Whenever I read about these states that underfund their schools for some political theory about taxes or teach creationism because they are limited by their own religious beliefs, I feel horrible for the kids; but then I think, at least my kid has a better chance at getting into college (not really; shame on these states for sacrificing their kids to their politics).
1
As a retired teacher, all I can say is that teachers should be given combat pay. Also, get rid of the Windfall Elimination Provision! The Dems were supposed to do that under Obama, when they had the presidency and both houses of congress. They passed on doing that for the teachers, police, firefighters, etc.
2
I hope all of you teachers are feeling the full force of the republicans.
So instead of walking out of the schools, make your voice heard at the ballot box!
11
After all these years I still recall with considerable fondness my favourite high school teacher - Mr. Bill Harker. I was a below-average to average student, unfocused, and not doing well. One day he took me aside and spoke a few gentle words (I had done really poorly on an exam); he asked how I had prepared for the test and then gave me some pointers and gave me a chance to rewrite. I followed his advice and did very well on the rewrite - and that made me realise, hey, I can do this. That was a seminal moment in my young life . . . I continued onto higher education amassing five university degrees, including degrees from Oxbridge.
My point is that teachers, in general, have a profound impact on the lives of students. We entrust teachers with our children - and many will have a significant impact on their lives - but pay them peanuts. It is an honorable profession and should be compensated fairly. We have no problems paying hundreds of millions to CEOs (remember the thieves of Wall Street who nearly broke America and were bailed out on the backs of labour and your taxes), but balk at paying fair and reasonable wages to those toiling in relative anonymity be it teachers, nurses, etc . . .
28
The Republican austerity states, believe that slashing taxes and public services enhance their desirability to private investment. The truth is that by diminishing a state’s public amenities, the result is not more attractiveness to companies, but less. Now it is true that one can carry public policy to extremes in either direction. And I think that public policy needs to be tailored to the realities of one’s own state. But what we see in many red states is an ideological extreme. To so diminish the economic security of teachers, of all people, is to weaken your community, your city, or your state. It is neither wise or smart.
9
Red States don't value education and that's why tax cuts are a higher priority. Teachers can walk out and even win a 5% pay increase but the underlining trend will remain. Their politicians don't want an educated voter and fear the teacher's union. But it is the lack of employable skills developed through education which has "left behind" these regions from economic prosperity.
11
My son was a 4.0 gpa math major. Could have mad lots of big bucks in industry (math majors can do almost anything). My daughter in law was a deaf autistic learning impaired teacher. Both have masters degrees. My wife was a teacher who became a school secretary after she went back after raising our two boys. Our kids are fortunate that they live in PA which is a very well paid state. Of course the GOP wants to cut salaries, eliminate barging rights... you name it, they want to cut it. Sure there are bad teachers but there are also bad presidents! My son is now in the process of consolidating all 4th and 5th grade classes into a new school building in his district. My wife and I are very proud on the vocation chosen by our son and daughter in law. I wish the American public was also proud - but with the GOP and the education secretary I don't think that will ever happen.
7
Education was the great equalizer but not anymore. The degradation of education in general and public education in particular has been ongoing. We see it in the jokes about not doing homework, "those who can't -teach" skipping class, pursuing jobs that require little work and instant fame and money, the list goes on. American society does not value quality education for all (those who recognize the shortfalls pay for private school) and criticize teachers who seek more pay with a flippant - you knew what you were getting into! That we pay more money to defense contractors and high tech toys but not for the education of our people speaks to American values today - which is the people don't really matter much.
24
Oklahoma is just another example of the "well off" sending their kids to private schools and leaving those who can't afford private school to fend for themselves. The well off don't care if those who have to go to public school get a decent education. Just as long as their taxes are low.
Look at states that pay low teacher wages and you will find thriving private schools.
We used to be a country of socially responsible people, now its just greed and lies.
8
I like seeing the right-wingers who cheer for greedy incompetents such as Donald Trump, the rich guys who brought us the 2007 crash, amd Fox&Friends sneer at teachers for wanting a raise every ten years and yell about how teaching needs to be, "performance based."
6
The Democrats can make inroads politically in these heartland 'Red States' if they make the case that the Republican program of tax cuts for business, cutting social benefits and attacks on labor have led to a dead-end economic road not just for teachers, but for the entire middle class. That is how you can win over the voters that they lost in 2016. Try to convince people that government should do things for people once again, and leave the Trump-hate and identity issues at the door.
4
I went out on strike in this Red state long before these teachers were even born. It is all so depressing that the skewered values of our nation, have only worsened as the years passed.
5
Given the brain trusts from Oklahoma that have come to national prominence in congress and the current administration, it might be hard to tell the difference between kids who did -- or didn't -- get educated in Oklahoma schools.
6
If OK were to provide proper education to students, the students would quickly learn the need to oust the ultra-conservatives who manage the State. In OK's quest to raise ignorance to new heights, their voters abandon the most basic Christian value they recite from memory.
Well educated persons question themselves and the status quo, always seeking the best for the most while ignoring none in their society. OK is far from such enlightenment.
3
I love all the nasty comments from those who obviously have no idea what goes on in a school. So let me clarify a few things.
1) Teachers are not paid during the summer. Employees can elect (if possible) to have their pay spread out over the year, but there is no additional pay for summers.
2) Many states require teachers to have a master's degree. So there is no way to avoid the cost of graduate school.
3) Most states require teachers to contribute to pensions and social security. This can be up to 15% of a paycheck. Most states also require between 30-35 years of service to earn a full pension.
4) Day care costs are outrageous. I know many former teachers who gave up their careers because they were working to pay for day care. That's not even taking into account health care costs.
5) Teachers are now expected to handle all of societies ills: discipline, testing, bullying, mental illness, hunger, security, etc.
One last bit of advice-if you think teachers are selfish, lazy, and greedy please feel free to substitute teach for a day. Follow the lesson plans, accommodations for IEP and 504 plans, differentiate teaching for all students, collect data, and manage 25+ kids (0r 125+ HS) all day. Teachers teach because they love what they do. No one is looking for more than they deserve.
18
The pay scale stated on the Oklahoma State Department of Education shows the range as 31,600 to 46,000. I know there are a few teachers making more, but most do not come close to $45,000.
7
Catch the last two paragraphs? Moving to China, as a last resort. Even a Communist dictatorship values education more than Oklahoma. But OK does have their college football team, don't they?
8
It's disgusting how Republicans cling to the on-going lie that cutting taxes spurs growth.
Kansas, Michigan, Virginia. How many examples to these stupid legislators need?
9
When I taught in Philly public schools, we got 2 reams of paper a semester. So if I printed worksheets for my classes for 5 days, I was buying my own paper. I also bought pencils and pens for my students for a year. AND THEN the district laid off 4K employees 'temporarily' because they couldn't pay them over the summer.
4
I support the teacher walkout in Oklahoma. The Republicans have driven our state into the ground with their never ending tax cuts for the wealthiest citizens and oil companies. Teachers in Oklahoma deserve a raise.
15
"Local districts can use property taxes and bonds to pay for structures, and many of the school buildings are beautiful."
This is a major problem. My brother worked as a teacher and when the government proposed additional taxes on the ballot all the money went to fat-cat developed to build....none went to teachers. The next year my bother was laid-off.
14
I think there's one primary reason teacher pay has been so abysmal in many states (not all states) for so long. It's a profession dominated by women - and women, quite frankly, are not good at negotiating salaries (I say this as a woman - I've seen it over and over again).
11
Good for them! Let's support them all the way. They are responsible for the future of our country. They take care of our children. They should be paid for the huge responsibility they shoulder every day. They should NOT have to buy their own supplies, nor should they have to make sacrifices, at home, because they are paid so poorly. Teachers are among the most important people in our country. It's time we treated them as such. Better education lifts all boats, and happier, more secure, teachers will improve education.
22
If the wealthy were required to educate their children in public schools this would be a non-issue. They can afford to educate their children in private schools so they have no motivation to fund our public schools. No one likes to pay taxes but when it comes to educating our children, a healthy country would have no problem paying these people a living wage.
19
it would have been good to know what portion of the education budget actually goes to teachers and what to overhead and admin and how that compares to other states.
7
Since when is Jersey City in a "red state"? It's the bluest city in among the bluest states in the country. And, yet, teachers struck there, too.
Now, consider: virtually everywhere, teachers make more than their average neighbor. So, when you highlight their financial plight, precisely the same story could be written about millions of others. If they get more, their neighbors's taxes have to increase, meaning they will get by with less. It's a zero sum game.
it's simply impossible to pay teachers what they're worth. Just like it's impossible to pay soldiers what they're worth. In each case, it takes a special kind of person to make the sacrifices necessary to serve one's community or nation, often without the respect -- never mind the compensation -- one should command. But it's simply impossible for it to be otherwise. Paying public employees more means that the public will have less.
it's a dicey balance: protecting the taxpayers while, simultaneously, delivering great services. Stories like this -- which falsely assert it's a "red state" problem and which presently only one side of the issue -- are not especially helpful.
Show me one state -- just one -- in which the teachers say, "we make enough; no need for any more". Just one jurisdiction where they're not perpetually whining about being "underfunded". Alas, it seems that not a few of these folks need to remember that service professions require sacrifice. Maybe the whiners are not cut out for the job.
