Our Teachers are on STRIKE!

[OzFan]

Our teachers went on strike last week the day before our parent teacher conferences. I had just set up a bookfair that normally rakes in about $12,000. We made a grand total of $3,400. Oh well, there is always next year! But the kicker is my kids are driving me NUTS! They are going to have to make up all the days (going on 7 days) in the summer. We always go to Disney early May, so this might put a damper on that. I know teachers are EXTREMELY under paid, and they deserve everything they are asking for, I just wish our school board could loosen the purse strings and give it to them. Thanks for letting me vent alittle!

 

[Wishing on a star]

As most of you here can guess.

You don't even wanna know what I am thinking about a situation like this!

 

[CharlesTD]

We have been through this 2 or 3 times in teh past 8 years I think and every time the teachers tell us they are doing it for the kids LOL if it was for the kids they would be in the classroom teaching they didn't get any support from the people in our city they actually got bood and told they needed to grow up. Our teachers allready make very good money one of the girls I used to work with just got her teaching degree and went to the GTA to teach. As a first year math teacher teaching grade 9 she makes somewhere in the vicinity of 55K a year. My uncle a retired HS teacher has a pension of over 60K a year and that is at 65% salary plus he substitutes and get 250.00 a day to teach from 8-1 and only 3 classes he has to free periods LOL.

 

[jfulcer]

Ok, playing devils advocate here, but if this is a public school system, where can you expect them to get the money to make this up? The only way would be to reduce services somewhere else unless their state or federal government gives them more, and we know how well that works.

We took DD out of the local public school system just for that reason. The school she was at had to cut 8 teachers out of their staff in under 2 years. Why? Because the school board and the government kept cutting their budgets. It irked me more because one thing the board was thinking about doing here was asking the teachers to pay a small deductible on their insurance plans that the teachers pay NOTHING for. No deductibles. No copays. Nada. Do you think the teachers union would allow that? Nope! So instead every school lost many teachers because they couldn't afford it anymore.

Instead of complaining to your school board, complain to your state and federal legislatures. They are the ones that need to loosen the purse strings.

 

[Texan Mouseketeer]

I don't think we even can strike in Texas...not that I would anyways.

 

[Marseeya]

I'm just sad for the kids.

I can't remember my local school district ever going on strike. I don't know why. They only start out making $22,000 a year (+200 for masters degree, +200 for doctorate). You'd think if anyone were going to strike, they would!

(also, surrounding school districts start teachers at least $10,000 more per year and they're a lot smaller schools in the boonies!)

Frankly, it's all well and good to be altruistic, and that's why I'm going into teaching in the first place, but my income isn't needed to support my family. I think teachers should at least be able to support a family on their income. It's a crime when they can't.

 

[swilphil]

In some states teachers aren't allowed to strike. Kansas is one of those states. Our teachers have been working without a contract for 3 months. They are getting paid on last year's salary scale.

 

[Blondy876]

While it is sad for the kids/parents to have to put up with the strike, I also feel bad for the teachers. Nobody goes on strike for the fun of it. They go on strike because they are not being heard. I don't know what the teachers in your area are striking for but so many get paid so little. I am blessed that I make pretty good money but I considered applying for another teaching position in another district and they would have started me at $16,000?!?! What kind of money is that. That would have been over a $40,000 pay cut for doing the same thing. Anyway, I'm sorry that you have deal with the situation. I hope the strike ends soo and you get back into the routine.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

wow - I hadn't heard of any area schools striking so I just pulled up a paper to read about it. Our local Public school also had a fight over how long the school day should be.

It kind of angers me when these things aren't worked out over the summer. 21% pay increase over 4 years is a pretty huge jump with Illinois school funding the way it is. I'm not sure where your school pay scale stands in comparison with other schools - are they really low?

 

[C.Ann]

What's that thing that they do where they don't actually go on strike, but they don't put in any extra time either? Can't remember for the life of me what it's called.. (Guess I'm having a "senior moment" - LOL)

Anyhow - that might have been the more appropriate way to go.. As it stands now, the teachers are shooting themselves in the foot, so to speak, because they too will have to be working during the summer and giving up their vacation plans..

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Wow--I had teachers on strike once. Subs were brought in. The strike lasted 2 or 3 weeks. We certainly had to make up the work, but not the physical days.

Sorry this will mess up your vacation plans.

Are they still on strike?

 

[OzFan]

The thing is our district has a cap of 6% a year. We are capped by the state. If we go over that, we get penalized. Our teachers want 8%. For a 6 year teacher with no extra credited hours our ditrict starts them off at $32,929.00 and over the next 4 years they would get $18,077. Illinois is poorly run as far as the public school system goes. The funding absolutely STINKS! Our private schools are WAY to expensive for me to send 2 high schoolers, 1 middle school, and 1 elementary through them. I guess we will wait it out.

 

[OzFan]

wow - I hadn't heard of any area schools striking so I just pulled up a paper to read about it. Our local Public school also had a fight over how long the school deal should be.

