Unofficial Voice of the Utah Senate Majority
Welcome to The Senate Site
Twitter/
Wednesday, January 23, 2008How about . . . a 40 percent raise for teachers?
Plus even more pay for teachers highly qualified in math and science.
Michael Castner talks with Senator Howard Stephenson on Senate Radio. Here's the MP3. 
posted by The Senate Site at 7:28 PM | Link
|
Government 2.0 AccessoriesRadio Free SenatePast Five Twitter UpdatesKeep in TouchYour Government 2.0 Lab
Current Discussions
Senate Site Feed
|
© 2008. All rights reserved. Designed by Jeremy Wright & His Brother-In-Law
4 Comments:
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anon. @ 3:28 a.m.:
Policy discussion is welcome here. Personal attacks are not. We'd appreciate your thoughtful comments on the proposal(s) at hand.
RC
I listened to the Governor's State of the State address and was very impressed with his speech. I would like to comment on the issue of higher pay for teachers.
It seems like every year, year after year, primary education is in the forefront of the the need for additional funding. Of course, we want Utah teachers to be paid fairly, but it seems there is never enough to satisfy the need. For years, we have heard rhetoric about how seriously underfunded primary education is. They complain about classroom size, yet fight to the bitter death a proposal that could reduce classroom size (vouchers). They say it would take away from the quality education they provide. In the next breath, they tell us they cannot provide quality education because of lack of funds.
Frankly, I think you would have to pay teachers 40% more to work year round, because a lot of teachers, if not the majority of them, choose teaching as a career not only to teach our children, but because they can work 9 months, spend summers with their families, yet have benefits paid all year.
The governor said school administrators should have the ability to hire and keep good teachers and get rid of bad ones. Our current educational tenure system does not allow for the "getting rid of" part unless the person is a serious felon. We all know there are good teachers and there are bad teachers. When we see the bad ones leaving, we will feel a lot better about paying the good ones.
I would like to see a comparison of salaries for teachers working 9 months with other state employees, with a college degree, working 12 months. How do you compare the value of a teacher to that of a law enforcement person, a child welfare worker, a drug and alcohol counselor, or any other person who contributes to the overall welfare of our state?
As taxpayers, we should have a lobby as powerful as the UEA, but our voices are seldom heard. Thanks for the opportunity to comment.
Box Elder County Resident
As a teacher myself, I find this to be an intriguing idea. Of course the devil is in the details. Taking Mr. Stephenson's example, I would now teach 5 terms instead of 4. In my subject area, French, I already teach French 1, French 2 & French 3. If some students are allowed to have 1st term off and others 2nd, etc. I would have to be offering not only French 1, French 2 & French 3 each quarter, but I would also have to offer at least two different quarters of French 1, two of French 2, two of French 3 etc. Because the kids who missed the first term would need to start when everyone else started the 2nd term. That would continue through the last term when theoretically I could just teach straight 4th quarter.
Still, though, maybe some more inventive minds can think of a different way to do it that would still give students the ability to take the classes they wanted year round.
The only other potential flaw I see is this. Technically, summer break is only 10 weeks long for us now. We would hopefully get a few weeks vacation like most professionals because we don't get any now. So, does it really save the State money to pay us 40% more to work 8 more weeks? I'm not complaining. It would be a good carrot to bring back our exiting teachers and the State would benefit. I just don't know how extensively the numbers have been examined.
Post a Comment
<< Home