Teachers Not Wanting to Go Back in Person

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And just a reminder of the danger that Covid-19 poses for teachers, today one of the Brooklyn PS is commemorating the first anniversary of the teacher who died in their school from Covid-19. She contracted the virus on March 17 and passed on April 5. NYCPS had several teacher deaths last year, this was the first.

Literally every profession has had deaths this year. Frankly, it doesn't sound like a high number for educators compared to others.

NYC public schools had 30 teachers and 49 deaths of staff by the middle of May 2020. That sounds pretty high for a profession that does not absolutely need to be in-person. Yes, it is better in-person, but not better enough to risk teachers lives.
https://abc7ny.com/teacher-deaths-doe-department-of-education-schools/6173896/

NYC public schools shut down before March 17, so if the dates are right, this was unrelated.

After schools closed, the teachers were required to attend in-person training in schools with other teachers and school board staff to learn how they were going to be conducting distance learning. It was during this training that the teacher was infected. March 17, the teachers were sent a notice in the early hours of the morning instructing them not to report to school and that further instructions would be pending. It wasn't until later that they learned that there was a positive Covid-19 case from one of the teachers. From other teachers, this teacher had been careful and had not left her place since school closed down except to report to work as required.

Yes, 30 sure does sound scary until you realize that there are 75,000 teachers in the NYC public school system, also realizing that because public schools were closed to students, nearly all of those infections came from somewhere other than classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Teaching was a cushy job a decade ago. Now with so many jobs that can be done from home, there are so many more options.

I find this refreshing. In the past, many teachers chose the profession because of the hours and summers off. Now that covid has come and gone, teachers who have gotten a taste of WFH will seek out other careers. The hope is that those who actually decide on this profession do so because of the joy of teaching, not because of summers off or other conveniences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teaching was a cushy job a decade ago. Now with so many jobs that can be done from home, there are so many more options.

I find this refreshing. In the past, many teachers chose the profession because of the hours and summers off. Now that covid has come and gone, teachers who have gotten a taste of WFH will seek out other careers. The hope is that those who actually decide on this profession do so because of the joy of teaching, not because of summers off or other conveniences.

Frankly, we've spent the last decade or two completely devaluing the worth of teachers. School systems have added a host of horrible stupid bureaucracy including mandatory training, mandatory meetings, endless streams of documentation of what they are doing that must be provided for district administration, school administration. parents, students. There have been so many guidelines on what is taught and how it is taught that the overhead for their job is adding many hours per week to what they are required to do outside of class time. And throughout this, school systems have decreased compensation. Teachers salaries are not even matching inflation and COLA and they are paid horribly relative to their general level of education. In addition, schools have cut budgets for supplies, classroom resources, and even basics like tissues, hand sanitizer, soap and paper towels. Teachers have had to buy those and supplies like markers, pencils, paper, etc out of pocket to support their classrooms. I know dozens of teachers in multiple school districts (I am not a teacher, I just know many) and I don't know a single one that hasn't had to provide supplies and basics out of pocket to support their students.

At this point, almost all school districts have had rounds of early retirement, abrupt unplanned retirement and teachers leaving the profession. They are understaffed and have more openings than they can find qualified teachers to fill. Hopefully this will make school districts understand that they need to start reprioritizing and maybe start paying teachers what they are worth to fill positions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teaching was a cushy job a decade ago. Now with so many jobs that can be done from home, there are so many more options.

I find this refreshing. In the past, many teachers chose the profession because of the hours and summers off. Now that covid has come and gone, teachers who have gotten a taste of WFH will seek out other careers. The hope is that those who actually decide on this profession do so because of the joy of teaching, not because of summers off or other conveniences.

Frankly, we've spent the last decade or two completely devaluing the worth of teachers. School systems have added a host of horrible stupid bureaucracy including mandatory training, mandatory meetings, endless streams of documentation of what they are doing that must be provided for district administration, school administration. parents, students. There have been so many guidelines on what is taught and how it is taught that the overhead for their job is adding many hours per week to what they are required to do outside of class time. And throughout this, school systems have decreased compensation. Teachers salaries are not even matching inflation and COLA and they are paid horribly relative to their general level of education. In addition, schools have cut budgets for supplies, classroom resources, and even basics like tissues, hand sanitizer, soap and paper towels. Teachers have had to buy those and supplies like markers, pencils, paper, etc out of pocket to support their classrooms. I know dozens of teachers in multiple school districts (I am not a teacher, I just know many) and I don't know a single one that hasn't had to provide supplies and basics out of pocket to support their students.

