Nothing should be cut. Find some other area of government to trim.
Why is the future of our country always at the top of the list for "cuts"?
How about guaranteed pensions for all members of congress, even if they only serve 1 year? Let's get rid of that nice little benefit, instead.
I agree that Congress is a better place to cut. I understand completely that this is not realistic, but schools are NOT the place to cut.
I agree that some money should be cut from sports and those sort of after school extra activities.
Aside from coaches' salaries, high school sports are pretty much self-supporting. A "big coach" position -- like head football coach -- makes less than $2000 per season. Smaller sports pay their coaches almost nothing. Well, actually football and basketball carry smaller sports like softball and cross-country, but cutting the budget for sports
wouldn't do much for the school's bottom line.
Also, most after-school activities cost next to nothing. Teachers aren't paid for their after-school work.
Why does there need to be a superintendent, two assistants superintendents, a principal in every building with at least one assistant principal (often two?) If a married couple teach in the same district, only one should be eligible for benefits (family plan) and the other should NOT receive financial remuneration for the benefits.
I can't comment on what the superintendents do, but at the high school level those principals and assistants are busy all day long. We could not do without them.
You cannot legally cut someone's benefits because they happen to be married to another teacher. Would you be willing to have your salary cut just because your spouse worked for the same employer? That's about as possible as saying that we'll cut the female teachers' salaries while leaving the male teachers' salaries intact. Those are earned benefits, and the school system'd be in court in a heartbeat.
How about addressing the sacred cow of government pension/retirement plans? Obviously this is an issue that extends beyond the field of education, but the educators' union in particular has worked some VERY sweet deals in my state.
Pensions in my state are good but not wonderful.
Cut those, and you'll see your best teachers leave the profession. I know I'm not speaking only for myself when I say that I love my job, and I don't want any other job -- but I wouldn't do it JUST for the paycheck. If not for the benefits, I'd leave and do something else. We need to recruit the best and the brightest to become teachers; Cutting salary and benefits will never do that.
Unfortunately people are sadly ignorant about what really goes on in schools. I suggest for all those that think schools are such a waste of money go spend a week shadowing a teacher and find out what REALLY goes on during a typical school day and all the BS teachers put up with and THEN come back here and tell us how easy their job is and how overpaid they are.
Exactly. People think they know how schools work, but most people really don't.
I do have a suggestion for cutting costs in schools. Get rid of the teachers unions accross the country. It will save money for everyone, teachers included, and then teachers, like the rest of the American workers, not protected by unions, will be promoted, given raises, or terminated based on their preformance
Teachers in most areas are not covered by unions -- not real unions that you're describing. Many people do have litigation-coverage through NEA, but that doesn't mean that we're covered by union contracts, pay dues, etc.
12. Do away with or downsize bus service and charge for students who choose to go to schools out of their zone. (See above order) Our system pays $48,000 per bus route, some of which only carry ONE student. Some of them carry less than five students.
I'm surprised that it took this long to get to busses. Bus service costs a fortune. I've heard two ideas kicked around:
1. Stop driving down into neighborhoods; instead, stop on the main road and kids will have to walk blocks and blocks to get to their houses. Parents of young children do not like this option.
2. Reduce to a four-day school week. Lengthen each day so that kids are still in school for the same amout of time. Again, parents of young children do not like this option.
Sorry, but the work ethic in the south is well known and not for the good.
Yeah, all we do down here is sit on old sofas on the front porch watching NASCAR and drinking beer. How insulting. If we're all so lazy down here, how come so many big companies are moving down here? Since when is MO southern?
But when you look at what they actually earn for the hours they actually work in the classroom that grossly underpaid facade fades quickly. Most teachers are off cummatively 23 weeks a year. There is nothing stopping them from gaining additional employment, to boost their income, during those 165 that they are not teaching.
First, it's deceptive to count only hours that teachers are in front of their classes. You're assuming that teachers should prepare lessons, grade papers, contact parents, keep records, and do all the other tasks that don't really "show" on their own time.
Your 23 weeks off work is deceptive too; weekends are what's throwing you off. Let's compare me (I'm a teacher) and my husband (he's an engineer):
He has two weeks vacation and ten paid holidays; thus, he works 240 days a year. Pretty typical for a professional person.
I work 200 days a year and everything else is unpaid time off. So I work 40 fewer days than he does. Less? Absolutely (but I also earn about 40% of his salary). But 40 days less is eight work weeks less, not 23 weeks off.
Incidentally, just about every young, straight-out-of-college teacher with whom I work DOES have a second job.
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They have about the same number of kids out for the teams (boys/girls combined in cross country). The coaches top out at $5000/sport-which seems like a "bundle" to some until you figure out the per hour wage of about 83 cents/hour and it really isn't that much.