4
Your logic is "dicey" at best...two reasons...
Teachers are in part responsible for our kids development, as a matter fact, they have taken on more of that responsibility with the two salary family...so after school, before school and during the summer they have to deal with all the perpheral issues that parents will or cannot deal with.
Second, it used to be that several top rated people coming out of college would consider teaching because it offer a living wage...notice I said a living wage and not a chance to get rich....with local control of public education many states decided to do education on the cheap...in the labor market there is an old saying...you pay lousy--you get lousy.
3
First off, New Jersey suffered through a Republican government for eight years. And what ARE the politics of Jersey City?
Second off, it's not impossible. You're just too cheap and short-sighted, and have voted for chopping taxes again and again.
You're not interested in anything like balance; you're innarested in grabbing as much as you can for yourself.
Service professions include working for the government, right? And there are supposed to be sacrifices, right? So show me one person in the Trump administration who is making ANY sacrifices whatsoever ($31,000 dining sets, violating emoluments clause, etc., etc. etc.). Dollars to donuts that you are OK with this but not with teachers and other public sector employees getting a decent wage. I also note you did not mention police & firemen, so you are OK with them getting raises I guess? And if Jersey is so blue, what the heck was Christie, exactly? No, seriously, what the heck WAS he? Another fat cat suckling at the public trough and providing... nothing. The opposite of teachers!
Two thoughts: (1) If you think teaching is easy, just try it. (2) If you live in state that hates any and all taxes, well, you get what you pay for.
18
Remember when Trump said "I love the poorly educated"?
24
Just like Kansas. The common denominator, Republican control of government.
The rule for workers which include educators, is to reward your friends and punish your enemies. It all happens at the ballot box.
11
“They really don’t want to give the Republican Party a victory,” he said.
This is how perverse our politics have become. Perhaps some Democrats are playing the Teachers, but, at this point given all that has transpired fiscally in Oklahoma over the past couple decades, can taking care of our children's educators be called a republican party VICTORY?
7
It is too bad educators never researched the wage compensation package for the career they chose. Basic economics describe the laws of supply and demand in a free market. A person with a job will be paid no more than the cost to replace them and purchasers will pay no more than the value they feel something has. When education moves into the 21st-century teachers will understand that pay will be tied to the ability to produce, not just to occupy some out of date position in the name of past history. In America, if you do not like your job find a new one that matches the standard of living one would like to live.
3
Soooo.... if everybody does this "research" and comes to the conclusion that teaching is underpaid and "some out of date position" then who will teach our children? You either a) have no children and don't like anybody else's or b) send your kids to private school (where the teachers are paid even less) or c) home school in an effort to try to get your children to turn out just as disinterested in the common good effect of education as you are.
1
"...not just occupy some out of date position"?!
Are you serious? Teaching is an "out of date position"? Who do you expect to educate the next generation? Or are you one of these wealthy supply-siders who thinks children should instead be working in your factories and farms like some Charles-Dickens-meets-Ann-Rand fantasy?
Seriously, explain how teaching our children is "some out of date position"? It's republicans and the wealthy who need move into the 21st Century. No public education=third world country.
2
This article is misleading in important ways. I wish the teachers the best, but the poverty picture drawn here is simply not true. When you take into account Oklahoma's extremely low cost of living, state teachers are 33rd in purchasing power across the country. Average teacher pay statewide is the same as average pay for police and fire, even though teachers have a 10-month year. As for Oklahoma's effective tax rate, it is 25th in the country. Bottom line, Oklahoma collects taxes at about the average rate for the country. It pays its teachers a little below average adjusted for cost of living. And teachers are higher paid than police and fire.
As for Becky Atherton Dukes, the teacher with the house painter husband, internet records suggest that the couple's home is worth 25% above the median value for Tulsa. Ms. Dukes is the woman who says she can't afford a vacation and can't save any money.
None of this means Oklahoma teachers are paid what they're worthy -- they surely aren't. But making them seem like the working poor is a distortion of the facts.
3
The "internet records suggest," bit was rather clumsy, but the syllogism you threw together to get from average pay to the right-wing claim about only working ten months to a conclusion that therefore, teachers make more than cops was quite passable.
This is what you get when you keep electing politicians that insist on cutting takes and spending. Maybe all of the teachers and concerned parents will reconsider whom they vote for in the next election if they value education.
8
This is what you get when you vote "values" instead of reality. I've castigated Jill Stein voters and here I castigate voters who vote anti-abortion, racism, and tax cuts over the dismal reality that is most red states.
Every time I hear an anti-California remark, I reply, "But at least it's not Oklahoma or Missouri, two states I have long known personally." You couldn't pay me to move back to that desolate fading region and they brought it upon themselves. I'll take living a little less big in dynamic, progressive, future-looking high-tax California over that place any day.
2
It's time for people to rise up everywhere. How about instead of the best military, we make a goal to have the best public school systems in the world, and financially support them in doing so. As a taxpayer, I'd much rather have my money going there. If these past few years have shown us, we can't afford ignorance any longer.
14
The adults conduct themselves like children. Marginal ownership
for the fact that all these kids rely upon them to provide a
good education. Get the funding together and fix the problem.
Raise taxes? Yes if need be. You can't cut taxes endlessly and
expect there to be no consequence. This is how you know you've
gone too far.
Taxpayers, grow up.
10
Well the message in here is this: Oklahoma has kept taxes low to encourage corporations to come there. That has not happened. They gambled using their children's education as a bargaining chip and corporate America looked the other way and yawned. Now Oklahoma, as well as many other states are left with a poor education system, a demoralized work force, and a shattered middle class. Oh, but corporate America got their windfall. And Republicans keep telling you help is on the way. And if you think the tax cut will get corporate America to invest in America, you have not been paying attention to what has been going on in Oklahoma over the last ten years plus. The only thing getting bigger is the collective corporate yawn. I enthusiastically applaud the teachers in every state. They have had enough. And Republicans will pay the price for continuing to try and pull the wool over America's eyes. If you need to reacquaint yourself with why organizing as workers is still needed, teachers are exhibit A.
16
Throughout history when people get tired of someone metaphorically standing on their neck so that they cannot rise, the solution has been collective action. Sometimes it's France in 1789 or Russia in 1917; other times it's the American Labor, Civil Rights, or Women's Rights movements. What the reactionaries never learn is that they always overplay their hands until they force action from those who decide they have nothing to lose. A state that willingly destroys its future - because that is what education is - is a failed state.
47
I wish I made $45,000! As a first year teacher in Oklahoma with my Masters I make $32,000. I also owe $31k in student loans.
14
We all know that actions speak louder than words. Unfortunately, when actions are spun by cynics as as something different it gets hard to say exactly what is really going on. In Red-State America, people like to talk about personal responsibility as the preferred substitute to government programs. Then they cut taxes, insist that we can't afford social programs, all the while holding up personal responsibility. The truth--they want something but they don't want to pay for it. They want good teachers and a good education for their kids, but will refuse to pay their salaries. This is the formula time and time again--personal responsibility equals I want it but don't want to pay. It is shameful.
10
Private is the only option left for us.
Public schools here in the states are ineffective babysitting facilities.
You get what you pay for, as they say....
1
I just returned from a trip to our nations capital. What every one of our founding fathers had in common was education. Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, etc. all consumed massive amounts of information to further their education. A passion to learn what was unknown, to question what is believed, to further ones opinions.
I'm afraid Oklahoma and other anti teacher states forget what is most important to furthering our communities. Oklahoma is driving it's best educators away from the state and the profession. The impoverished citizens will continue to suffer until they are guided toward a more promising future.
I would like to see how much spending on high school sports has increased in the last ten years while teachers have had no raises. Hey T. Boone Pickens. You have spent millions on football with no results. Why don't you try spending some of your money on education. I bet you'll see better results.
10
“An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” Jefferson
The lack of interest in funding education has conceptual roots.
In whose interest is an uneducated citizenry?
Who profited from an easily manipulated and uninformed citizenry?
11
I was so angry after reading this article. A friend of mine is a teacher in New Jersey and she pays for school supplies out of her own pocket. What on earth is wrong with this country? How could Oklahoma teachers go for a decade without a raise? Sorry but we are becoming a walking obscenity. These teachers should be honored and thanked, not boot heeled into grinding poverty so severe that they have to think about buying a box of oreos. I'm just stunned and ashamed. I hope these teachers go on strike until they get huge raises. I would certainly make a contribution to any strike fund.
8
Why can't these people recognize that taxes pay for the investment and maintenance of our country? Without adequate funding, the condition of our infrastructure - and this includes personal capital - decreases to the point of being useless. You wouldn't buy a new car and skip the oil changes, would you? You pundle up the necessary money to keep it in good shape. Otherwise, you're going to be driving around in a junker. America is becoming a junker.
These people think low taxes will attract business? Yet business needs educated employees. It's no accident that blue states with high taxes are doing much better financially than these red states that won't spend a dime. Don't they realize that the only jobs that can be done by nearly illiterate workers have already moved to China? We're never going to be a strong manufacturing country again. Our future is in jobs that require education and skills. Scrimping on education won't get us there. Pay these teachers what they deserve and need; their students will be paying more into the system than they would if they can't read and write.