At this point, almost all school districts have had rounds of early retirement, abrupt unplanned retirement and teachers leaving the profession. They are understaffed and have more openings than they can find qualified teachers to fill. Hopefully this will make school districts understand that they need to start reprioritizing and maybe start paying teachers what they are worth to fill positions.

I agree with much of what you said, with the exception of teacher pay. Looking at what teachers get paid, rather than what we might feel they deserve based on the demands of the job, teachers get paid fairly well compared to other professionals. A 2017 study found a 11% compensation gap, but are several major caveats to that. First, it didn't make any adjustments to reflect the value of having summers off. Obviously there is value there. Some teachers pick up jobs over the summer, others stay home to care for kids, and thus avoid child care costs. Second, they didn't attempt to restrict the comparison to other public sector jobs. They were compared to others others, which mostly included private sector workers. Public sector professionals simply get paid less than their private sector counterparts. We could argue about what the amount, but there's clearly value to the job security provided by a public sector job, particularly one with dedicated union. And third, the study really didn't try to identify "comparable" professions. Teachers were compared against other workers based primarily on educational level and experience. This will skew the results. Comparable professions to teachers would be closer to things like professionals working in the social sciences, as opposed to someone working in medicine or engineering. Similarly, a Masters of Education isn't really comparable to an M.S. in a STEM-related field, or a professional degree in medicine or law.

I don't say this necessarily to argue that teachers shouldn't get paid more. But I think it is false to claim that teachers are paid "horribly."

I do, however, think teacher pay should reflect the difficultly of recruiting competent teachers in a given area. STEM and SpEd teachers are much harder to recruit than elementary school teachers- it is ridiculous that they're on the same pay scales. It's ultimately the unions holding that back, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teaching was a cushy job a decade ago. Now with so many jobs that can be done from home, there are so many more options.

I find this refreshing. In the past, many teachers chose the profession because of the hours and summers off. Now that covid has come and gone, teachers who have gotten a taste of WFH will seek out other careers. The hope is that those who actually decide on this profession do so because of the joy of teaching, not because of summers off or other conveniences.

Frankly, we've spent the last decade or two completely devaluing the worth of teachers. School systems have added a host of horrible stupid bureaucracy including mandatory training, mandatory meetings, endless streams of documentation of what they are doing that must be provided for district administration, school administration. parents, students. There have been so many guidelines on what is taught and how it is taught that the overhead for their job is adding many hours per week to what they are required to do outside of class time. And throughout this, school systems have decreased compensation. Teachers salaries are not even matching inflation and COLA and they are paid horribly relative to their general level of education. In addition, schools have cut budgets for supplies, classroom resources, and even basics like tissues, hand sanitizer, soap and paper towels. Teachers have had to buy those and supplies like markers, pencils, paper, etc out of pocket to support their classrooms. I know dozens of teachers in multiple school districts (I am not a teacher, I just know many) and I don't know a single one that hasn't had to provide supplies and basics out of pocket to support their students.

At this point, almost all school districts have had rounds of early retirement, abrupt unplanned retirement and teachers leaving the profession. They are understaffed and have more openings than they can find qualified teachers to fill. Hopefully this will make school districts understand that they need to start reprioritizing and maybe start paying teachers what they are worth to fill positions.

