This blog printed on 100% recycled electrons.
...and a measly $35K a year!
This week's article on the economic realities of teacher pay in South Dakota has generated some lively discussion. One common idea emerging from the comments is that the free market will solve the problem. As long as there are applicants, pay will stay on its current low trajectory. School districts and the state won't jack up pay unless the applicant pool dries up.
While the Madville Times sure wishes all problems could be solved by invisible hands, fairies, and other magic, perhaps we need to give the free market a good whack to get it running a little better for our teachers. A teacher strike is out of the question -- SDCL 3-18-10 takes away that option.
So how about a mass resignation? Come next spring, when school boards offer contracts, every teacher in the state returns the documents unsigned. At the same time, SDEA works on its Student Program members to refuse to apply for any South Dakota teaching jobs. SDEA could try coordinating with its national contacts to discourage out-of-state teachers from applying for South Dakota jobs, but it might be just as instructive not to discourage that candidate pool and get a count of just how many teachers from other states are eager to come to the lowest-paying state in the nation.
Of course, if teachers could coordinate an effort like this, we might see those salaries jump up mighty quickly. So heck yeah! Let's let the market solve our problems! With a little united effort, maybe we can even help it along.
"Arise ye wretched of the Earth...!" Remember, kids, revolution with a smile! :-)
Hide Fido (by Andy Horowitz)
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I coined Noem as the ‘Palin of South Dakota’ when she ran for the state
house, seems I nailed it; America: meet your new Secretary of Homeland
Security. Sh...
3 hours ago
I think I've had enough of this! Did you become a teacher to get rich, or did you become a teacher to give back to society in the form of educating kids. It's all about you and money, not about kids.
ReplyDeleteI think you borrowed this idea from the old NFO (National Farmers Organization) which tried the same thing a few years back. Good idea, but doesn't work because unfortunately farming just doesn't work that way. Farmers need to sell when they need to sell many times, not when a collective says they have to.
ReplyDeleteSame thing with teachers. Teachers as a group aren't going to jeapordize their jobs because even though they aren't highly paid in their eyes, they do have good jobs with good hours and good benefits. Some might try it, but most can't because they need their jobs, just like farmers need to sell their products when they individually need to.
First Anon, thank you for displaying the apparently prevailing sentiment by which South Dakota doesn't value teachers enough to pay them a decent professional wage. We expect teachers to sacrifice their financial well-being, to not act in their individual interest, and instead donate their time for the sake of the children. (Even pastors, servants of the Lord, get paid more than teachers -- and while I welcome the ensuing analyses of work hours, I would think if anyone should be expected to work for the joy of service rather than a living wage, it would be the clergy.)
ReplyDeleteYou're right: if my goal were to get rich, I'd have gone into another profession. My goal is to give back to the society that has given me so much (just like it gives everyone else so much). Of course, I also want to be able to afford food, housing, and medical insurance, not unreasonably selfish goals. Teaching in South Dakota actually makes those goals rather hard to attain, especially for teachers in the lower half of the salary schedule. Sure, education is all about kids, but when a state decides it's going to take advantage of the humanitarian spirit (which does indeed infuse the souls of my colleagues), someone has to raise heck and argue for better pay.
Funny -- I've heard right-wing commenters complain that left-wingers try to use children as the justification for big social programs. It appears "conservative" South Dakotans are able to use the same rhetorical ploy to defend their cheapness on social spending.
Second Anon: I make no claim to practicality. My experience with contract negotiations tells me that most teachers are too busy keeping their heads above water, their noses out of trouble, and, most importantly, their kids on task to make a real stand on salary issues. Administrators and school boards know this and take the fullest advantage of the hard-working, non-boat-rocking spirit.
ReplyDeleteCarolhei...you make a post, complain about your profession and how much you make, then you post 10 of 20 comments trying to tell people they're wrong, you're right. You've been able to get people to post on 3 articles of this entire blog and you're chasing them away. I will no longer be reading your blog or commenting. This is like being in 6th grade all over again. A 6th grader is going to be educating my kids, fantastic.
ReplyDeleteNot that Anon will be back to read this, but I didn't know that complaining about one's profession and pay constituted an indictment of one's maturity. I also didn't know that actually engaging in conversation online was the sort of thing that drives commenters away. The blog is an opportunity for open community conversation, and this author will participate actively in that conversation.
ReplyDeleteNow for some real 6th-gradey stuff: it appears Anon can neither spell (check my name, please) nor count (3 posts with comments?!). Neener-neener! :-P