11
The rich got 1.5 trillion in tax breaks.
Republicans can't find money for a teachers raise once every decade?
11
Good for Oklahoma educators for taking a stand and the citizens who support them! A free & public education and the right to vote. These are the foundations of our democracy and we must fight to keep them viable.
5
I have been saying this to anyone that will listen,TAXES ARE GOOD!!!
They pay for schools, teachers, firefighters, police, roads, bridges, water, sewer, and a whole host of other very needed things in our society.
Politicians brought this 'taxes are bad' argument out without thinking what will be the end result.
We need to elect people who are willing to intelligently raise and spend our tax dollars on the basics.
13
It’s all a Republican design. Uneducated students become uneducated voters who don’t know much history, biology, or math and believe the Republican lies more easily so are willing to vote in opposition to their personal interests. Low taxes, guns, no social safety net, no abortion, military enlistment - that’s what Republican Oklahoma wants - that’s not what an educated population would vote for.
7
All Americans have to do is wake up and stand up for yourselves. The people have forgotten that they have power. When they speak up and protest they scare the politicians to their core.
4
Funding education in Oklahoma has been a low priority for more than 50 years. (My parents were teachers there, but thankfully left in the mid-60’s when offered much higher pay in another state.) A series of Republican governors decided education was a low priority - “keep ‘em stupid”, a mantra that seems to have been adopted nationally.
It’s worked well for them. The current breakdown of the Oklahoma legislature is R-75 and D-26. So the sentence “ A quarter of Republicans and more than two-thirds of Democrats opposed the bill“ is misleading. It implies that Democrats sank the bill. In fact, the %’s applied to the lop-sided party breakdown yields 19 R’s and 17 D’s who voted against. With such a high vote threshold, the D’s actually have no effect on any vote.
Another misleading statistic bandied about is average teacher pay, for every state. Long-term teachers say these averages are high compared to what they are actually paid. A chart prepared by the NEA listed average salaries by state for teachers and for administrators in separate columns; for many states, the averages were exactly the same. That makes no sense; we all know administrators, especially 6-figure superintendents make much more than teachers. Who is reporting these disingenuous numbers? Administrators! Diluting their generous compensation to hide it from the public.
Some of the money to raise teachers’ salaries should come from adjusting both the overcompensation and the excessive number of “administrators”.
9
We don't value teachers bc we don't value education. Disgraceful.
The age of Duhmerica. Sad.
7
The mindset of most politicians when it comes to education is it's too expensive and the teachers don't teach. If the state standards aren't met that proves the point. Education was meant to set you free, but not in today's American public school system. The idea is to marginalize everyone except those at the top of the American class system. Not being a teacher but a person who grown up when public schools educated the people that figured out how to get to the moon and back, I support the teachers. Before they were teachers they are humans, and that needs to be recognized as well as unions. In general, unions have always been an equalizer when it comes to wages, benefits and leaders in social change. Go, Teachers!
7
It would be even better to hear from Walmart, Amazon, Whole Foods and McDonald's employees, since their CEOs make BILLIONS in UNTAXED dollars in profits from their labor, and I'd hate to say that they probably work even harder than teachers and make a lot less money. Just sayin'...
4
It appalls me--but does not surprise me--that so many opponents of paying teachers a living wage offer such lame excuses: "they only work a few hours a day for a few months a year" or "they knew what they were getting when they entered the profession" or "why aren't they better equipped/trained/experienced like they were 10/20/30/40 years ago?" For so long so many right wing, red state legislatures cut back on funding because (after all) they sent their children to private schools and the only people who used public schools were "them"? And "they" never vote for us, anyway. So cut my taxes any way you can and let "them" learn to live with it.
Doubtless such disgusting logic lies behind a wide range of tax strategies across states (and the recent federal tax folly). These so-called fiscal conservatives had their way--on West Virginia, in Oklahoma, in Kansas, in Arizona, in Kentucky--and we now see clearly what they have created. Let them reap what they have sown come election day.
11
Timely article. A good reminder of one reason not to live in or move to OK. Pity the children.
4
A raise?
Get test scores to acceptable levels, not 38th in the world, then we can talk raises.
Teaching, like all other occupations, should be performance based.
Texas teachers got a raise isn't a realistic reason to expect one yourself.
You honestly want to blame teachers for poverty in America? Poverty is the reason America’s children rank so low compared to other developed countries.
2
I'm surprised by all the nasty comments here directed against teachers, mostly because they cite tired old myths that simply aren't true. To keep the record straight:
1) Teachers work all year round. Their summer 'break' is spent teaching summer classes, prepping for next year, and pursuing professional development.
2) Education degrees are not 'slack off' degrees. I have yet to see any solid research showing that people who pursue them are more or less intelligent than those in other majors.
3) Teachers do not have jobs for life. As thousands of former art and music teachers will attest, they can certainly be laid off without cause.
4) There is no viable way for (non-wealthy) people to get a teaching job without taking on student loan debt. That does not make teachers foolish. For anyone born after 1980, there is no viable way to get any decent job without taking on student loan debt.
5) Yes, the salaries are too low. Embarrassingly, shamefully low.
13
The low education states should have less electoral votes. Bring back literacy tests. Primitive people shouldn't run the country.
2
The conservative experiment has failed, Failed in Kansas, failed in West Virginia, and now Oklahoma. after a decade of the excessive actions of the Tea Party, I look forward to its demise in November.
9
The republicans have waged war on education for many decades.
It is their central strategy for success. Poorly educated people are better consumers, far more likely to support coal and other dangerous polluters, and more likely to support clown-like demagogues. See current events!
9
Oklahoma is another example of Republican politicians who put their personal wealth ahead of the interests of children. No different than their attitudes about gun restrictions. They kill minds even as they acquiesce to the killing of children.
8
I just did a quick research and found that the average teacher in W Virginia makes more than the average household income in W Virginia. (46000 v 44000). In Conn the same is true (76000 v 74000) which is a wealthy state. The value of teacher benefits is 30% of pay v 16% for private sector person and the work year is 20% shorter. Everyone I know who is a professional monitors email and brings work home daily so I discount grading/lesson plans(as a 25 year adjunct it has become far easier for me). I find teachers overestimate what everybody makes in the corporate world and think that even people who work for non public corp get "stock options". Not to mention the easiest undergrad major is education and the except for advanced STEM their knowledge is not transferrable.
1
if you are using the same lesson plans after 25 years your students must be bored out of their minds.
Go Oklahoma teachers you are doing the right thing.
6
Thank you Oklahoma citizents! Continue to starve your education system. You are making it easier for my children and grandchildren to compete in the 21st century labor market. Yay!
2
...and we wonder why the red states are in such poor and dilapidated shape: poor schoolin'.
9
Yup, we can pay them but we can put in metal detectors, station extra resource officers around and give them guns...
2
What a joy to live in the "socialist" Netherlands with decent schooling and healthcare for all.
10
Oklahoma teachers must strike! NYC teachers are behind you. The state of Oklahoma needs to man up and charge the taxpayers for the actual cost of the service they are obligated to provide to the public. This is a two-way street--nothing is free.
To the public: do not forget that our job takes years of education and experience to do well. We all work 50+ hours per week, spend hundreds of dollars on our classrooms to make them hospitable and engaging environments. Oh, and that "summer vacation" everyone holds against us? Actually, that is time owed to us for the 10+ hours we spend working beyond a normal 40 hour workweek to education YOUR kids. If you wanted this "vacation" so badly, you should have become a teacher. Bummer.
8
Oklahoma teachers are second to none in their commitment to their students growth, development, and well being, Unfortunatly teaching and learnng in OK has become a contact sport since voters began electing the likes of Senator Inhofe, Governor Fallin, Secretary Pruitt and other right-wing primitives who place praying over thinking, superstition over science, and bullying over reasoning. Oklahoma did not acquire one of the poorest performing public school systems in the country by accident. Low taxes at all costs, public subsidies for energy corporations, and tax breaks for the super wealthy will take their toll on public services and education, as a high-skill and labor intensive sector suffers most. That suffering has led to years of low education outcomes, poor public health consequences, and inexorable degrading of the state's infrastructure. Bless these teachers and thank them for saying that it's their time.
9
Remember what president Bartlett said..."I want our schools to be cathedrals."
1
This is another example of the donor class of the Republican Party owning its mind, heart and soul. The Mercers and Koch's who finance the party have no compunction about "investing" millions in Cambridge Analytica. Yet, they and their acolytes hold the line on anything that does not directly line their own pockets.
5
Should we be surprised that public education is not a priority for such red states? The only good education from the perspective of the right comes from parochial and charter schools - they truly aspire to have a christian oriented madrassa where the tools needed for genuinely critical thinking are smothered by religious ideology. Science and the teaching of evolution...yes, even at the elementary school level...forget about it.
6
The Koch brothers each get three million dollars per HOUR (6 billion per year based on a 40 hour week), while teachers buy pencils out of their own meager income. I'm waiting for one of the Kochs, or the nearly as rich Betsy DeVos (aka Marie Antoinette), repeat the famous "Let them eat cake". So who needs a tax cut?
5
More money for all! Lifetime job security for all! Public pensions for all! Low work quality standards for all!