I agree with much of what you said, with the exception of teacher pay. Looking at what teachers get paid, rather than what we might feel they deserve based on the demands of the job, teachers get paid fairly well compared to other professionals. A 2017 study found a 11% compensation gap, but are several major caveats to that. First, it didn't make any adjustments to reflect the value of having summers off. Obviously there is value there. Some teachers pick up jobs over the summer, others stay home to care for kids, and thus avoid child care costs. Second, they didn't attempt to restrict the comparison to other public sector jobs. They were compared to others others, which mostly included private sector workers. Public sector professionals simply get paid less than their private sector counterparts. We could argue about what the amount, but there's clearly value to the job security provided by a public sector job, particularly one with dedicated union. And third, the study really didn't try to identify "comparable" professions. Teachers were compared against other workers based primarily on educational level and experience. This will skew the results. Comparable professions to teachers would be closer to things like professionals working in the social sciences, as opposed to someone working in medicine or engineering. Similarly, a Masters of Education isn't really comparable to an M.S. in a STEM-related field, or a professional degree in medicine or law.

I don't say this necessarily to argue that teachers shouldn't get paid more. But I think it is false to claim that teachers are paid "horribly."

I do, however, think teacher pay should reflect the difficultly of recruiting competent teachers in a given area. STEM and SpEd teachers are much harder to recruit than elementary school teachers- it is ridiculous that they're on the same pay scales. It's ultimately the unions holding that back, though.

+1 Well said.

[Anonymous]

A lot of schools do not have the budgets to afford spec ed and secondary science teachers. They keep these positions minimal/part time/floating in order to keep the cost to the district/ private school down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And just a reminder of the danger that Covid-19 poses for teachers, today one of the Brooklyn PS is commemorating the first anniversary of the teacher who died in their school from Covid-19. She contracted the virus on March 17 and passed on April 5. NYCPS had several teacher deaths last year, this was the first.

Literally every profession has had deaths this year. Frankly, it doesn't sound like a high number for educators compared to others.

NYC public schools had 30 teachers and 49 deaths of staff by the middle of May 2020. That sounds pretty high for a profession that does not absolutely need to be in-person. Yes, it is better in-person, but not better enough to risk teachers lives.
https://abc7ny.com/teacher-deaths-doe-department-of-education-schools/6173896/

NYC public schools shut down before March 17, so if the dates are right, this was unrelated.

After schools closed, the teachers were required to attend in-person training in schools with other teachers and school board staff to learn how they were going to be conducting distance learning. It was during this training that the teacher was infected. March 17, the teachers were sent a notice in the early hours of the morning instructing them not to report to school and that further instructions would be pending. It wasn't until later that they learned that there was a positive Covid-19 case from one of the teachers. From other teachers, this teacher had been careful and had not left her place since school closed down except to report to work as required.

Yes, 30 sure does sound scary until you realize that there are 75,000 teachers in the NYC public school system, also realizing that because public schools were closed to students, nearly all of those infections came from somewhere other than classrooms.

That's a mindless thing to say. Teachers were traveling across the city on public transportation when we already had packed ICUs and were running out of ventilators in NYC. There were students and staff who had COVID in the week preceding closure as well, when the mayor refused to shut schools down. They shut down city council indefinitely for a single case, but insisted that over a million people gathering together as COVID spread unchecked was totally fine. They shut down bars, restaurants, and Broadway, but not our schools. They told us they would just do "deep cleanings" of our schools instead, and that our schools would stay open regardless. Schools in NYC were only closed after teachers planned a sickout. Teachers stood outside buildings warning parents that there were COVID cases in their school communities, risking their jobs. The health department told administrators to stop calling and reporting sick staff and students, and refused to shut schools down due to "invalid tests" that they didn't perform themselves. There were parents reporting to bus drivers and patrons that they had tested positive, and then ghosting the school when they called inquiring. The week preceding NYC school closures was extremely fraught and a tremendous amount of trust was lost between school staff and the city.

You have no evidence that, "nearly all those infections came from somewhere other than the classroom." We knew nothing about the virus at that time, no one was masked, and we were all forced to gather closely together to create google classrooms, set up student emails, make frantic phone calls to every single student and their family from our shared office phone, gather materials, and otherwise "prepare" for remote learning. There were several people in my school (with only 50 employees) who came down with the virus within a two week window of those alleged "professional development" days, and some lost family members. Several of my students lost family as well. In reality, they had no PD planned for us during those three days and told us to figure it out, which we could've done from home, without commuting or gathering together unsafely.

