Texas
Related: About this forumTexas Bill Would Reduce All Teachers' Salaries To Just $27,000
Many teachers don't have a problem with being evaluated or expected to meet certain core knowledge. We have a problem with using a timed test that is designed to trick children rather than measure what they have actually. learned to determine our pay/worth.
We have students that come to us each year already behind because they have a difficult home life, or they have little to no parental support for many different reasons. Many students have a learning disability or are considered to have an IQ too low to qualify for special education to get the extra supports they need. Sadly, because of STAAR tests and the fact that our curriculums have become so overloaded with concepts that the kids are not ready to learn (for example: LOTS of new math TEKS added to each grade level this year without much taken away), teachers are forced to move quickly through everything to get everything taught before STAAR. We are also told that we must differentiate our instruction to accommodate the 22-25 different learning styles sitting in our classrooms. We don't have a problem with that, but then why are all of our kids with different learning styles tested one way? Not to mention the fact that special education students are no longer given the opportunity to take a modified test. They are given few accommodations and are expected to pass. This includes life skills students. We are starting to see our students stress out to the point of tears, self confidence is diminishing, and they are giving up. They don't enjoy school anymore and I have to say that a lot of teachers are beginning to feel the same way.
We teachers do everything we can to help our kids. We sacrifice time with family and friends on weeknights and weekends to plan lessons, grade papers, tutor kids, and go to workshops. We spend a lot of our own money buying things for our classrooms, school supplies, rewards/treats for jobs well done, books, clothing for less fortunate students, and even Christmas gifts. I (and many other teachers) have spent money on food that I kept in a closet in an old classroom for kids to take home on the weekends so they'd have things to eat at home.
We pour our hearts and souls into this job.
I took this from the AFT website to give you a little info on the bill we are fighting.
HB 2543 and SB 893 would reduce the teacher minimum pay to $27,540 a year. This is a serious policy mistake that would hurt efforts to recruit and retain good teachers. HB 2543 and SB 893 would also allow misuse of standardized tests for evaluation to be imposed by the commissioner of education statewide, rather than local authority to rely on better measures. For the state to promote this misuse of these tests would be a surefire way to make the excessive emphasis on standardized testing in our schools even worse, at a time when parents and teachers alike increasingly see the testing obsession as truly destructive of teaching and learning.
Read more: http://www.iamatexan.com/blog/texas-bill-would-reduce-all-teachers-salaries-to-just-27000/
joshdawg
(2,646 posts)at the thought of signing these bills into law.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)DFW
(54,302 posts)An educated Texas is their worst nightmare. Look at how Dallas, Houston, Austin and El Paso vote as opposed to the rest of the State.
Ilsa
(61,690 posts)They'll pack up their aging parents and move the hell out of the state.
Seriously, <$14/hour starting pay? Assholes.
DhhD
(4,695 posts)teaching time prep? That is a 40hours + 12 hours to equal a 52 hour a week job. Many well trained teachers will leave. I believe Sunday school teachers will come in to write and teach the Conservative Plan Curriculum.
Who has faith in a teacher pension being around until age 70? Conservatives extremist will make sure to put a stop to that too. It is no way to maximize profits. In the private school setting, money that used to be sent to a pension, would go to the investors/stockholders. Then money could be given to their house of worship. It is a ponse game folks, with taxpayers on the bottom rung having no say to their child education and no protection from Texas Education Law. How does this educate a child?
Ilsa
(61,690 posts)Band teachers to spend 12+ hours a day at school, then all day Saturday at music events. Seriously, 72 hours a week at work because they like the kids and want them to succeed. In reality, they'd be lucky to pull down minimum wage on an hourly basis.
Republicans hate teachers, hate education.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)newfie11
(8,159 posts)Sorry to hear this. My daughter is a teacher in SD with a masters.
Lowest paid teachers in the country.
raccoon
(31,105 posts)They_Live
(3,224 posts)that is not enough. And they work a lot more than 8 hours every day.
mrdmk
(2,943 posts)People say they want to improve education by paying people less, not to mention putting them on the firing line before they start, those persons are stupid, on drugs and/or lying.
DamnYankeeInHouston
(1,365 posts)I wonder how much money the people sponsoring this bill make.
TexasTowelie
(111,965 posts)and $190 per diem. They meet for 140 days in regular session in odd-numbered years. Therefore, in odd numbered years they make $33,800 and in even-numbered years they only draw $7,200. However, there are almost always special sessions that get called which increases their pay through the per diem.