Extremely affluent parents poaching teachers
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Anonymous
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Really interesting article. Is DCUM mostly middle class orUMC at most? Because I haven’t really seen people talking much about this - poaching a former classroom teacher. While it seems that most people on in these boards are focused on the public vs. private school debate, the extremely wealthy are bypassing private schools altogether and starting their own pods with a couple friends or hiring former classroom teachers just for their own families. Why have your kid be in a class of 12-15 when they can be tutored one-on-one or with just a few friends? It reminds me of how the extremely wealthy routinely used to hire governesses and private tutors before heading off to boarding school. Has anyone on here actually done this or was invited to join a pod like this? What did it cost? What’s been your experience with it!
Affluent Parents Are Poaching Teachers for Their Private Pods in the Midst of Public School Shortages https://www.parents.com/kids/education/back-to-school/affluent-parents-are-poaching-teachers-for-their-private-pods-in-the-midst-of-public-school-shortages/ Parents.com has heard that public school teachers across the country are being offered a lot more money to teach kids privately during the pandemic. While it can mean potentially safer conditions for teachers, education advocates are concerned about what it means for low-income students. . . . When school districts opened this year, some families gravitated toward a quickly-orgazined model of "parent-organized discovery sites" (pods) in which families—typically those within the same socioeconomic circles—merge their children together in small groups for socialization or to share a learning space. The concept is appealing to busy parents, exhausted by a spring spent working from home while simultaneously supervising their own children's e-learning. Frequently employing certified educators familiar with a district's curriculum, some independent pods exist solely as a supplement to a district's online teaching, while others may operate more like independent microschools. And these pods aren't cheap: ones in New York and California can cost about $2,500 a child per month. . . . Earlier this summer, Bay Area tech investor Jason Calacanis—a venture capitalist for companies including ride-sharing firm Uber and relaxation app Calm—tweeted a job listing offering details of his search: "Looking for the best 4-6th grade teacher in Bay Area who wants a 1-year contract, that will beat whatever they are getting paid." Calacanis added a finder's fee of a $2,000 Uber Eats gift card. Calacanis later tweeted teachers hired for these pods could receive as much as $240 a day for a 10-student pod for six hours, and that the instruction kids would receive would be supplemental to the remote learning provided by schools. In July, Colleen Ganjian, an education consultant who works with high schoolers in the Washington D.C. area, told the Washington Post that families in her network were seeking an equivalent to a "nanny share on steroids." Ganjian noted that prices start at $25 to $30 per hour for a college or graduate student, and $50 to $100 per hour for a trained tutor. As for poaching a teacher from a public school? She said that could cost as much as $100,000 a year. In New York City, Aleta LaFargue is managing her 7-year-old's remote learning from a public elementary school while staging a campaign run for District 3 of the city council. During one Zoom class, LaFargue noticed another student was being assisted not by a parent, but by a hired teacher. "And I thought, 'Wow, how nice,'" she says. "I know people in the Hamptons having actual classroom teachers coming to their homes. But I'm a single mom—this isn't an option for my child, or for the children of many, many other New Yorkers." |
Anonymous
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The NYT covered this all summer. They were obsessed with the “elitism” of wealthy people doing pods or tutors.
Who cares? Wealthy people are always going to have the best of everything including education during a pandemic. |
Anonymous
| People love to focus on the supposed inequity here but what about the teachers being hired? It’s win/win. They’re making good money and aren’t taking on as much risk. Everyone is happy. |
Anonymous
| The $2500 a month price tag the article claims is high comes in a lot cheaper than independents. If I could get a great teacher in a 12 kid classroom for that price, I’d be all over it |
Anonymous
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As a teacher, I would think twice before signing on to a situation like that. Working for rich people who are used to being in control of everything is not the environment I'd want to work in.
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Anonymous
But think of how many fewer people he/she will come into contact with. If their concern really is about the virus...and not just wanting to stay home. |
Anonymous
| Strivers in NOVA have no idea about “extremely affluent” people. Look for a family with generations of good ‘ole coal money and then you’ll have this “extremely affluent” scenario of which you speak. |
Anonymous
Teachers who are extremely concerned because of their own or a family member's health condition are looking for a totally virtual setting. Those who have left the profession for other reasons may be willing to cash in for a year, but many of us are not interested in working full-time for the most difficult parents we had to deal with when in the classroom. |
Anonymous
| But they don’t get benefits that they’d otherwise get from the schools |
Anonymous
| Old news |
Anonymous
There are many jobs that not only pay more than I get paid to teach but offer full benefits. They also offer housing. |
Anonymous
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A bit of an aside, but feels relevant here...
An extremely neurotic, hyper-involved, friend of mine organized several pods - and of course kept the best combo of teacher and other families for herself. Guess who just got done with a 2 week quarantine because one of the 4 families had a dad who went to a 40th birthday party, caught COVID, gave it to mom and the teacher? The pod was at their house that week and the dad was sleeping in the spare room for a few days because he felt sick, he had a fever, and went to get a COVID test... and didn't tell any of them until the positive result came back. I can't help it, I laughed. Luckily none of the other kids or families got it, just the original family (mom,dad,kid) and the teacher. Let me tell you how PISSED that teacher was, and how much drama there was between those pod families. |
Anonymous
You are talking about pods. Pods are for the poors. This post is about one family hiring one teacher. The ads I've seen require the teacher to live in and be exclusive to that one family. That's why they are getting paid the big bucks. |
Anonymous
| If you have a marketable skill (teaching) why not get while the gettin’s good? If communities feel this is harming their ability to provide education, pay more. Supply and demand. |
Anonymous
+1 I've taught for 13 years in some top independents in the US and UK, and I would NEVER agree to do this. Having admin who can/will shield teachers from crazed "important" parents is a necessity. |