Did any of these teachers vote Republican? The GOP hates public education. Think Betsy.
If they did vote GOP, then I have no empathy for them. ZERO.
2
do not ignore that an underlying aspect is racism: many well to do Oklahomans who are opposed to paying taxes - who positively revel in tax avoidance and compete with each other to take the most and contribute the least - do not even think about sending their own kids to public schools. private schools and "Christian academies" help segregate the moneyed Sooners from the lower orders.
3
Teachers should be paid well until the grass doesn't grow and the winds don't blow. Oh wait, that was a promise to the native Americans. Teachers I know start out as idealists, wanting to teach well and have students move up in the knowledge ladder. As noted elsewhere, many, if not most, teachers quit when they realize that too many parents are too ready to complain to administration when the kids are given homework that interferes with trips to Disney, no support when students should receive counseling or discipline, no class supplies, and no raises for years on end. Add to this the never ending criticism and wailing about cutting school budgets to support for-profit schools. As a nation, we should be embarrassed at this disgraceful situation.
26
>no class supplies, and no raises for years on end.
now the cost of a gun for school.
pistol or an AR-15 rifle? tough choices.
perhaps a Xmas gift to a deserving teacher.
More guns less supplies & pay, makes America great a-nay.
1
Oklahoma doesn’t have GFP. Guns For Pencils. They need to get with the program. The GOP loves GFP and it’s easy. Teacher gets a gun that’s 1 pencil. Every kid with a gun that’s another pencil. If the whole classroom is locked and loaded, the teacher gets to move from working class to lower-middle class. Win-win!!! You’ve never seen a Republican legislator open their wallet so fast!! God bless America ! Yeeeehaaaa!
1
A common criticism of teachers' complaints about salary levels is that teachers only work 10 months out of the year. However, a point that never seems to be made clear is that teachers aren't paid based on 12 months. Their salaries are negotiated at a 10 month rate. If teachers worked 12 months of the year, then they would have to be paid and compensated accordingly.
In addition many teachers hold advanced degrees and attend professional development trainings. In Michigan, you have to continue to take Master's level classes in order to maintain your license and must complete hours of professional development every year. How many other professions require that level of continued education and training? The expectation of training and continued education for teachers is not matched by the salaries they are paid. My friend's husband got his Master's while working, and his company paid for it and gave him a raise after completing it. There are many school districts that do neither of those things. The burden is all on the teacher.
Teaching is a profession, and the people working in it are trained and highly educated. There should be no other need to justify an increase in salaries.
10
Poor teacher pay sounds like something Oklahoma's GOP would deny and call a hoax.
4
I used to be a teacher - high school chemistry and physics. And I can say without a doubt that we do NOT need the "best and brightest" to be teaching our children. Being a good teach requires particular skills and basic substantive knowledge about the topic being taught. It does not require - and, in fact, it is not suited for - geniuses. The best and brightest should be creating new technologies to save humanity, not teaching arithmetic or spelling to kids.
Also, when discussing teacher pay, we need to consider (1) the value of the time-off they receive and (2) pension benefits. In some jurisdictions, teachers take less current salary in exchange for generous retirement benefits that outpace most of what you find in private industry.
Comparing annual salaries is insufficient for any real analysis.
1
I don't know how the US expects to compete on the international scene with the least educated work force of all OECD countries. The current form of Republicanism is just stupid. And a nation led by stupid is doomed.
6
I am always disgusted when hearing about the latest football, baseball, etc player who signs a contract for millions of dollars per year. When all they do is throw or catch balls. Yet teachers are selling their blood and taking part-time jobs just to make ends meet? Salaries should reflect a profession's contribution to society -- and teachers provide the greatest benefit to society. They should all make $100,000 a year. Which is still far less than pro athletes.... and even the members of our do-nothing Congress!
7
Tax break for corporations and you can’t pay a teacher a living family wage. You suck USA.
4
I'm glad to see that not all readers are buying this sob story. There are a lot of weeds in this article that indicate teachers themselves are partly to blame for their financial problems. If Tiffany is supporting a husband who is not working but is going to school, then of course the household finances are a disaster. She didn't know teaching would be this hard--why not? Almost all states and cities are in trouble with their budgets and the first thing to get cut is education. In Kentucky, teachers are protesting cuts to their pensions. If they want to keep their pensions, those pensions will "crowd-out" what would otherwise be going to classrooms. Larry, if you want to be fired, then go for it. Good luck with your next career. Becky, why are you having another kid if you can barely afford your first one?
Everybody is having a hard time. Even Zuckerberg. Go ahead with your strike, but don't expect any miracles.
2
As a retired teacher, this article saddens me. Teachers are not valued in the United States. They have our future citizens in their hands. What could be more important? We need the best and the brightest teaching our children, and that means a decent salary.
22
A teacher's favorite past time is bellyaching about how little they get paid. It's not as if teachers' salaries aren't widely known to those who enter the profession. For the same reason I have little sympathy for someone who accrues student debt by obtaining undergrad and graduate degrees in the humanities, I have little sympathy for teachers. You know precisely what you're getting into.
I do think teachers should be paid more. But I also think that we should be hiring teachers with better academic training. Merely esrning an education degree, which is notoriously lax in its academic rigor, should be insufficient. No one should learn science from a teacher who took a few workbook science courses over the summer. The teacher may be certified, but they are certainly not qualified. Students should learn from someone with subject matter expertise and training.
So yeah pay teachers more, as they do in certain Scandanavian countries, but require higher standards.
4
just close all the schools and let the people fend for themselves.
1
How can they afford better training on 26,400 a year? How do you know science teachers only get training from a workbook? Most people teach from their major or minor in college with the addition of education certification. School districts that pay poorly may not attract the best a brightest and get by on make shift solutions like having an English major teach basic science, which is not the same as you suggest.
3
I don't know what the law for teachers in Oklahoma is, but in Michigan, in order to teach English, I had to have a degree in English, as well as the requisite education classes and internship. I had to take a test to qualify to apply to be in that education program. After I got my license, I had to continue to my education in a Master's level program in oder to maintain my license.
4
This issue is much more complicated than this article portrays. On the one hand, remember that teachers work 10 not 12 month of the year, they have a lot more job security (they never get fired), and they benefit from having time off when their kids are off (saves on day care).
On the other hand, we also need to compare their salaries (they are college-educated and should be paid better than non-college educated) to an appropriate peer group and consider the current construction of the job that makes every position an entry level job (in other words a teacher can be replaced by a 1st year teacher).
We ought to ask how we can better educate kids and what it takes. Should we have higher-paid master teachers that can spread their knowledge? Does it make sense to offer teachers mid-level position to help write curriculum or manage a unit? What will help insure the best education we can afford? Seniority is a bad sole basis for paying more, but the job needs to be differentiated.
None of these issues is being discussed. I would also add the obvious, that if teachers are paid much less than they are worth with not enough ancillary benefits, people will choose other professions or move to another state that values education more ... and we have a looming teacher shortage.
3
Teachers never get fired? Where did you dredge up that piece of misinformation? Teachers get fired for cause all the time, and not merely shuttled off to other unsuspecting schools.
7
"Summers off" SHOULD be when adequately paid teachers increase their knowledge of their subject by taking summer courses, travelling, reading in their field, and developing new course materials, all of which are essential to remaining vital and productive.
"Summers off" in reality are when most teachers have second jobs to make ends meet. Somehow, they also must find time to prepare for the upcoming academic year. Only in the best-funded school districts, or for two-career households where the second earner makes considerably more than the teacher, does this not apply.
Therefore breaks during the academic year offer the few opportunities for professional work. Typically, teachers need to be preparing for the next unit. At the high school level, most likely they have papers, tests and lab reports to grade. As most teachers do not have children requiring child care, these breaks provide no financial benefit.
The town where I grew up cared deeply about public education. They voted overwhelmingly for school budgets which paid teachers adequately, supported their professional development, and bought all school supplies. Budgets also provided for the range of classes which accommodated learners from those requiring more time through advanced students, and offered both academic and skilled trades subjects. As to outcomes, graduates went on to four-year colleges or full employment. Today we are productive, tax-paying citizens. Worth investing in teachers? Yes!
2
Public education is what made this country great. If you are someone who believes it needs to be great again - or like me, remain great - then please recognize that adequately funding public schools needs to be the number one priority. It is that simple. Teachers should be adequately paid for what they do. Oklahoma is not meeting that standard. It's not the only state.
29
According to PISA tests the K=12 education in the US is constantly far behind the vast majority of all OECD countries.
It is unheard of in other advanced nations that a student graduates high school without ever having had a certified math teacher in school, as happened in West Virginia, one of the poorest states of the Union.
The vicious circle of unacceptable poverty and inequality in the supposedly "greatest country in the world" goes on and on.
11
Conveniently missing from this story in state budgets and teachers’ pay is any mention of pension obligations for retired teachers, the single biggest budget busting item in all state budgets. And that they are mostly going to those with only 20 years of service. These facts on ‘pay’ are inseparable, but of course, untouchable politically.
As a side note, that so many of the individuals highlighted are so financially upside down because of their own personal choices (more children than they can obviously afford, spouses who barely or don’t work, etc. ) makes their cases disingenuous, at best.
