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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOklahoma (49th in pay) educators donate plasma, use food pantries, work 2nd jobs to survive
TULSA For the superintendent of this citys public schools, the signs that her teachers are struggling can be found everywhere.
At a local restaurant, it was a teacher who served Deborah Gist recently. At the Reasors grocery, theres sometimes a teacher behind the register. And then there was the Uber that the school district chief hailed to catch an early-morning flight a teacher sat behind the wheel, trying to earn some money before heading to the classroom. There was a stack of student journals on the passenger seat.
Its just so wrong that it just hurts my heart, said Gist, who has been superintendent since 2015.
Oklahomas teachers are among the nations lowest paid, and despite the governor and lawmakers approving a $6,100 raise this week, educators pledge to walk out Monday if their full demands including reversal of budget cuts are not met. For a decade, little has been done to address the plight of the states teachers. It is a situation that has forced many to take second jobs, rely on food pantries and donate their plasma to pay the bills.
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We had been talking about it forever, said Randi Cowan, a third-grade teacher in Tulsa who earned $33,746 last year and lives in a home built by Habitat for Humanity. But then somebody else did it and .?.?. it just ignited our fire.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/it-just-hurts-my-heart-low-pay-big-classes-are-the-plight-of-oklahoma-teachers/2018/03/30/e5e10eb8-2c88-11e8-b0b0-f706877db618_story.html?utm_term=.638da42683a1
Matthew28
(1,796 posts)need to dumb down people so
1. They can win elections
and 2. the rich have useful idiots that will work for pennies.
What an evil freaking party
Volaris
(10,260 posts)I wouldn't just walk out.
I'd straight up move someplace else.
That's bullshit.
joshdawg
(2,638 posts)You are being very polite about describing the worthless, waste of skin and oxygen, that the republican party and all who follow its precepts has become.
Today's GOP has become a terrorist organization...........and that's putting it mildly.
NNadir
(33,368 posts)Democrats lead by 22 points (57%-35%) in leaned party identification among adults with post-graduate degrees. Repugs will say it because of liberal teachings in collage, but we know it's intellegent and educated people don't fall for their bullshit.
True Blue American
(17,972 posts)DeVoss is trying to push Charter Schools so her friends can make money.
Kasich did the same here. The Dayton Daily exposed so many scandals you hear little about them any more.
Republicans have turned this country into one big chess pool with privatation. Prisons, schools,the EPA. How long are people going to put up with it?
While the entire middle of the country slobbers over bigots like Trump and Roseanne!
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,750 posts)or to say this is absolute bullshit.
Teachers ought to be highly paid and respected.
I will admit that before I had children I wasn't convinced that teachers were all that deserving of respect and good pay. Then I had kids. I also want to say that I gave serious thought to home schooling, but realized that I would have made a genuinely terrible home schooling teacher. So I enrolled my oldest in a conventional public school. (I think it's sort of important that I continued to do lots of things for my kids as if I were home schooling them, but that probably isn't the point.)
Teachers aren't perfect. Conventional schools aren't perfect. Parents need to be very aware of what's happening with their kids at school. But we need to fund schools generously. Class sizes need to be small. Public schools are charged with educating all students, even those with special needs. That requires additional funding. And teachers with additional training and experience.
For personal reasons we wound up enrolling our sons in a secular independent (read private) school. Mainly because the oldest was being bullied, and then we decided that school was so good we moved our younger son a couple of months later. I want to emphasize that we were in a very good public school system, that I would still recommend to people who live in that area. But it wasn't good at dealing with things like my son's difference (he was not only mildly autistic but has alopecia areata, an auto immune disorder that causes hair loss so he was totally bald and looked different. Plus, because of the autism, Asperger's Syndrome, he behaved differently which didn't help) and I'm not really faulting them. Teachers have so very much to deal with, and are often overwhelmed with the needs of their students. What I learned from sending my sons to an independent school was that public schools need to be funded well enough to meet the needs of all of their students.
I was often unpopular at the private school because I never thought that I should be exempt from paying school taxes, because I understood very clearly that I was privileged to be able to afford to send my kids to that school. A lot of people don't have that choice. Either they can't afford it, of they may not even know that choice is available to them.
When we look at countries whose kids do better than ours on various academic measures, invariably the teachers in those countries are appreciated, paid well, and treated with respect.
VOX
(22,976 posts)Vinca
(50,172 posts)They are responsible for the most valuable commodity we have: kids. The values of this country are assbackwards.
duforsure
(11,882 posts)They would be better served if they voted out of office all republiCONS , who have done nothing but hurt them. They're trying desperately to get public schools privatized by putting devos in position to advance charter schools now, and they want to destroy their unions, their pensions, their wages, and their benefits. Teachers need to get busy , or they'll not have a public school job , or it'll become so bad they'll be regretting what they've done to themselves.
blueinredohio
(6,797 posts)Motley13
(3,867 posts)n2doc
(47,953 posts)Hey moron- Who do you think got you into this mess? Which party refused to raise pay? Which party gave the rich and oil companies huge tax breaks that led to deficits so that there is no money for schools, roads, and other necessities? I will clue you in, it is the one led by the orange shitgibbon you yourself voted for. IT is all about politics