How do we get more teachers and teachers' aides in MCPS?

[Anonymous]

So if we're not, not, not allowed to fundraise for salaries to hire teachers' aides (which IS allowed in DC), how do we get more teachers and teachers' aides in elementary schools in Montgomery County? Put another way, how do we improve the teacher/student ratio in MCPS?
Thank you. I am new to Montgomery County, and to elementary school (I have one child in kindergarden, another on the way there).

[Anonymous]

I wish I knew! Great idea!

[Anonymous]

Raise taxes.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if anyone has asked Dr. Starr about this at one of his "listen and learn" events. I have never been clear as to whether this prohibition against fundraising for teachers is in a Maryland statute somewhere or if it is MCPS policy (and I understand the reasoning the behind it regardless).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if anyone has asked Dr. Starr about this at one of his "listen and learn" events. I have never been clear as to whether this prohibition against fundraising for teachers is in a Maryland statute somewhere or if it is MCPS policy (and I understand the reason behind it regardless).

I don't understand how you can even think about this as a long-term solution.

Can you possibly raise around $25K, let's say, for ONE assistant at ONE school for ONE year?

What happens the year after that? another fundraiser - in an awful economy - that will raise even LESS than the one before?

Furthermore, who's paying for benefits? Or should we overlook that?

And for schools who really NEED this extra help where there is very little parental support b/c parents are working more than one job - do you think they're willing to add in some of their hard earned money to pay for another person's salary when they can barely manage on their own?

While I admire that you recognize there's a problem, the only way to remedy it is through an increase in taxes. And that's never going to happen. Education - and NOT the ICC - should be our priority.

[Anonymous]

Right..it is not just the salary...it is health insurance, retirement contributions, all the overhead that extra staff involves etc that need to be covered. How many schools can raise sums large enough for even 1 aide? I know i have read that DC allows it..does anyone know the $$ they have to raise for each position? And how would you feel if you helped to contribute to this big pot but the one aide had nothing to do with your child because they were assigned to a different class/grade?

[Anonymous]

So if we're not, not, not allowed to fundraise for salaries to hire teachers' aides (which IS allowed in DC),

this is actually a myth. I think you pulled this from the other thread on "Why go to private when I can go to Key, which purportedly has 2 teachers in every classroom?"

DCPS PTAs do not raise money to buy an extra teacher aide in the >homeroom< classroom. They are allowed to fund specialists somehow, like an art teacher.

[Anonymous]

I'm an assistant in a MD school and I get paid hourly, no benefits, no retirement. I've never heard of an assistant in regular ed classes except for one K assistant for all of the K classes. All of the assistants at our school and others are assigned to one special needs student per their IEP. I earn about $10K gross per year, not $25K. I am a student at night so the job works well for me but who would want this job other than a student? Nobody could afford to live on this money. Even my friends who go to school with me won't take this job b/c it pays so little. The best solution is to have parents volunteer as much as they can in the areas where help is needed- cafeteria, computer lab, art class or with special projects/class parties. In our school, parents rarely want to volunteer in the classroom on a daily basis part K. In K, it helps to have an extra person in during center time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an assistant in a MD school and I get paid hourly, no benefits, no retirement. I've never heard of an assistant in regular ed classes except for one K assistant for all of the K classes. All of the assistants at our school and others are assigned to one special needs student per their IEP. I earn about $10K gross per year, not $25K. I am a student at night so the job works well for me but who would want this job other than a student? Nobody could afford to live on this money. Even my friends who go to school with me won't take this job b/c it pays so little. The best solution is to have parents volunteer as much as they can in the areas where help is needed- cafeteria, computer lab, art class or with special projects/class parties. In our school, parents rarely want to volunteer in the classroom on a daily basis part K. In K, it helps to have an extra person in during center time.

We have assistants making at least $25K/year. They've been there forever, which doesn't say much actually. But they're certainly not making $10K. And they do receive benefits as supporting services.