2
When there are no qualified individuals to teach because the voted with their feet and left the profession. What will be YOUR excuse then?
Individuals who receive defined pensions contribute to these their entire working career- it was 10% pre-tax for me for 30 years. It is not a welfare program. The states need to adequately fund these pensions as they promised which is usually the basis of any short fall.
4
Police and fire fighters’ pensions are the real political taboo. Folks like you have no problem bashing teachers but they are hardly the single line item that’s busting state budgets.
1
Perhaps you would share with us your total contributions vs. your total expected distributions?
1
My daughter is a special ed teacher in Tulsa. Masters degree, 7 years experience and makes $34,000/yr. She also has a second job and is fortunately married to a man who owns a decent business. I asked her about the $45,000 figure given in the article and she could only say it must be administrators' pay that is included. It seems Oklahoma schools are top heavy and, of course, there is always pressure on the school system to make it look better since it is perennially at the bottom of all states in education expenditures.
Teaching school is one of the hardest jobs there is, period. I tried it many years ago and found out just how hard it is and frankly, I couldn't cut it. Not only is it extremely difficult, and poorly paid, it is very low in the public's eye as to prestige.
America's (most of it, any way) treatment of education is one of the primary reasons our country is failing. If we don't get a handle on our education problems and quickly, we are doomed. As it is, we pay legislators (salary and otherwise) a lot of money to assure our education system is 4th rate.
34
In the US, any profession dominated by women will be a poorly paid one. (Senior administrators, most often men, have a comfortable wage, and in some locales, an upper middle class income.) If teachers in these red states continue to vote for Tea Partiers/Libertarians and republican/Evangelicals, they are asking to be treated badly. And if they think it's bad now, wait until the public system is privatized by Miz Betsy. They will be lucky to make minimum wage.
21
But which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Sadly, it sounds like OK has set itself up to be supportive of industry and not its citizens. If your state is toxic to the future of your kids, who are the living hope for the wellbeing of this country, it's a message to move out. OK doesn't want healthy families and impactful teachers. Will this strike drastically change this fundamental truth?
10
It's not just grade school teachers who face these issues - poverty level wages, no benefits, lack of respect, it's also college professors, specifically adjuncts, who teach an overwhelming majority of college classes. Using slave labor to educate anyone is not acceptable as is standing in front of any student and telling them the path to a better life is through higher education, when we cannot afford our next meal or this months's rent. ALL teachers deserve a professional liveable wage and appropriate benefits and our fight to achieve this will succeed.
19
I sympathize with the plight of adjuncts, but it is impossible to support a comment that uses the term "slave labor" so cavalierly. Low wages are a disgrace. They are not bondage. An educated person, who is aiming to educate others, should never confuse the two issues.
Thanks to the latest GOP tax theft hedge fund managers and real estate agents can qualify as pass-through businesses, but teachers can’t write off school supplies.
What we need is a nationwide walkout.
18
I think that's a great idea. This is not just a problem for the teachers, it's a problem for all of us. We should show these teachers that we stand behind them.
2
So what’s the GOP’s strategy to attract new people into education to benefit our kids for the next 30 years?
They have made teachers bad guys. Teachers.
14
hey! I support low wages for teachers in WV and OK and other Red States. that along with all the other conservative policies will further increase the poverty, further cut opportunity, so the smart kids leave to join us coastal elites to pay the high taxes that set the standard for high wage incomes, and spur innovation, creativity, opportunity.
conservatives keep attacking California for it's high taxes and high costs, but California is where lots of the cool stuff happens. cool stuff that requires educated young people. the shortage of housing proves people are moving to California, including teachers, and California is spending money to make living and teaching in California possible.
12
This is a local issue about local values. In Oklahoma they have plenty of money for football and prisons. It's about choices and priorities, clearly education is not highly valued.
One thing I am curious about though; where does a $45k salary land you in Oklahama? I suspect it's not quite as bad as one might think.
4
This article fails to mention that the $45K figure INCLUDES the insurance benefit. Most teachers' take-home pay is $31K.
But you're right. The leaders of this state do not value education.
Where does this myth that teachers work 9 months come from? The school year starts on the first days of September and goes through the last days of June. That is 10 months. You should be able to count that on your fingers.
5
Subtract Christmas vacation and spring break. Even at 10, the point stands - it's substantially shorter than other occupations.
Oklahoma teachers after 25 years have a frozen salary and it does not increase. Many retire at that time and the state saves money as these older workers leave. Oklahoma like many other states is a poor state. A lot of rural area so it is difficult to give a raise. It is expensive to live in the U.S. today and I am not sure of the answer to this problem.
I have had the great honor to work in STEM education in Tulsa and Union for 5 years (and elsewhere in the US and other countries).
The lack of resources and low teacher pay in OK has been a considerable challenge for years as the article and comments section makes clear. Some of the gap in program support has been filled by the generosity of local philanthropic and business funders and the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance & OK City STEM Ecosystem have provided thousands of hours of educational and prof development resources to districts throughout the Tulsa region and into OK City.
The in school and out of school educators, administrators and local stakeholders have for years been trying to help makeup for the void in leadership and funding that is the responsibility of the legislators. The lawmakers in an act of cowardice created an impossible legislative hurdle to increase teacher pay to give themselves cover so they could say “we tried”.
It’s time for the legislators to do their job for the citizens of OK. Today’s students are tomorrow’s voters and if they stay in the state they won’t be voting for you.
7
Half the defense budget should be spent on public schools. Educating children, having an educated citizenry is key to our national defense. Scrap the weapons systems that the generals don't want. The money can still be spread among all the states.
10
I certainly agree that teachers' salaries in OK are ridiculously-low. However; Tiffany Bell (portrayed at the beginning of this article) loses some of my sympathy for having had three children (much less, *any* children) before the age of 26 and while her husband is simultaneously in school. Knowing that her finances would be incredibly constrained and still being so young, they should have waited until he could seek employment.
3
As well they should. We're in the position we're in right now because politicians on both sides of the aisle have neglected public education. We need a smart electorate and that starts with good education, which starts with being able to recruit and keep intelligent, caring minds.
45
Republicans, in general, prefer a dumb, uneducated electorate who will buy their bill of goods without the critical thinking skills to see how it will affect them and their families.
the poorly educated are just easier to hoodwink.
"I love the uneducated!" - President Trump.
3
Teachers have significantly better pay and benefits in NYC than do some other occupations. Clinical laboratory technologists typically have an MS today and science curricula have always been more demanding than those in education. Technologists are also licensed by the state. The schools are closed today for the storm. Imagine what would happen if medical labs were closed for the day. If teachers can adopt the annoying affection of "educators," I suppose lab workers can call themselves "scientists."
1
Realistically people , particularly wealthy people won't pay what good public education would cost. For the highly motivated the development of home schooling networks is an option, for the wealthy good private schooling is available. For everyone else there is a good library system and youtube. At the price the American public is willing to pay (both in cash and respect) all you get is babysitting and varsity sports.
14
Of course the wealthy won't pay. They'd have to take money out of their Cayman offshore accounts and (good gracious!) pay TAXES on it to do that! The rest of us *can't*, while reeling from the Job Cuts and Taxes Act and other such GOP illness.
Once the Sane-ami washes ashore and we elect a president, though, we can drive past that swamp and start talking money forfeiture to finally have a well-funded government. Those megacorps wouldn't like a change in law that makes keeping their money in a tax haven eliminate their tax incentives and visa slots, and force their trademarks and copyrights into the public domain!
1
And yet the Parkland kids shows us all what a good public education produces, articulate, smart, bright, determined young people. The fact is, wealthy areas get better public schools, and poor areas don't. Good education is an outcome of wealth location and good education results an outcome of socio economic status.
2
I have been part of a work-to-rule as an educator. It was one of the hardest things I've had to do, leaving work when there was more I could do for my students. For educators to strike, they must really feel there is no other recourse. At issue is not just wages and benefits. It is also appropriate funds for books and supplies for our students. Good luck to Oklahoma educators. And their students.
25
This article doesn't do a very good job of explaining the situation in my opinion. I got more information about Oklahoma teacher pay from the comments section. For examples, the article says the average Oklahoma teacher pay is $45,000, but many from Oklahoma have commented that it takes 20 years for a teacher in Oklahoma to reach that level of pay. Oklahoma teachers start around $31,000 according to the comments section. Just give us the numbers and comparisons to teachers pay in other states, from starting salaries to average pay and benefits.
36
The big battle will be between funding teacher salaries versus funding education and the educational environment. The thing that these austerity states have right is this: we need to be more aware of the difference between what we need and what we want/expect. Old norms no longer apply. We are no longer the uncontested world leader we once were in many categories.
3
The loss of teachers has been huge. Locally, the state teacher of the year from a 3 years ago moved to Texas. Both he and his wife teach and their combined salary went up $50,000, not to mention a substantial signing bonus. There are classes in Oklahoma City that have had someone on an emergency teaching license (i.e, no training in education) as teacher and some that have had a series of substitutes for the entire year.
It's not just teacher salaries that are an issue. Support staff have been drastically cut and the supplies question is huge.
