$10,000 / year raises

[bobm]

In the State of Washington, the supreme court mandated that the legislature " adequately " fund the public school system since the graduation rate of high school students is among the very worst nationwide. The teachers unions have been on strike for weeks now and finally most of the new starting teachers are getting a HUGE $10,000 / year raises , those with experience get more. So , the lesson to our kids is be mediocre in what you do ... get huge raise. How come everyone else ( my wife , a Federal Employee , included ) hasn't had ANY raise in the last decade. So where does the millions of dollars will be coming from ? Why higher PROPERTY TAXES of course ! Where else ? Isn't it about time that the school districts start to weed out the mediocre teachers and hire someone that can actually teach ?

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

I know intimately about that lawsuit and the resulting wage increases. My SIL works for the Woodland School District.

Most districts took the money and gave it to the teachers, but Evergreen didn't. My grands didn't start school until last Monday due to the strike. This is a personal affront to me, and yes, I wrote the Evergreen president a stern letter, and helped monetarily to feed those kids who were not getting their free school lunches due to the greed of the Evergreen School District.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

And Bob, remember that its in the State of WA's constitution that state fully fund education, which they have NOT been doing. Finally, that family that sued the state, won and got the state to "find" the money without raising taxes. So don't worry. Your property taxes are not going up.

And don't forget, you don't pay any State Income tax in your state. That is a huge savings right there!

In Calif, we paid 9% state income tax.

 

[Nyboy]

I think teacher are under paid, they have one of the most important jobs in the world and paid peanuts. Yes I am sure like any other profession there are bad teachers but by far most are great at what they do. I thank god for the great teachers that have been in my life

 

[bobm]

And Bob, remember that its in the State of WA's constitution that state fully fund education, which they have NOT been doing. Finally, that family that sued the state, won and got the state to "find" the money without raising taxes. So don't worry. Your property taxes are not going up.

And don't forget, you don't pay any State Income tax in your state. That is a huge savings right there!

In Calif, we paid 9% state income tax.

The much higher property taxes is in the works in the fact that the school districts have now LOST the last 3 elections requesting MILLIONS and they are more determined than ever to ask for more $$$s in the next election, and school bonds are tied to property taxes. Just because the legislature passed the funding bill, does mean that no-one will have to pay the bill... be it in new higher sales tax, new higher tax on inheritance, or a new property tax or some other tax or a combination of them all. Wa. even has a sales tax on the sale of one's real property. Or, loss of funding of State projects and/ or services of equal value. One ripple in a pond is not the only one as it causes others to start... now every other union will be lobbying for a pay increase to cover the increase in the cost of living for their own membership. PS>...Murphsranch - you may know that Oregon has the 3rd worst high school graduation rate in this country. Wa. is fairly close to that record.

 

[seedcorn]

Are graduation rates due to bad teaching or bad parenting (or no parenting)? With some groups they do not value a HS diploma. Try to get those students to pay attention-I dare you. In Indiana, teachers were over paid but last 10 years, vastly under paid and worse yet-under supported by administrators & parents. When students do poorly, it’s always the teachers fault. If parents would light a few of these kids up, education could happen. Poor little Janie or Jimmy struggle-because they never gave effort and are now behind. Once behind, they have to try to catch up—that isn’t happening because they don’t need no stinking learnin...

 

[seedcorn]

Rant #2-administrators, parents & school boards value expensive buildings and extra curriculum things as sports, band, arts, etc over education. Here, they raised taxes so they can build a new building-with a Olympic size pool for the elite. Teachers get paid $30,000 after spending $70-80,000 to get the degree-does not make economic sense....

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Weed out mediocre teachers? Perhaps WA was enticing mediocracity by hiring teachers below a living wage.

$35K a year to pay teachers who really really want to teach, won't pay the bills for that person, especially if they have a family. Pay teachers what they need to live and you'll have much happier teachers. Another benefit of paying more is that your available population of excited, ready to go to work teachers will increase, who will want to stay in the expensive WA communities. (That goes for the entire west coast).

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

The Admin for the Evergreen School District wanted all that "new found state money" to be held in a reserve account, just in case. Now, I'm all for reserve accounts. But pay the teachers what they need to live and you'll get the resources you need for great students.

As for funding this old Constitutional mandate, your Supreme Court gave the State ample years to get it done. And when WA missed deadlines, they were fined $100K a day. The Supreme Court also said that the "new found state money" cannot come from sources such as taxation to the general public. "....and that the State must fully fund “basic education” with “stable and dependable State sources,” (pg 56 of McCleary vs the State of WA summary ruling)

Seedcorn: "We can control for a lot of factors, and we can control the level of funding. We can control the courses that are offered, the content that is delivered. We can control to a fairly high degree the quality of the instruction. We can say that, based on a lot of evidence, when those things are present at a quality level, that they will result in great student learning. We have all kinds of evidence of that. But we cannot guarantee that an individual student—even when provided all of that—will necessarily avail themselves of the opportunity—sort of the human variable that we, really, at some level can’t control and we can’t be responsible for.:
ie: Nobody can guarantee the educational outcome for a student.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

One more thing for this afternoon: The money was directly earmarked for Teacher Salaries. Not construction, reserve funds, etc. It was litigated, yes using your tax dollars, for SIX years in the WA court system. If you are in disagreement with it, it's time to contact your State reps, your Supreme Court, your Legislature, and let them know your feelings.