By the way, it wasn't 30 people in the DOE who died. It was 88. https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/news/covid-19-losses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And just a reminder of the danger that Covid-19 poses for teachers, today one of the Brooklyn PS is commemorating the first anniversary of the teacher who died in their school from Covid-19. She contracted the virus on March 17 and passed on April 5. NYCPS had several teacher deaths last year, this was the first.

Literally every profession has had deaths this year. Frankly, it doesn't sound like a high number for educators compared to others.

NYC public schools had 30 teachers and 49 deaths of staff by the middle of May 2020. That sounds pretty high for a profession that does not absolutely need to be in-person. Yes, it is better in-person, but not better enough to risk teachers lives.
https://abc7ny.com/teacher-deaths-doe-department-of-education-schools/6173896/

NYC public schools shut down before March 17, so if the dates are right, this was unrelated.

After schools closed, the teachers were required to attend in-person training in schools with other teachers and school board staff to learn how they were going to be conducting distance learning. It was during this training that the teacher was infected. March 17, the teachers were sent a notice in the early hours of the morning instructing them not to report to school and that further instructions would be pending. It wasn't until later that they learned that there was a positive Covid-19 case from one of the teachers. From other teachers, this teacher had been careful and had not left her place since school closed down except to report to work as required.

Yes, 30 sure does sound scary until you realize that there are 75,000 teachers in the NYC public school system, also realizing that because public schools were closed to students, nearly all of those infections came from somewhere other than classrooms.

That's a mindless thing to say. Teachers were traveling across the city on public transportation when we already had packed ICUs and were running out of ventilators in NYC. There were students and staff who had COVID in the week preceding closure as well, when the mayor refused to shut schools down. They shut down city council indefinitely for a single case, but insisted that over a million people gathering together as COVID spread unchecked was totally fine. They shut down bars, restaurants, and Broadway, but not our schools. They told us they would just do "deep cleanings" of our schools instead, and that our schools would stay open regardless. Schools in NYC were only closed after teachers planned a sickout. Teachers stood outside buildings warning parents that there were COVID cases in their school communities, risking their jobs. The health department told administrators to stop calling and reporting sick staff and students, and refused to shut schools down due to "invalid tests" that they didn't perform themselves. There were parents reporting to bus drivers and patrons that they had tested positive, and then ghosting the school when they called inquiring. The week preceding NYC school closures was extremely fraught and a tremendous amount of trust was lost between school staff and the city.

You have no evidence that, "nearly all those infections came from somewhere other than the classroom." We knew nothing about the virus at that time, no one was masked, and we were all forced to gather closely together to create google classrooms, set up student emails, make frantic phone calls to every single student and their family from our shared office phone, gather materials, and otherwise "prepare" for remote learning. There were several people in my school (with only 50 employees) who came down with the virus within a two week window of those alleged "professional development" days, and some lost family members. Several of my students lost family as well. In reality, they had no PD planned for us during those three days and told us to figure it out, which we could've done from home, without commuting or gathering together unsafely.

By the way, it wasn't 30 people in the DOE who died. It was 88. https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/news/covid-19-losses

DP. NYC doesn't seem to release the number of part-time employees. But they do say they have 75,000 teachers. 35 deaths out of 75,000 people is well below the death rate for the working population as the whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And just a reminder of the danger that Covid-19 poses for teachers, today one of the Brooklyn PS is commemorating the first anniversary of the teacher who died in their school from Covid-19. She contracted the virus on March 17 and passed on April 5. NYCPS had several teacher deaths last year, this was the first.

Literally every profession has had deaths this year. Frankly, it doesn't sound like a high number for educators compared to others.

NYC public schools had 30 teachers and 49 deaths of staff by the middle of May 2020. That sounds pretty high for a profession that does not absolutely need to be in-person. Yes, it is better in-person, but not better enough to risk teachers lives.
https://abc7ny.com/teacher-deaths-doe-department-of-education-schools/6173896/

NYC public schools shut down before March 17, so if the dates are right, this was unrelated.