The $45K average salary seems high to me. It's a couple of years old, but this table has only one public district with a mean salary that high in 2015-2016.
http://oklahomawatch.org/2017/01/06/teacher-salaries-by-district-2/
34
It sounds like OK's assuming the teacher is the second, supplemental, earner, perhaps the wife who works until the kids come along and again when the kids are grown. If that was ever the dominant model, I doubt it is now.
And if it is? Is not any laborer worth his hire? The problem is that, though it requires a college degree, the belief persists among many who have tried it that anyone can teach elementary school.
And of course the bottom line problem is that teachers of children don't immediately and directly increase any business's bottom line.
23
Teachers in Oklahoma should not only walk, they should move. States that have realistic state taxes that support high educational standards are vibrant places that attract vibrant people. Oklahoma is not one of those states. Judging by what their most famous citizen, Scott Pruitt gets up to these days selling the past, destroying the future, selling out
the next generation, they should move, too.
94
Then they have to pay the outrageously high property taxes that support their salaries, pensions and benefits. That's what is driving the rest of us, ironically, to move to red states.
1
Teaching is a learned profession and teachers should have a commensurate standing. They should not struggle to make ends meet.
Teachers are extra-ordinarily dedicated and should be cherished. (No, I'm not a teacher.)
I think teaching is the most important profession and education the investment with the highest return. It does not get the political priority that it should because the return is only realised after twenty years or so - way beyond political horizons. Just think of it, society is enjoying the fruits today of the investments made twenty to fifty years ago for the people of today.
It is the children's future, and America's future, that is at stake.
If the elected representatives who make the policies send their children to schools that they can afford and can therefore afford to pay better salaries, then elect other representatives.
This is not ordinary politics. Communities should not leave it to the teachers to fight the battle. They will lose good teachers and their future.
78
It’s about time that the collective many take action against the wealthy few.
92
I read the article hoping to learn something, but it is devoid of relevant facts. I see only that "teachers have not had a raise from the state in a decade."
No mention of:
(1) whether individual school districts have given raises
(2) whether a cost-of-living adjustment is in place.
(3) whether teachers receive pay increases for length of service and for advanced degrees and certification.
This paucity of facts (combined with ample weasel words) lead me to guess that all three of the above bullet items are operative.
But I shouldn't have to guess. I'm paying good month each month to the NYT to be informed, with facts, and not emoted at.
9
I can tell you that. My parents were both high school teachers in OK. Local and property taxes support school building funds. Teachers salaries and instructional materials are paid out of state funds. Yes, there is a step up for years of experience and additional degrees. It’s why the teacher starting salary is $32,000 and average salary is $45,000. (I’d hate to take on grad school debt to make $45,000.) No cost of living raises have been had in at least the last 10 years, I suspect longer, more like 15 years. And oil production is taxed at 2% in OK while the next lowest state tax rate for oil production is 7%. The legislature implemented supplemental funding in the way of a state lottery, but supplanted funds instead of adding the funds to the education budget. That was the finding in a lawsuit in 2016, but was going on for years and years. It’s a crisis and they are super-majority ruined.
51
In answer to your questions
1 - yes
2 - no
3 - yes, however, those increases were limited to begin with and were recently cut further by the legislature.
I'm not a teacher in Oklahoma. The situation here was accurately depicted by the article.
24
Sounds like you have the pertinent fact and are really looking for excuses to rail at these teachers.
I needed to include in my past comment also all you teachers through the decades want more money. Fix the bullying first and make the schools safe for all students . Then I will support pay increases and I am sure there will be other people who support my view on this divisive topic also.
1
Why would school security ne the teacher's business? It is up to the administration to hire sufficient security people.
70
Fix the bullying? Parents must be involved in this. Teachers cannot "fix the bullying."
100
All the bullying I endured in school and only one teacher ever stood up for me, and that's because the kid had a knife. I won't forget that teacher, Mr. King, for his bravery. The rest were afraid of their students or joined in the harassment. When I was the best reader in 1st and 6th grade, I was put in the back of the room alone, with a book. Gym was hell. I don't really like or respect teachers. Some of them are more ignorant than I am. But I do feel sorry for them. Anyone who has to deal with a class of brats and bullies deserves more than a living wage. Children and teens can be horrible people. A friend of mine taught special ed and needed surgery when a student attacked her. Think Lord of the Flies.
This is inaccurate, the average teacher makes less than 40,000 a year, I've been in the schools for 5 years and started off making 31,000 and now only up to 33,500 some teachers I know who have been a teacher for 25+ yeare yet to make $40,000 let alone $45,000... also Oklahoma is 50 th in lowest paying teacher salaries, dead last! The amount of unpaid hours working holidays, weekends, staying late, coming early, meetings and continued education equals sometimes average of 60 unpaid days a year. So not a nine month employee. In addition teachers pay hundreds or thousands of money out of pocket for things the students need.
116
The starting salary of $31,000 is what Ben Carson spent for a dining set at HUD.
5
Angela,
Thank you for your service to our children.
1
here are the facts,, looks to me like around 45k
http://oklahomawatch.org/2014/04/21/which-schools-pay-teachers-the-most-...
sad to say working extra and staying late is a function of every job i have had, and while i have taken summer classes they were at the end of the work day as summer is just another work day for professionals
The numbers are wrong. I’m a 5th year teacher and my base teacher salary is $33,000. To add my wife only to my insurance would’ve been $700/month. That’s not including my kids. The median number $45,000 is crazy and wrong. I have folks across the hall from me. That have taught for 30 years and make $44,000. We also work in a bigger, well off district so it’s no better anywhere.
127
Kyle,
Thank you for your service to our children.
Good luck.
We stand with you.
64
Then vote all republicans out of office.
1
Kyle find a way to leave that wretched state and make a better life for your family elsewhere. Not only are you taking it in the shorts pay wise but the insurance is obscene.
1
$45,000 for nine months of work, plus multiple multi week long vacations and weekends guaranteed off. There are a lot of American workers making less and working many more hours. Those are the individuals I can agree with striking.
6
The starting for teachers in Oklahoma is 31,000. The median salary you see in the media includes health insurance for the teacher (not the family) and pension benefits. The starting in Houston for example is $52,000 plus benefits. The starting salary for teachers in Oklahoma has not increased in over 10 years. In order to make 45,000 in Oklahoma you will need to teach over 20 years. In Houston a 20 year teacher is paid 62,000 plus benefits. That is why teachers are upset. Our salaries aren't competitive to most states and do not even keep up with inflation.
198
I'm a NYC public school teacher and if you think that I only work 9 months a year, 7 hours a day, don't work evenings, weekends, vacations, and summers, by all means, come do my job.
I've got classes full of kids from Coney Island, Flatbush, East New York, and other areas of the city that do AMAZING things for me, but would rip you to shreds in 10 minutes. My job takes skill. I don't only teach English--I have an online classroom and am a Microsoft certified instructor. My 11th graders will have real-world college and career level computer AND writing/reading/analysis skills. Do you think I was able to figure all of that out during normal school hours? And I'm not an anomaly at my school; this is what educators do! So how about you get out from behind your keyboard and thank a teacher. Or if you can't do that, maybe just remember that old adage, 'If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.'
318
Another fallacy that drives me crazy is that teachers get "all those paid vacations". My contract is for 190 days per year. My salary is based on my hourly rate for eight hours per day times 190 days. The district takes my annual salary (for ten months of work) and prorates it over twelve months so that I don't have to budget for a paycheck-less summer. I do not get paid for spring break or summer vacation.
26
Go for it. The state legislatures take advantage of you (us) because they know they can. On a t-shirt once... "Screw a teacher, they're used to it". Even Mother Teresa can be pushed too far. Sometimes we can't even afford to buy supplies for our classrooms. Nothing speaks with more urgency than a child underfoot when they should be in school. Too bad it has to come to that but you can't make an omelette with first stealing a few eggs...
41
And the recent "tax cut" eliminated the measly deduction for teachers who buy class supplies out of pocket since the typical school district has whittled away the supply budget.
6
I support the teachers in Oklahoma in their quest for higher wages. The teachers in the state have now realized that the GOP dominated legislature have no interest in their well being.
119
A good friend of mine here in Oklahoma is an art teacher in the public schools. Like most teachers, she also has a summer job. To supplement her meager pay she teaches art classes for adults on week nights and weekends, house sits, and dog sits. Forget about affording cable-- she can't even afford Internet; she has to go to the library for that. And since she's still paying off student loans, home ownership seems an impossible dream. All this for a wonderful teacher adored by her students. It is beyond disgraceful, and it needs to stop. I'm hoping that the example of West Virginia teachers will work here, too, and in other states where people pay lip service to education but will not invest in it.
237
she isn't alone. Many teachers across the nation have second jobs to make ends meet, not because they want to, but because they have to. The way things are, they should be given hazardous duty pay.
4
The republicans who control Oklahoma are responsible for this. Will the people of Oklahoma vote them out of office in 2018? Probably not!
Better a Canadian than a US citizen or perhaps Europe or Australia. Our country is coming apart, never to recover.
Yep, and Betsy DeVos is gutting the education department. Eisenhower said that an eductated populace would love Democracy and reject Communism. He was right. We are trying to dumb down our kids so we can have Fascism (or Republicanism as I call it).
105
Just so these teachers know: the people support you!
