"I'm 54 years old and my paycheck is $1,980 [a month]. (click here) I can't afford f****** health insurance."
That's one of the first things Larry Cagle says on the phone. He is spitting nails. The Tulsa English teacher is one of the leaders of a grassroots organizing group, Oklahoma Teachers United, that they say represents thousands of public school teachers around the state. His group, and both of Oklahoma's teachers unions, support the walkout and rally happening across the state Monday in support of higher wages and more state revenue.
Teachers are striking even though state legislators passed a pay raise of about $6,000 last week. That vote followed earlier walkouts. The bill, if signed, would bring Oklahoma's teacher salaries from among the lowest in the nation, to the middle of the pack....
This is about quality education in the USA.
Oklahoma had a state GDP of $139.3 billion.
The problem as I see it, is about protecting teachers from exploitation. Teachers are suppose to be the best paid public employees in the country. Why? Because they ensure a quality work force and a brain trust unmatched by another other. We already know Europe does a far better job of educating their children with college admission that costs nothing. Everyone student is on a level playing field and that is the way it should be. The potential of a child should be accommodated without question.
July 2017
School Funding 101 (click here)
First, it’s important to understand that Oklahoma schools are supported through a combination of state, local and federal funds. Tulsa Public Schools, for example, receives 37 percent of its budget from the State of Oklahoma, 27 percent from local revenue like property taxes, 20 percent from the building and bond fund, 13 percent from the federal government, and 3 percent from private grants. Some funding sources place restrictions on how money gets used, while other funds are unrestricted and leave spending to the discretion of the district.
The funds that are appropriated by the State Legislature to support education are referred to as state aid. The amount of state aid a district qualifies for is based primarily on student headcount and attendance, with a few other factors weighed into the calculation, such as the number of special education students, bilingual students, gifted students, and economically disadvantaged students in the district. For many districts, state aid represents a big portion of the overall budget, but according to the Oklahoma Policy Institute, Oklahoma’s state aid spending per pupil has fallen by a staggering 26.9 percent since 2008....
The defunding of the public schools is all part of that the movement to promote Charter Schools starting somewhere around 2002 with the implementation of the 2001 law, "No Child Left Behind." (click here) At no point in time did anyone tell teachers they needed to purchase the very pencils their students would be using in their classrooms.
Teacher accountability became a gigantic issue. Teachers not only had to supply the needs of their students, they had to pass all kinds of new scrutiny to carry a out their profession.
Now, I defy anyone to tell me there aren't under achieving students in a school by pure reason they come from a household with problems. Teachers were made to believe they had to reach all students and create a learning environment where children achieved regardless of their environment outside the classroom. It was an unrealistic goal and everyone knows it. A teacher has to create the classroom environment to learn and teach to grade appropriate standards, but, cannot be held responsible for every child's behavior. That is not within their purview, nor should it be.
There is another aspect to this idea of student performance measured by teacher performance; the USA had a many more poverty level households. Poverty effects a child's learning. Yet, teachers are held responsible for their performance when society and government aren’t held responsible for theirs. As a society we are responsible for a quality education for every child, but, that begins with a good income to every family AND at home time that a forty hour per week jobs provides.
We have seen Wall Street soar in value then at the same time the value of a quality family life has been lost. There is a lot wrong with the dynamics teachers face AND are being held responsible for, including teaching on a personal classroom budget. That doesn’t even make sense when one says it, “A personal classroom budget.” Only in America.
The defunding of the public schools is all part of that the movement to promote Charter Schools starting somewhere around 2002 with the implementation of the 2001 law, "No Child Left Behind." (click here) At no point in time did anyone tell teachers they needed to purchase the very pencils their students would be using in their classrooms.
Teacher accountability became a gigantic issue. Teachers not only had to supply the needs of their students, they had to pass all kinds of new scrutiny to carry a out their profession.
Now, I defy anyone to tell me there aren't under achieving students in a school by pure reason they come from a household with problems. Teachers were made to believe they had to reach all students and create a learning environment where children achieved regardless of their environment outside the classroom. It was an unrealistic goal and everyone knows it. A teacher has to create the classroom environment to learn and teach to grade appropriate standards, but, cannot be held responsible for every child's behavior. That is not within their purview, nor should it be.
There is another aspect to this idea of student performance measured by teacher performance; the USA had a many more poverty level households. Poverty effects a child's learning. Yet, teachers are held responsible for their performance when society and government aren’t held responsible for theirs. As a society we are responsible for a quality education for every child, but, that begins with a good income to every family AND at home time that a forty hour per week jobs provides.
We have seen Wall Street soar in value then at the same time the value of a quality family life has been lost. There is a lot wrong with the dynamics teachers face AND are being held responsible for, including teaching on a personal classroom budget. That doesn’t even make sense when one says it, “A personal classroom budget.” Only in America.