After schools closed, the teachers were required to attend in-person training in schools with other teachers and school board staff to learn how they were going to be conducting distance learning. It was during this training that the teacher was infected. March 17, the teachers were sent a notice in the early hours of the morning instructing them not to report to school and that further instructions would be pending. It wasn't until later that they learned that there was a positive Covid-19 case from one of the teachers. From other teachers, this teacher had been careful and had not left her place since school closed down except to report to work as required.

Yes, 30 sure does sound scary until you realize that there are 75,000 teachers in the NYC public school system, also realizing that because public schools were closed to students, nearly all of those infections came from somewhere other than classrooms.

That's a mindless thing to say. Teachers were traveling across the city on public transportation when we already had packed ICUs and were running out of ventilators in NYC. There were students and staff who had COVID in the week preceding closure as well, when the mayor refused to shut schools down. They shut down city council indefinitely for a single case, but insisted that over a million people gathering together as COVID spread unchecked was totally fine. They shut down bars, restaurants, and Broadway, but not our schools. They told us they would just do "deep cleanings" of our schools instead, and that our schools would stay open regardless. Schools in NYC were only closed after teachers planned a sickout. Teachers stood outside buildings warning parents that there were COVID cases in their school communities, risking their jobs. The health department told administrators to stop calling and reporting sick staff and students, and refused to shut schools down due to "invalid tests" that they didn't perform themselves. There were parents reporting to bus drivers and patrons that they had tested positive, and then ghosting the school when they called inquiring. The week preceding NYC school closures was extremely fraught and a tremendous amount of trust was lost between school staff and the city.

You have no evidence that, "nearly all those infections came from somewhere other than the classroom." We knew nothing about the virus at that time, no one was masked, and we were all forced to gather closely together to create google classrooms, set up student emails, make frantic phone calls to every single student and their family from our shared office phone, gather materials, and otherwise "prepare" for remote learning. There were several people in my school (with only 50 employees) who came down with the virus within a two week window of those alleged "professional development" days, and some lost family members. Several of my students lost family as well. In reality, they had no PD planned for us during those three days and told us to figure it out, which we could've done from home, without commuting or gathering together unsafely.

By the way, it wasn't 30 people in the DOE who died. It was 88. https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/news/covid-19-losses

DP. NYC doesn't seem to release the number of part-time employees. But they do say they have 75,000 teachers. 35 deaths out of 75,000 people is well below the death rate for the working population as the whole.

Sorry, what is the death rate for comparable professions? I don’t see any numbers here.
The NYPD lost 46 members, and ostensibly their job is much more “dangerous” than teachers (reflected in their benefits, ability to retire after 20 years of service at any age, unlimited sick time, etc.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teaching was a cushy job a decade ago. Now with so many jobs that can be done from home, there are so many more options.

I find this refreshing. In the past, many teachers chose the profession because of the hours and summers off. Now that covid has come and gone, teachers who have gotten a taste of WFH will seek out other careers. The hope is that those who actually decide on this profession do so because of the joy of teaching, not because of summers off or other conveniences.

Frankly, we've spent the last decade or two completely devaluing the worth of teachers. School systems have added a host of horrible stupid bureaucracy including mandatory training, mandatory meetings, endless streams of documentation of what they are doing that must be provided for district administration, school administration. parents, students. There have been so many guidelines on what is taught and how it is taught that the overhead for their job is adding many hours per week to what they are required to do outside of class time. And throughout this, school systems have decreased compensation. Teachers salaries are not even matching inflation and COLA and they are paid horribly relative to their general level of education. In addition, schools have cut budgets for supplies, classroom resources, and even basics like tissues, hand sanitizer, soap and paper towels. Teachers have had to buy those and supplies like markers, pencils, paper, etc out of pocket to support their classrooms. I know dozens of teachers in multiple school districts (I am not a teacher, I just know many) and I don't know a single one that hasn't had to provide supplies and basics out of pocket to support their students.

At this point, almost all school districts have had rounds of early retirement, abrupt unplanned retirement and teachers leaving the profession. They are understaffed and have more openings than they can find qualified teachers to fill. Hopefully this will make school districts understand that they need to start reprioritizing and maybe start paying teachers what they are worth to fill positions.