113
Yes. In every way except money.
If the people of Oklahoma support the teachers why do they keep electing republicans to office?
1
Exploitation of teachers, in WV and OK and far too many other states, is a scandal. Teachers are not pursuing a self sacrificing religious vocation. Teachers are not hobbyists engaging in a pleasant avocation. Teachers are professionals doing very difficult and demanding jobs, on whom we all depend-- whether we have children enrolled in school or not. We expect them to develop future citizens and workers who will perpetuate our society, arguably the most essential job anyone does, but we pay them a pittance.
For some decades now, teachers have been under endless attack by certain interests who are trying for various reasons to do serious damage to teaching as a profession. They want to relax or discard requirements for teacher licensing. They want to destroy teachers' unions. They foster disrespect for teachers by perpetuating myths and misconceptions about teachers. They demand incessant standardized testing and evaluation as evidence that teachers are in fact teaching, then misinterpret and misuse data to attack individual teachers, schools, school systems, and our national tradition of public schools. No wonder we've got a looming crisis in teacher shortages.
One of the most prominent members of this cabal is now Secretary of Education. We've got state superintendents of schools, highly trained and knowledgeable deans of schools and colleges of education, all passed over for voucher queen DeVos. She represents rock bottom. We've got no where to go but up.
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The "certain interests" are the religious fanatics who want to destroy out public education system, greedy people who want to loot the publics tax money to created "charter schools" and the rich who would starve the public school systems to they can get even richer.
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I have a hard time even reading this article. Our nation should be ashamed of the way we view teachers. My kids are reaching the end of their secondary education and I myself have volunteered many times when possible at their school since they were in kindergarten. The job is daunting, especially in our current economy and with class sizes of 1 teacher to 25-30 students. Add to this the disparity in abilities within the student body and it is easy to see why our system has its poor reputation.
I understand that some teachers probably should not be teaching, but the vast majority deserve much better treatment and compensation. Society's foundation rests on our youth. Why would anyone not see the importance of this foundation, and the individuals that help to solidify it.
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In New York City there are often 32 students in each class. That means that a high school teacher would have 160 students.
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I know many Oklahoma teachers, and I’ll be cheering them on if they walk out. I graduated from one of Oklahoma’s top public schools in 2003. We were rationing paper and asking students and teachers to finance basic classroom materials back then — and we were in the most privileged district in the state. Oklahoma is full of friendly people and affordable housing, but there’s simply no denying that it is a deeply deluded, backwards place that’s long been selling out kids and families for oil and gas.
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This article doesn't do a very good job of explaining the situation in my opinion. I got more information about Oklahoma teacher pay from the comments section. For example, the article says the average Oklahoma teachers pay is $45,000, but many from Oklahoma have commented that it takes 20 years for a teacher in Oklahoma to reach that level of pay. Oklahoma teachers start around $31,000 according to the comments section. Just give us the numbers and comparisons to teacher pay in other states, from starting salaries to average pay, to benefits.
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The Platform Caucus's tilt toward the rich and against the less fortunate is obvious in their declaration that a tax increase to pay teachers a living salary would "undo the benefits of President Trump's tax cuts." The rich being the only ones to enjoy any significant and lasting financial gain resulting from the new tax law, are also the only ones who can afford to buy the government they want.
My older son works in the IT department of the school system and says he makes "about" $45,000. That figure is not however anywhere near his gross annual salary, from which taxes (state and federal), health insurance premiums, and miscellaneous deductions are taken. The $45K figure is arrived at by including employer paid insurance premiums and other miscellaneous benefits that are not taxable, but still not available for paying bills or contributing to savings or investment. He could definitely use the extra $5,000 the teachers are trying to get for him.
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My mother was a science teacher. She told me that she could only afford to teach because my father had a good job with good pay and benefits. She told me when I was in college and thinking about careers to not become a teacher if I wanted to be able to support myself and do things like save for retirement or buy a house.
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School consolidation is not the answer. Take for example, Louisiana, which has 70 school districts vs Oklahoma's 525, and spends more for administration costs than Oklahoma. The same for Alabama. Consolidation is a tired, old excuse for failed trickle down economics.
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"In 2016, voters rejected a ballot measure that would have increased education funding through an additional one percent sales tax."
To be fair, the penny sales tax proposal the article refers to was rejected by Oklahoma voters for all the right reasons. It was regressive, meaning low income earners would have borne the brunt of the tax increase because they spend a larger portion of their income at grocery stores and retail than the rich. Poor Oklahomans should not have to have to pay more in taxes because the state legislature refuses to do its job.
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This raises an interesting question: why are just sales of goods subject to sales tax in an economy weighted toward services these days? Services should be taxed too. It would lower the overall tax rate on goods, and would be less regressive since the more well to do consume a lot of services.
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Michael,
While I agree the sales tax is regressive, the people should have passed it for their own good. If the village won't take care of their own children, why would those that don't care about them do it?
It is a collective thing for the betterment of all.
They chose not to.
I don't know the details or stipulations upon usage of said tax. Maybe there was other reasons.?!
Yes, their legislature is lousy. Who voted them in too?
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I wonder, is it a coincidence that two of the three bottom states in teacher pay have significant populations of indigenous people?
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Sorry, I realized after I sent that comment that it fails to acknowledge that Mississippi, of course, alongside South Dakota and
Oklahoma, has a significant nonwhite population.
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What are you trying to say? That the legislatures are disinclined to support good education for non-whites?
Oklahoma, trying to join Kansas in the race to the very bottom. Sorry, I'm fresh out of understanding or compassion. For the Teachers : Leave. It will NOT get better. Go where you will be respected and paid what you're worth. Walk away, and live the way you deserve.
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Many have left. Many cannot, for a variety of reasons (family, spouse's job, etc.). Walking away isn't always an option.
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Kristen: I completely understand. I am NOT from Kansas. Just saying.
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The good teachers have definitely considered this. However, there's often at least one teacher that people can say had a huge impact in their life, and those teachers here really care too much about their students' (or "kids" as some have said in my experience) futures to completely abandon them--knowing that things would go downhill even faster. This is coming from an Oklahoman student who went to a not well-off highschool but made it to college because of amazing teachers who went out of their way--spending a ton of their time without getting paid and spending their own money--to help their students.
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Oklahoma ranks #42 in K-12 education according to US News & World Report. Wonder what is going on in a state where money pours out of the ground? Will Oklahoma voters oust the poorly educated legislators in 2018?
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"In 2016, voters rejected a ballot measure that would have increased education funding through an additional one percent sales tax."
To be fair, the penny sales tax proposal the article refers to was rejected by Oklahoma voters for all the right reasons. It was regressive, meaning low income earners would have borne the brunt of the tax increase because they spend a larger portion of their income at grocery stores and retail than the rich. Poor Oklahomans should not have to pay more in taxes because their state legislature refuses to do its job.
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The 'conservatives', at least that's what they call themselves, simply cannot afford an educated electorate. So destroying the quality of our educational system is high on their list of things they need to do.
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Between the articulate, committed students demonstrating because our elected representatives, including the president, refuse to effectively protect them from gun violence, and this swell of teachers willing to strike for living wages, the USA is indeed getting educated. About time. Go, teachers! Go, kids!
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"Becky Atherton Dukes, an art teacher at Carnegie Elementary School in Tulsa, pays $400 per month for health insurance for herself and her daughter. She and her husband, a house painter, are expecting a second child, and their day care costs will exceed Ms. Dukes’s pay. “I love my job,” she said. “But it would be nice to be able to afford a family vacation or have money for savings.”
Nobody told them to have two kids. It seems to me Ms. Davis and her husband (I can't imagine his job painting houses brings home very much) over-extended themselves and are hoping the taxpayers can bail them out.
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That's it! Blame the husband's sperm for their plight! Perhaps the state of Oklahoma should provide free abortions in lieu of a pay raise. That will fix everything!!
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I am very disappointed that you took Mrs. Dukes statement and turned it into taxpayers" bailing" them out. She is not asking for a bailout. She is asking for a $10,000 raise over 3 years, which is due and fair, and still isn't enough for what she does to teach 150+ children everyday. There have been ZERO raises for teachers in 10 years. She is asking for a competative wage so that when OKlahoma loses teachers, we can hire quality teachers to take the postiion. She is asking that her colleagues stay employed in her school and district so that they can do what they earned a college degree or two.. or three... to do, and still stay in America and become homeowners and raise families. She is asking that we increase the funding for education so that EVERY child in public school in Oklahoma has the access to a quality education with quality teachers. I dont think there are any other professions that have the rigourous requirments that it takes to teach, that recieve wages such as we do in Oklahoma. We stand with the teachers in OKLAHOMA! I ask that you reconsider your thoughts.
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Everyone knows having children is expensive. It makes no sense to keep having kids you can't afford. The idea that we all must have a two car garage, two kids, etc. as soon as we want is an entitlement mindset. If Ms. Dukes and her husband couldn't afford another child, they should have delayed starting a family until they could.
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Teachers are overpaid with pay and health benefits than any other jobs around. Many more of there tax payers are only getting the minimum wage or less with no health benefits. Start using coupons and quit whining about getting more. If you need to stop living high and learn to live with less like many of us taxpayers have to.
