol just before spring break, she shared her decision to move to Kansas City to earn $10,000 more.

“One representative tried to tell me that the cost of living in Oklahoma was so drastically different than Missouri, that it wasn’t worth it. But it’s the exact same cost of living,” she said, shaking her head. “I guess that makes for a good story to tell themselves so they don’t have to do anything differently.”

Categories Oklahoma, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage

Peter Greene: Scott Walker Attacks Teachers and Public Schools Again

By dianeravitch
April 6, 2017 //
20

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker thought he could run for president based on his hardline hatred for public school teachers and public schools. He was rushing to enact Betsy DeVos’s agenda even before she became Secretary of Education. And his agenda is even more expansive because he wants to drive teachers out of public schools. It is hard to believe that Wisconsin was once a progressive state with this guy as governor.

Peter Greene here reviews Walker’s latest attacks on public schools and their teachers.

First, he proposes to punish any district that is not strictly enforcing his infamous Act 10, which slashed teachers’ pay and shifted the cost of their health benefits and pensions to teachers.

Second, he proposes to eliminate any required number of instructional hours for students. Wisconsin, under his backwards leadership, would be the only state in the nation that did not set forth a minimum number of instructional hours. He claims this would provide “flexibility,” but in reality it would be a boon to cybercharters and others who will cut instructional time and teachers to save money. For more on this proposal, read here.

Greene observes:

Not that this is about cutting costs. Oh no. And that may be true– it may be more about reducing the need for staff. Can’t find enough teachers who want to work under Wisconsin’s increasingly regressive system? Split your school into morning and afternoon school meeting every other day and you can get twice the students, at least, served by one teacher. Have trouble staffing classes that don’t actually affect your state report card? Cut ’em and send the kids home early.

More than that, this also serves as a big blast of freedom for charters. Set your charter up however you want, teaching whatever you want, meeting as often as you want, with as few teachers as you want. Scott Walker says that’s okay. Come be an edu-preneur, and we won’t tell you what you have to do, ever.

Would this reduce the number of teachers in Wisconsin? Of course– and thereby weaken that damn union and its ability to stand up to guys like Scott Walker. And of course this also accomplishes the goal of making public schools less and less attractive so that charter schools can look better by comparison (without having to actually get good). Will this have any effect on the education of rich folks who can afford to make sure their children get into real schools that do real educating? Of course not, and that’s undoubtedly part of the point–

Scott Walker has pushed hard on many reformster ideas, but the unifying principle seems to be one of the lowest of all reformy ideas– wealthy folks (who deserve their wealth or why else would they be wealthy) should not have the government taking their well-deserved money to provide services for lousy poor people (who must deserve to be poor, or else they wouldn’t be). And that include those damn teachers, who not only keep taking money they don’t deserve, but keep using some of it to try to organize revolt against their rightful rulers. These peasants need to be sent packing and forced to understand that their Betters will decide what these Lessers deserve– and the short list of what these Lessers deserve does not include an excellent, free public education.

Really, I try to be civil on this blog. So, either Scott Walker is determined to drive every last professional teacher out of the public schools, or he is a moron. Or both.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Teacher Pay, Teachers, Walker, Scott, Wisconsin
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