I agree with much of what you said, with the exception of teacher pay. Looking at what teachers get paid, rather than what we might feel they deserve based on the demands of the job, teachers get paid fairly well compared to other professionals. A 2017 study found a 11% compensation gap, but are several major caveats to that. First, it didn't make any adjustments to reflect the value of having summers off. Obviously there is value there. Some teachers pick up jobs over the summer, others stay home to care for kids, and thus avoid child care costs. Second, they didn't attempt to restrict the comparison to other public sector jobs. They were compared to others others, which mostly included private sector workers. Public sector professionals simply get paid less than their private sector counterparts. We could argue about what the amount, but there's clearly value to the job security provided by a public sector job, particularly one with dedicated union. And third, the study really didn't try to identify "comparable" professions. Teachers were compared against other workers based primarily on educational level and experience. This will skew the results. Comparable professions to teachers would be closer to things like professionals working in the social sciences, as opposed to someone working in medicine or engineering. Similarly, a Masters of Education isn't really comparable to an M.S. in a STEM-related field, or a professional degree in medicine or law.

I don't say this necessarily to argue that teachers shouldn't get paid more. But I think it is false to claim that teachers are paid "horribly."

I do, however, think teacher pay should reflect the difficultly of recruiting competent teachers in a given area. STEM and SpEd teachers are much harder to recruit than elementary school teachers- it is ridiculous that they're on the same pay scales. It's ultimately the unions holding that back, though.

+1 Well said.

I don't think you will ever see higher teacher pay unless these positions were turned into some beyond a normal teaching position (ie 11 month, admin, etc.) More typically you see sign-on bonuses of $5000 to $6000 in this area for Special Ed. Although I have seen a "combat pay" bonus in Washington, Co. MD for teachers working in the alternative program. I am certified in all the hard to staff areas (science, SpEd, ESOL), but they never fully use me. The differences in scheduling, how the departments are run, meetings, etc. prevent me from being fully used. Besides, just because I am certified doesn't mean I am very good at these areas. There is a lot of constant training, and Federal and state rules to be aware of. ESOL and Special Ed are more technical with more testing, paperwork, and meetings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teaching was a cushy job a decade ago. Now with so many jobs that can be done from home, there are so many more options.

I find this refreshing. In the past, many teachers chose the profession because of the hours and summers off. Now that covid has come and gone, teachers who have gotten a taste of WFH will seek out other careers. The hope is that those who actually decide on this profession do so because of the joy of teaching, not because of summers off or other conveniences.

Frankly, we've spent the last decade or two completely devaluing the worth of teachers. School systems have added a host of horrible stupid bureaucracy including mandatory training, mandatory meetings, endless streams of documentation of what they are doing that must be provided for district administration, school administration. parents, students. There have been so many guidelines on what is taught and how it is taught that the overhead for their job is adding many hours per week to what they are required to do outside of class time. And throughout this, school systems have decreased compensation. Teachers salaries are not even matching inflation and COLA and they are paid horribly relative to their general level of education. In addition, schools have cut budgets for supplies, classroom resources, and even basics like tissues, hand sanitizer, soap and paper towels. Teachers have had to buy those and supplies like markers, pencils, paper, etc out of pocket to support their classrooms. I know dozens of teachers in multiple school districts (I am not a teacher, I just know many) and I don't know a single one that hasn't had to provide supplies and basics out of pocket to support their students.

At this point, almost all school districts have had rounds of early retirement, abrupt unplanned retirement and teachers leaving the profession. They are understaffed and have more openings than they can find qualified teachers to fill. Hopefully this will make school districts understand that they need to start reprioritizing and maybe start paying teachers what they are worth to fill positions.

Basically, this has been the condition of employment for most people for the last 30 years. Shrinking budgets. Fewer raises. More work for less pay. It's not unique to education at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teaching was a cushy job a decade ago. Now with so many jobs that can be done from home, there are so many more options.

I find this refreshing. In the past, many teachers chose the profession because of the hours and summers off. Now that covid has come and gone, teachers who have gotten a taste of WFH will seek out other careers. The hope is that those who actually decide on this profession do so because of the joy of teaching, not because of summers off or other conveniences.

