No seniority, no water fountains, no parking spaces, no desks for teachers, counselors not required.

[knitter4democracy]

16. Let's see, check, check, check...

Michigan eliminated seniority on the state level, we work a longer day for no more pay in our district because of a state mandate, we're required to do most of that for no extra pay, we have to notify someone if we leave the building for any reason, and our nurse isn't given comp time. We don't have a teacher's lounge (though we all finally got keys to what they call the lounge, a closet off the kitchen with the Coke machine, a couple of weeks back), a designated room for speech and language staff (mostly because we don't have any) or a school psychologist. All of that is pretty normal in our public school district, as are constant threats of serious pay cuts (they want us to take an 8% paycut on top of 5 years of no increases at all).

This is the reality of education, and the other reality is that people will still teach. The students need us to, and we need to as well.