Texas Bill Would Reduce All Teachers' Salaries To Just $27,000 [View all]

[TexasTowelie]

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/