[geeks] Teachers

[Geoff Reed]

Here in Washington, the bethel, Issaquah and Shoreline school districts just
recently walked out (didn't start) classes on the day they were supposed to.
The issues were:

A: healthcare 
And
B: Cost of Living raises.

The school districts were saying that to pay the teachers the cost of living
wage increases, the teaches would have to pay 20-30% of the cost of their
healthcare above any they were already paying, the problem with that is that
what they district wanted them to pay for the healthcare was MORE than the
cost of living raises that the legislature passed last year for teachers.

My ex was (and presumedly still is ) a full-time school teacher, she made
around 30K a year (40K on a good year).  ($15 to 20 an hour) unless she was
teaching "at risk" kids (formerly known as juvenile deliquents) then she got
a couple dollars more an hour.  She's been teaching for about 10 years, and
in addition the the bachelors she had to have to get the job, and the
certifications, she has done another 2 to 3 years worth of classes to keep
her certification current.  The district she is teaching in paus their
teachers only in the months that school is in session, yet when reporting
teacher wages they multiply the base wage by a full years worth of hours
(2080) and report THAT as the pay that the teachers are making.

And the argument that teachers only work 180 days out of the year?  She was
working on class stuff on the weekends during the school year and they were
getting a deal the times she has worked salaried, as it only works out to 8
hrs a day 5 days a week max that the salary equals if she was hourly, as she
averaged 10 or 11 hr days, 6 or 7 days a week. (and had to buy much of the
materials used in the classroom herself)

At the same time the administration staff (including maintenance people) and
superintendents of the 3 districts mentioned earlier all got raises and they
would not have to pay any of their own healthcare costs, only the teachers.