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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (3609)	7/22/2003 4:04:55 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 793552

Hi John...re teachers....one in the family did teach in the "inner city" K-12....she lives in upper NY...now early retired...Will have to talk to her about some of the things she sees might work... When teachers feel as if they have to wear body armor to protect against guns, knives, iron pipes, etc, something is totally wrong. Teachers, doctors, lawyers, unions....all the same. They should be handled just as if they were a business. Business doesn't have tenure. You either do a good job in business, or you are not working there any more. Period. As far as them "reforming themselves"...IF the teachers themselves would agree upon how to "weed out the weak ones" and actually do it....and IF there was an increase in the test scores of the students...THEN I think the teachers would deserve more money. Couple of things need to be looked at, IMO. Compare the student test from the previous year with the test of the current year. Did they do as well, better or worse overall? Compare all students against a NY Regents test from, say the early 1950's...or before. How do the students of today compare? How do they compare to tests from the early 1900's? Also, when talking teachers salaries....Each district needs to compare numbers of new teachers versus number of teachers who have been there for some years. What do the new teachers make, versus the other teachers. Are there monies included for extra duties? And the big one for me is: are they paid on a yearly basis, or on a 8 or 9 month basis or on an hourly basis for number of actual hours in the classroom.... How many hours in the classroom, versus the number of hours paid but not in the classroom, needs to be looked at as well, IMO. How many actual hours/days are teachers in the classroom each year? Re the summer time off....ALL teachers know that school is not in session in the summer time. If they wanted a job that they would work in the classroom year round, most probably they would not have chosen teaching, as this is one of the basic underpinnings. The teachers (many) I know all chose the profession knowing this was true. They all wanted the extra time in the summer off. Most of them choose to have their checks divided all through the year, so they receive regular paychecks all year. ALL of them know that they work just 9 months however. Edit: LOL....#3636 grub....good omen The basic thesis is to pay teachers a great deal more and, in return, get agreements to wead out the weak ones. The writer of the article notes that some members of the teachers union have shown genuine interest.