Teacher salaries spark debate





I’d like to add my two cents and comment about Ken Grow’s Nov. 23 letter regarding “whiny teachers.” When I was a teacher, I heard many comments like Mr. Grow’s.

Yeah, yeah, teachers get “all these vacations.” But summer school positions are not available to most teachers, and short-term positions during vacation times do not pay professional-level wages. Would Mr. Grow be happy with a career that only paid him for nine months and required him to take three months unpaid leave per year?

As a secondary teacher, the LAUSD paid me for six hours per day, not the eight I was required to physically be on campus. I was not paid for the hours and hours I spent preparing lessons, setting up and then straightening up my classroom, correcting papers, calling parents after school and in the evenings or attending school meetings and teacher in-service classes. Teachers are not paid for their lunch period, passing periods or any other breaks during the day. If a teacher needs to see a doctor during his pupilfree period during the day, his pay can be docked.

I have worked in many industries, including commercial real estate. Teachers’ working conditions are perhaps the worst of any industry I’ve seen. For example, a simple thing like going to the restroom when necessary becomes a problem because it is illegal to leave students of any age in the classroom without a certificated person, that is, a teacher.

Considering the paltry salaries of teachers today
when compared to other professions requiring similar amounts of education, it
would be nice for us all to let them know how much they are appreciated. Opening
our pocketbooks is only a start.
Susan
Stone
Agoura Hills Editor’s note: The argument that teachers get paid for only nine months out of the year is problematic, at best. If you agree that teachers work for only nine months’ pay, then you must also agree that if they worked for 12 months like the rest of us, their salaries would be 25 percent higher. For the rookie teacher, that $40,000 first-year salary becomes $50,000, plus full benefits. Not a bad start for someone just out of college.




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