It kind of angers me when these things aren't worked out over the summer. 21% pay increase over 4 years is a pretty huge jump with Illinois school funding the way it is. I'm not sure where your school pay scale stands in comparison with other schools - are they really low?

They kept it quiet from the community until last week. I feel bad for the working parents here, most of them can't afford to take off for a whole week, and babysitters are in short supply. The high school kids are in school (different district). Kids are running the streets or should I say skate boarding the streets, or hanging out in the mall all day. It has affected 1500 children. My daughter HATES school, I finally got her back into going again, and now she is soooo happy she is staying home. She asked me if they needed help making signs! LOL As far as making up the strike days, they will be added to the end of the year. Someone said they will try to get most of them out of the way with the smaller holidays, Pulaski Day, Martin Luther King Day, Presidents Day and so on. Nobody likes going to school until the middle of June!

 

[SpecialK]

The thing is our district has a cap of 6% a year. We are capped by the state. If we go over that, we get penalized. Our teachers want 8%. For a 6 year teacher with no extra credited hours our ditrict starts them off at $32,929.00 and over the next 4 years they would get $18,077. Illinois is poorly run as far as the public school system goes. The funding absolutely STINKS! Our private schools are WAY to expensive for me to send 2 high schoolers, 1 middle school, and 1 elementary through them. I guess we will wait it out.

I'm not following your math here. I read that the issue that made the teachers walk was the addition of 30 min. to the school day. Are those pesky papers misrepresenting an education issue again?

 

[coinkc]

In some states teachers aren't allowed to strike. Kansas is one of those states. Our teachers have been working without a contract for 3 months. They are getting paid on last year's salary scale.

Where in Kansas City do you live?

I am a teacher in Kansas. We just signed our contracts a few weeks ago. We get our new salary on our next check.

By law, we are not allowed to strike.

 

[Marseeya]

What's that thing that they do where they don't actually go on strike, but they don't put in any extra time either? Can't remember for the life of me what it's called.. (Guess I'm having a "senior moment" - LOL)

Anyhow - that might have been the more appropriate way to go.. As it stands now, the teachers are shooting themselves in the foot, so to speak, because they too will have to be working during the summer and giving up their vacation plans..

Arbitration?

I don't know many teachers where I live who have "vacation" plans over the summer, unless you call moonlighting a vacation. I know several male teachers who paint houses, and one of my best friends takes on a full time job in a nursery.

 

[daisyduck123]

What's that thing that they do where they don't actually go on strike, but they don't put in any extra time either? Can't remember for the life of me what it's called.. (Guess I'm having a "senior moment" - LOL)

It's called "Work to Rule".

 

[wenbel]

In the state of Maine teachers are not allowed to strike. We worked 8months without a contract a few years ago. I am not saying I deserve more money but please don't lump all teachers in the overpaid, summer paid, free medical department. Teachers as a whole are underpaid professionals (like many other public servants) ( I never went into it for the money). That being said I make under forty thousand a year (16 years in public education) I pay twenty percent of my health insurance. I have a copay on appts. and medicine. I do not get any paid vacation days. In my district someone at starting pay with a child would qualify for federal free lunch. That is hard sell to someone with thousands of student loans. Not trying to get into a debate but don't think that all teachers think of is our wallets when we go to work. I'm lucky because I love my job!

 

[monarchsfan16]

What's that thing that they do where they don't actually go on strike, but they don't put in any extra time either? Can't remember for the life of me what it's called.. (Guess I'm having a "senior moment" - LOL)

Anyhow - that might have been the more appropriate way to go.. As it stands now, the teachers are shooting themselves in the foot, so to speak, because they too will have to be working during the summer and giving up their vacation plans..

Work to Rule. My high school did that last year, in October. Exactly when I was trying to get recommendations for college applications and teachers weren't allowed to write them. One of my teachers thankfully knew it was coming so she wrote it quick over the weekend before it happened. But it made it really hard on everyone. It took forever to get grades back, the teachers were unavailable most of the time for extra help, our advisors weren't around because "it's not part of their job description", etc. The teachers collected outside the school each day, then about 10 minutes before the first bell rang it was a big parade of teachers into the building when the union reps let them in.
But at least we didn't have to make up those days. I can't imagine striking being legal. I remember my physics teacher explaining to us that here Work to Rule was as close to striking as teachers can get. Sure made for an interesting start to my senior year

 

[lovingthemouse]

I teach in the largest city in Western MA and we have worked with no contract for nearly 4 years now, Our city is run by a finance board, appointed by the Governor, so you can see that finances might be the controlling issue here. The last time our teachers went on strike, back in the early 80's, many teachers were arrested - striking does not seem to be a viable option for us right now. The flight by teachers to suburban areas was large this past year, we have many "new to the system" teachers who are not certified, and the story goes on and on...
I do love my job - have been at it nearly 30 years, but wish that our talents would earn us the respect and monitary recompense we truly deserve.