Frankly, we've spent the last decade or two completely devaluing the worth of teachers. School systems have added a host of horrible stupid bureaucracy including mandatory training, mandatory meetings, endless streams of documentation of what they are doing that must be provided for district administration, school administration. parents, students. There have been so many guidelines on what is taught and how it is taught that the overhead for their job is adding many hours per week to what they are required to do outside of class time. And throughout this, school systems have decreased compensation. Teachers salaries are not even matching inflation and COLA and they are paid horribly relative to their general level of education. In addition, schools have cut budgets for supplies, classroom resources, and even basics like tissues, hand sanitizer, soap and paper towels. Teachers have had to buy those and supplies like markers, pencils, paper, etc out of pocket to support their classrooms. I know dozens of teachers in multiple school districts (I am not a teacher, I just know many) and I don't know a single one that hasn't had to provide supplies and basics out of pocket to support their students.

At this point, almost all school districts have had rounds of early retirement, abrupt unplanned retirement and teachers leaving the profession. They are understaffed and have more openings than they can find qualified teachers to fill. Hopefully this will make school districts understand that they need to start reprioritizing and maybe start paying teachers what they are worth to fill positions.

Basically, this has been the condition of employment for most people for the last 30 years. Shrinking budgets. Fewer raises. More work for less pay. It's not unique to education at all.

Yes, but our kids education is so important... ... ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teaching was a cushy job a decade ago. Now with so many jobs that can be done from home, there are so many more options.

I find this refreshing. In the past, many teachers chose the profession because of the hours and summers off. Now that covid has come and gone, teachers who have gotten a taste of WFH will seek out other careers. The hope is that those who actually decide on this profession do so because of the joy of teaching, not because of summers off or other conveniences.

Frankly, we've spent the last decade or two completely devaluing the worth of teachers. School systems have added a host of horrible stupid bureaucracy including mandatory training, mandatory meetings, endless streams of documentation of what they are doing that must be provided for district administration, school administration. parents, students. There have been so many guidelines on what is taught and how it is taught that the overhead for their job is adding many hours per week to what they are required to do outside of class time. And throughout this, school systems have decreased compensation. Teachers salaries are not even matching inflation and COLA and they are paid horribly relative to their general level of education. In addition, schools have cut budgets for supplies, classroom resources, and even basics like tissues, hand sanitizer, soap and paper towels. Teachers have had to buy those and supplies like markers, pencils, paper, etc out of pocket to support their classrooms. I know dozens of teachers in multiple school districts (I am not a teacher, I just know many) and I don't know a single one that hasn't had to provide supplies and basics out of pocket to support their students.

At this point, almost all school districts have had rounds of early retirement, abrupt unplanned retirement and teachers leaving the profession. They are understaffed and have more openings than they can find qualified teachers to fill. Hopefully this will make school districts understand that they need to start reprioritizing and maybe start paying teachers what they are worth to fill positions.

Basically, this has been the condition of employment for most people for the last 30 years. Shrinking budgets. Fewer raises. More work for less pay. It's not unique to education at all.

Yes, but our kids education is so important... ... ...

And teachers have been doing an increasingly lackluster job of it. Their problems aren't special. They're just whiny and entitled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teaching was a cushy job a decade ago. Now with so many jobs that can be done from home, there are so many more options.

I find this refreshing. In the past, many teachers chose the profession because of the hours and summers off. Now that covid has come and gone, teachers who have gotten a taste of WFH will seek out other careers. The hope is that those who actually decide on this profession do so because of the joy of teaching, not because of summers off or other conveniences.

Frankly, we've spent the last decade or two completely devaluing the worth of teachers. School systems have added a host of horrible stupid bureaucracy including mandatory training, mandatory meetings, endless streams of documentation of what they are doing that must be provided for district administration, school administration. parents, students. There have been so many guidelines on what is taught and how it is taught that the overhead for their job is adding many hours per week to what they are required to do outside of class time. And throughout this, school systems have decreased compensation. Teachers salaries are not even matching inflation and COLA and they are paid horribly relative to their general level of education. In addition, schools have cut budgets for supplies, classroom resources, and even basics like tissues, hand sanitizer, soap and paper towels. Teachers have had to buy those and supplies like markers, pencils, paper, etc out of pocket to support their classrooms. I know dozens of teachers in multiple school districts (I am not a teacher, I just know many) and I don't know a single one that hasn't had to provide supplies and basics out of pocket to support their students.

