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posted by martyb on Monday April 16 2018, @01:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the going-nationwide dept.

Common Dreams reports

Colorado's teachers' union expects more than 400 teachers at a rally that's planned for Monday at the state's Capitol in Denver.

[...] Englewood School District, outside the capital city, announced on Sunday that schools would be closed the following day as 70 percent of its teachers had indicated they wouldn't be working Monday. It was unclear on Sunday whether more school districts would be closing.

"We are calling Monday, April 16th a day of action", Kerrie Dallman, president of the Colorado Education Association (CEA), told KDVR in Denver.

[...] According to[1] KMGH in Denver, "The CEA estimates that teachers spend on average $656 of their own money for school supplies for students." The state's teacher salaries rank 46th out of 50, with educators making an average of $46,000 per year.

Public schools are underfunded by $828 million this year, Dallman told the Post, and lawmakers have said they could inject at least $100 million more into schools--but they have yet to do so.

[...] The planned protest follows a trend that was seen in West Virginia and Kentucky before moving west this month to Oklahoma and Arizona as well as Colorado. In all the states where teachers have walked out and rallied at their Capitols, teachers have reported paying for school supplies out of pocket, working second and third jobs to make ends meet, and coping with funding shortages while their legislators hand out tax cuts to corporations.

[1] For a laugh (or perhaps a deep sigh), check out all the whitespace in the source code of the page.


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by tonyPick on Monday April 16 2018, @02:48PM (2 children)

    by tonyPick (1237) on Monday April 16 2018, @02:48PM (#667645) Homepage Journal

    Also $46K is an average: Many will make less. In fact according to CPR in 2014 then [cpr.org]

    The average base salary for Colorado teachers with a bachelor’s degree and 10 years of experience is $36,700, according the report from the Center for American Progress, a research organization.
    ...
    The report found Colorado teachers with a graduate degree and 10 years of experience make less than a trucker.

    Ouch.

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by schad on Monday April 16 2018, @04:02PM (1 child)

    by schad (2398) on Monday April 16 2018, @04:02PM (#667673)

    Salary doesn't tell the whole picture. For the same $46k salary, a typical private-sector employee will receive about $7k a year less in benefits than a typical public-sector employee. Of course, there's also the fact that it's much easier to fire a private-sector employee (in most states you literally don't even need a reason). I'm not trying to argue that teachers are fairly compensated, merely pointing out that looking at salary alone is massively deceptive. For many decades, union workers -- a group which consists primarily of public-sector workers these days -- have voluntarily traded salary for benefits. If they no longer like that arrangement, fine, but let's be honest about what's actually going on then.

    Going back to the topic of TFS, I have a problem with the fact that teachers are having to pay for school supplies. I also have a problem with the fact that parents are having to pay for school supplies too. I don't mean things like notebooks and such for your child. I mean that, every school year, all the parents are given a list of things that they are expected to buy for the classroom. This stuff also costs probably a couple hundred bucks a year. What the fuck is up with that?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16 2018, @05:41PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16 2018, @05:41PM (#667719)

      I'm the OP in this thread. (Forgot my login info, and my email address has changed...) I'm not trying to argue that teachers are paid sufficiently; that's obviously not true to anyone with a brain, and I mentioned this before with my comment about $46k not attracting the best and brightest. However, I wanted to shine light on the fact (IMO) that housing is too expensive these days. Paying teachers more isn't going to fix or make up for this: today's absurd housing costs are hurting everyone, especially everyone that's middle-middle class and below. Lots of studies and people bemoan the fact that Americans aren't saving enough money and don't have enough financial reserves to handle a job loss etc. Well, the problem here isn't always that they suck at managing money, it's frequently that housing is just too damn expensive, and all their money is going to rent, and at the same time, wages are stagnant for most industries, so it's getting more expensive to live, but most people aren't getting paid more to compensate. Addressing this would help much of the population, not just teachers.