[Anonymous]

Then they are paraprofessionals, not aides or assistants. In our county, they only work in special ed classes. The regular ed teachers don't get any help unless parents volunteer. And even if they make $25-$30K, how can live on that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Then they are paraprofessionals, not aides or assistants. In our county, they only work in special ed classes. The regular ed teachers don't get any help unless parents volunteer. And even if they make $25-$30K, how can live on that?

My cousin makes $25K a year as an assistant at a montessori. I don't know how she does it. divorced, btw

Most people making that money are usually married women - or college students working their way through night school. We have a few.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So if we're not, not, not allowed to fundraise for salaries to hire teachers' aides (which IS allowed in DC),

this is actually a myth. I think you pulled this from the other thread on "Why go to private when I can go to Key, which purportedly has 2 teachers in every classroom?"

DCPS PTAs do not raise money to buy an extra teacher aide in the >homeroom< classroom. They are allowed to fund specialists somehow, like an art teacher.

\

You are completely wrong. The PTA does fund aides for regular classrooms. My DD is in a class of approx. 22 kids with a teacher and an aide. Take a tour of Key or any other school that does it and you will see for yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Then they are paraprofessionals, not aides or assistants. In our county, they only work in special ed classes. The regular ed teachers don't get any help unless parents volunteer. And even if they make $25-$30K, how can live on that?

Last time I checked, the US had an unemployment rate of approx. 9%. I am quite certain that plenty of qualified applicants exist for an hourly-wage job like classroom aide. This job would be perfect for a young college grad (perhaps thinking of a career as a teacher), for an empty nester who has always had a passion for teaching but never became a teacher, for a retired executive who wants to give back, for a single mother without much formal education but with a love of children. Not every job requires top shelf /full benefits, etc. (In fact, one main reason that MOCO taxes can't cover more full time teacher in the classroom now is b/c of the over-the-top teacher's benefits handed out for decades in the past.) Providing an hourly wage job of this type is not some sort of scandalous abuse...it is a win/win situation both for the job seeker and for our schools.

[Anonymous]

DCPS PTAs do not raise money to buy an extra teacher aide in the >homeroom< classroom. They are allowed to fund specialists somehow, like an art teacher.
\

You are completely wrong. The PTA does fund aides for regular classrooms. My DD is in a class of approx. 22 kids with a teacher and an aide. Take a tour of Key or any other school that does it and you will see for yourself.

I'm not saying your DD doesn't have an aide. I'm saying the PTA doesn't pay her salary and benefits package out of fundraising efforts.

C'mon, don't be an idiot. A conservative salary/bennies package for an aide is $25,000 annually. Let's say Key has 2 classrooms for each grade preK-5, so 10 classrooms.

Are you really going to tell the world that your PTA raises $250,000 every single year to pay the salary and benefits package for an "aide in every classroom" ? Seriously?

If the Key PTA can raise 250K every single year, it really should go on the development lecture circuit and share that astonishing ability with the rest of the development world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then they are paraprofessionals, not aides or assistants. In our county, they only work in special ed classes. The regular ed teachers don't get any help unless parents volunteer. And even if they make $25-$30K, how can live on that?

Last time I checked, the US had an unemployment rate of approx. 9%. I am quite certain that plenty of qualified applicants exist for an hourly-wage job like classroom aide. This job would be perfect for a young college grad (perhaps thinking of a career as a teacher), for an empty nester who has always had a passion for teaching but never became a teacher, for a retired executive who wants to give back, for a single mother without much formal education but with a love of children. Not every job requires top shelf /full benefits, etc. (In fact, one main reason that MOCO taxes can't cover more full time teacher in the classroom now is b/c of the over-the-top teacher's benefits handed out for decades in the past.) Providing an hourly wage job of this type is not some sort of scandalous abuse...it is a win/win situation both for the job seeker and for our schools.

So . . . it's not enough that many teachers can't live on their salaries in this county, right? Now you want to chip away at benefits?

What a way to attract the best and the brightest.

I'd call you ignorant, but that's even too nice of a word to use.