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It appears from your comment, that your alma mater de-funded the
English department.
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Does it strike anyone else as ironic that this commenter, D.j.j.k., who seems to be opposed to paying educators a decent, living wage, and who suggests that educators should "quit whining" and "start using coupons" in order to make ends meet, seems to have a weak grasp of basic grammar and correct sentence structure? Apparently D.j.j.k. was educated by the very type of ineffective teachers his suggestions would breed.
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Please explain to me how I am overpaid when I, as an Oklahoma teacher, bring home $1,800 a month. I am a professional with Bachelor's degree in Education and 2 teaching certificates that required multiple exams to obtain.
I do not live a lavish lifestyle. I have two roommates to decrease my living expenses, I do not eat out, I do not buy clothing (when I do it is from the neighborhood thrift store), I do not go on vacations, I do not get my hair cut or colored, I do not get my nails done, and I do not have great health benefits.
I DO however, teach dance classes every Tuesday for extra cash, babysit, dog sit, house sit, pick up shifts as a banquet server, and work a second job all summer. I DO spend hundreds of dollars of mummy own money on my classroom supplies every year, because if I didn't there would be no supplies. I DO spend hours a week outside my contract times lesson planning, grading, contacting parents, and meeting with other teachers to discuss how to improve our teaching practices to better meet our students needs.
Education in our state is in a dire situation. We are fighting for what our students deserve - well trained teachers who are not worn to the bone from living paycheck to paycheck and working multiple jobs. There wasn't 1,800 emergency certifications this year alone, meaning there aren't 1,800 classroom seats with unqualified teachers. If nothing changes, soon that will be the case for most classrooms.
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Family values in the Earthquake State. Brought to you by republiclowns. Extremist billionaire funders first, country's children last.
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Republicans say that teaching is women's work and that if teachers want to live well, they should marry rich husbands.
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Go Teachers! America needs to reset it's priorities!! Education not tax cuts for the rich! We can rebuild our economy, our environment, our government, our country, our future - (MAGA) but teachers are the real key to that - not blow-hard billionaires.
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As an ex-high school US History and US Government teacher, I know that Americans seem to love 'education' but aren't keen on 'teacher unions'. For some sad and inexplicable reasons, we seem more ready for billionaires and corporations and large/wealthy shareholders running this country. We elected the loud-mouth, bully, self-proclaimed billionaire as President. We love billionaires much more than workers. And, Republicans lead this.
The first thing Trump and the Republican Congress passed was a gigantic tax cut for the rich; including the President and much of Congress. How ignorant are we?
Don't elect a liar that brags about not paying taxes and talks about 'grabbing' women, and expect that to work out. We are as immoral as our leader. We are as lost as I can remember. Yes, Trump is worse than Nixon.
Smaller schools, smaller overall students, smaller classes, limited number of preps, adequate planning time, and adequate pay/benefits is what good education requires. We know this. Trump and the Republicans put the billionaire DeVos in as Education Secretary. Why? To destroy public schools in favor of profiteering charter schools with even lower pay for teachers! No rights to unionize!
The angry, right-wing lying media is a billionaire's dream. They 'fake' us, to keep our eyes off the money they've stolen.
Don't be ignorant; that's the last thing a democracy needs. Real, healthy democracies require well-educated and informed citizens. That is how they grow and thrive.
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I agree, but when you're childless, and forced to pay ridiculously high school taxes (8,000 - 9,000 a year, in addition to another 8,000 in municipal taxes, to live in a home with no driveway and no AC, in a horrible neighborhood), until the day you die (no break at age 65), you do start to question the way we fund our schools. I'm all for a living wage for teachers, but it is driving me into poverty.
In the year 2018 schools in Oklahoma are operating on a 4-day week. Welcome to Koch Brothers America. They own the state; they've installed their lackeys like Inhofe and Pruitt and they want De Vos to get on with her privatizing of public schools. Turn empty church halls into a 100 small modules with a computer and a child; indoctrinate the child with learning modules propagandized by Koch affiliates with public money; make the evangelical pastors rich and pay a few teachers Wal Mart wages to monitor the new wards of the church. A grand vision for a feudal society.
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I work in public schools - we are using all kinds of software to supplement and supplant teaching. Our kids are STARVED for attention and interaction. Furthermore, computers are great for student's who already have basic knowledge acquisition skills - but they don't teach curiosity or critical thinking. They can train, but they don't educate. So much for critical thinking. BTW - Broward County is heavily Democratic. Is it any wonder that those kids are so articulate and information rich? PPS - I live in a poor RED county - go figure.
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I live in a blue state, my costly education was being bullied, and put in the back of the class alone with a book. Don't assume that Dems give you a great education - just a VERY EXPENSIVE one.
This is why it is absolutely essential that all decent and sane Americans support, give money to and vote for ALL democrats in 2018.
Please see the presentation from the February 28, 2018 Bartlesville School Board meeting for facts on the current state of education in Oklahoma ( BPS-OK.ORG ). Currently, Oklahoma is ranked 47th in the nation in spending on instruction ($4466). If Oklahoma were to move ALL district administration spending into instruction, Oklahoma would STILL be ranked 47th in the nation on spending on instruction ($4703) (www.okpolicy.org).
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poor education systems do not attract business, when will these idiots realize that smart companies attract smart people which care about their children's education.
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These are the costs of a radical anti-tax ideology and the big money behind its promotion. Teachers are the rare group with the necessary leverage to raise hell and improve their circumstances. After all, if Oklahomans are unwilling to sacrifice pennies on the dollar for children of their state, why should Oklahoma's teachers do anything beyond the bare minimum? You get what you pay for. Enough already.
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If "take-home pay of $2,200 per month," doesn't shock us, I'm not sure what will.
Changes in individual districts and states may help to solve problems in the short-term, but what is needed is large-scale reform. Leaving education to the states is not working. Decisions about funding, curricula, outcomes, teacher certification and compensation...should be made at the federal level and supported with federal funds. Moreover, education policy should be made not by politicians, but education experts.
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They went to college and most likely got a Masters in order to teach and make enough money to raise a family. No one told them they would have to work 2 or 3 jobs. And that holds for most teachers around the country. These teachers are at poverty level while being attacked by the media and politicians. In light of Janus, teachers are starting to take a stand. Many excellent teachers have all ready quit. Young college students are turning away from the profession. Students are not being offered a well-rounded education when The Arts and languages are cut in order to pay testing companies and implement new mandates that forces students to learn to the test. Time to put our priorities straight. Our taxes are going to pay $30 million on a military parade but we ignore properly funding education in ways that helps the whole child rather than a test score.
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HEY NYT~!!! ^^^THIS^^^ should be your "PICK"~!!!
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Dr. Gist says that teachers in Oklahoma are going above and beyond every single day. It's always been that way. Teachers just do that because they care about their schoolkids. I'm a former high school teacher, and it's been that way forever. Long hours, great service and very low pay. Unfortunately, that's why I'm no longer a teacher. There were better opportunities. I still miss working with students. The psychic payback takes a long time, but when you see former students succeeding well in life, it's worth it.
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Organized labor was an important factor in the rise of the middle class in the 20th century, but over the last 30 years the right-wing has been very successful in convincing working people that they were better off with the "freedom" to go it alone against employers. Maybe some are beginning to realize how that has really worked out.
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Yeah, it was great for every American to pay $200 to bail out Government Motors and the United Auto Workers. /sarc/
And in states with militant education unions (including supervisors), it is great to get non-stop strike threats from those who think they cannot be replaced. (Wrong).
Don't like the pay? Don't take the job. Go somewhere else. Know this: education colleges produce <7 graduates for every job.
I strongly agree that our teachers are underpaid; and our legislators turn a blind eye and deaf ear to the needs of the schools. However, a part of the equation that is not addressed is the number of school districts that Oklahoma supports-according to statistics there are 525 districts servicing 693,670 students. Colorado, which is larger in square miles by 34,287 and has a student population of 854,265 operates 259 districts. Except for Missouri with a student population of 917,900 and Texas with a student population of 5,359,127 all other states surrounding Oklahoma have a smaller number of districts.
Each district operated requires administrators, bus fleets, athletic programs and facilities, buildings and maintenance as well as all the non teaching personnel per district. Legislators, the state department of education, and the teachers union are seemingly unwilling to address consolidation of schools which would result in more money for teacher pay and other services while providing quality education for students. Consolidating schools in an emotional hot button, but also an issue that strongly needs to be addressed in order to facilitate a stronger public school system in Oklahoma.
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This is the same issue in many states, in NJ there are 590 operating school districts (2016-2017). This means large number of superintendents, etc., which make way more money than teachers. Teachers should go on strike, that's the only thing companies and politicians understand. Unions went to far in one direction and lost their leverage. Maybe with these strikes it will bring it back to the middle.
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The process of consolidation would itself cost money. If any savings were incurred, teachers would still need regular raises after the initial (and probably mythical) pot of gold emptied, and you'd be right back where you are now.
I derived great benefits from my education at small schools in a small district north of Oklahoma. I felt like a person, not a number. Our teachers were part of our community, as it should be. Students learn better when we have a relationship with the person from whom we are learning.
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And NJ has the most outrageously high school taxes in the nation, which you pay 'til you die.