At this point, almost all school districts have had rounds of early retirement, abrupt unplanned retirement and teachers leaving the profession. They are understaffed and have more openings than they can find qualified teachers to fill. Hopefully this will make school districts understand that they need to start reprioritizing and maybe start paying teachers what they are worth to fill positions.

Basically, this has been the condition of employment for most people for the last 30 years. Shrinking budgets. Fewer raises. More work for less pay. It's not unique to education at all.

Yes, but our kids education is so important... ... ...

And teachers have been doing an increasingly lackluster job of it. Their problems aren't special. They're just whiny and entitled.

Speak for yourself. In our school, the teachers have been doing an amazing job. They have been working many many extra hours to rebuild lesson plans around the original virtual and now hybrid environment to ensure that children in person and children at home remotely on-line all learn. Trying to handle the myriad different situations with some students in the classroom, plus some that are on-line has been challenging, to say the least, and difficult in many situations. Having a school system that has changed the tools that the teachers user more than once in the schoolyear and the teachers having to adapt to changing technology and tools repeatedly throughout the year has been exasperating. I'm supervising my two ES children at home and watching the hoops that the teachers are constantly having to jump through. I truly feel for them. And when they switched mid-quarter to hybrid and suddenly the teachers have to deal with half the class in person and half the class on-line has not been well served. This hybrid sh*t is just terrible and terribly implemented. They should have put children that were in-person in one class with one teacher and children on-line with another teacher regardless of tracking. No one is well served by teachers that are going around the classroom working with some children while ignoring the on-line students, then going back to the computer to help the on-line children while ignoring the in-person kids.

Our teachers have been workign many extra hours and doing a superb job with constantly changing constraints to their teaching. Yes, trying to teach in a hybrid environment with the conditions changing weekly on them is a special problem that most of us whether we have gotten to go back to work in-person or are still teleworking are not encountering. I can't think of another job that has the parameters of working changing on a weekly basis for 4-6 weeks.

If anyone, the ones I find that are whiny and entitled are the parents who want the free childcare and don't even know what their children are doing.

No, I'm not a teacher, and yes, I am going to work some of the time and teleworking some of the time. So, while my work conditions are varying, it is nowhere near as much as my kids' teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teaching was a cushy job a decade ago. Now with so many jobs that can be done from home, there are so many more options.

I find this refreshing. In the past, many teachers chose the profession because of the hours and summers off. Now that covid has come and gone, teachers who have gotten a taste of WFH will seek out other careers. The hope is that those who actually decide on this profession do so because of the joy of teaching, not because of summers off or other conveniences.

Frankly, we've spent the last decade or two completely devaluing the worth of teachers. School systems have added a host of horrible stupid bureaucracy including mandatory training, mandatory meetings, endless streams of documentation of what they are doing that must be provided for district administration, school administration. parents, students. There have been so many guidelines on what is taught and how it is taught that the overhead for their job is adding many hours per week to what they are required to do outside of class time. And throughout this, school systems have decreased compensation. Teachers salaries are not even matching inflation and COLA and they are paid horribly relative to their general level of education. In addition, schools have cut budgets for supplies, classroom resources, and even basics like tissues, hand sanitizer, soap and paper towels. Teachers have had to buy those and supplies like markers, pencils, paper, etc out of pocket to support their classrooms. I know dozens of teachers in multiple school districts (I am not a teacher, I just know many) and I don't know a single one that hasn't had to provide supplies and basics out of pocket to support their students.

At this point, almost all school districts have had rounds of early retirement, abrupt unplanned retirement and teachers leaving the profession. They are understaffed and have more openings than they can find qualified teachers to fill. Hopefully this will make school districts understand that they need to start reprioritizing and maybe start paying teachers what they are worth to fill positions.

Well said!