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Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

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Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#321

Post by chrisseaton »

MereInterest wrote: post #285
chrisseaton wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it the same funding per student? The money is diverted from the public schools to the charter schools... because the student has moved from a public school to a charter school. Or is that wrong?

Irrelevant. Plan a building for 2000 students. Figure out the best location, heating/cooling, building maintenance schedules, etc. Merge districts so that you can offer niche courses for advanced students. Then have the funding cut by 50%, because 1000 of the students go to charter schools. The fixed costs were planned out for the next 20 years, until the rug was pulled out from under schools. Instead, you get fewer…

Aren't these charter schools free and open to everyone?

What's the problem? If people don't want to send their children to your public schools then take a look at why.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#322

Post by jorblumesea »

not2b wrote: post #230
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one of the things that has been so disheartening to me about the pandemic is that it has shown how we just can't really do anything anymore in the US. I mean, just look at PPE. I understand being a little flat footed when the pandemic first started, but it's been nearly 6 months now. I would have expected mass mobilization to pump out N95 masks, gloves, gowns, face shields, etc. by the millions. I mean, look…

All of this is a consequence of ideologies that have become popular in the US both in politics and in business. Having government direct a mobilization is not acceptable. A mandate that people wear masks is not acceptable. Having manufacturing capacity to make low-value products in large numbers in the US is bad business when poorer countries can do it for less. Having spare inventory is bad, because just-in-time man…

While it's easy to blame Trump (and he deserves a heaping pile of blame), the corruption and destruction of a functional US government has long been the goal of those on the right. Since the 80s there has been a concerted movement to defund and destroy the effective ability of our government for ideological and personal reasons.

Then, when the water treatment plants break down or the education system is a mess they can privatize it and reap the profits. Or they can establish charter schools that teach creationism, segregate classrooms again, or reduce education to minorities.

This is just one chess move in a long game that has been playing out since the 50s. Within this context, the moves here are not surprising, especially with Betsy DeVos in charge.

Read her bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_DeVos#School_vouchers

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#323

Post by jackcosgrove »

jt94mf90d wrote: post #284
cool_dude85 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure where you're from, but in many places, "society and government" has not failed people the same way it has in the US. Even within the US there are some places where local and state government have performed much better than places like Florida or NYC. That is to say, the problem is not, conceptually, "society and government", but instead, the American society and American government we have today. Don't give…

How did nyc mess up? I can just think of the nursing homes, but that was due to cdc guidelines, which coumo had to implement additional guidelines.

It was the subway.

Extensive use of the subway is what sets NYC apart from all other cities in the US, and it was the main vector. NYC should have been much more diligent about cleaning the subway and limiting concurrent access. I understand due to the sheer volume and necessity of subway use the chosen policies may have been the best. But the subway has been overcrowded and near the breaking point for years and little was done to maintain the system before COVID.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#325

Post by txsoftwaredev »

tathougies wrote: post #203
aaomidi wrote: post #160

The federal government is doing this on purpose to kill public schools.

Public schools have failed students, especially minorities. Good

Parents, or lack of, have failed students, especially minorities.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#326

Post by libraryatnight »

leetrout wrote: post #122
Kapura wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She's in Colorado. The teachers' union agreed to a pay cut & freeze during the Bush financial crisis; pay had had only started to rise again a few years ago. This is somewhat of a digression, but the extremely low rate of teacher pay (for a job that requires a Master's degree) limits the pool of available teachers greatly. The people taking these jobs typically must have some other way of supporting their family; eit…

> There is no good economic argument made to become an elementary school teacher. AMEN. I would NEVER recommend ANYONE become a teacher based on my wife's experiences. You used to be able to write off expenses as "non-reimbursed employee expenses" but they cut that out so teachers get the token $200 writeoff. We spend almost 10x that annually supporting her in the classroom. It really is glorified day care in most pe…

My high school band friend became a high school music teacher. He was making hardly enough money for his family to live without stress or worry, he asked about wages they said they couldn't give raises, the only way they could justify a raise is if he had more education - so he took some student loans and got his masters. He was then told nothing could get him a raise, wages are frozen. Around that time he emailed me asking for help getting a corporate training gig where I was working. Of course I put in a word but I also pressed back because I'd always known him to be incredibly passionate about teaching and music. I always imagined him as a bit poorer than me, but a hell of a lot happier (I was going through a bit of a depressed time thinking about the "meaningfulness" of my corporate life). He said it wasn't about meaningfulness, or enjoying the work, or passion, it was that at one point they had to consider whether or not they had the budget for fucking light bulbs one week. He moved on to a nice corporate training job, and does well now. I haven't talked to him recently about if he still misses teaching, but I am acutely aware there's kids out there missing out on an amazing band teacher because we don't pay our teachers a salary that shows the profession any respect. I guess my friend's richer and happy he can take vacations and buy necessities without worry and for that I am glad, but I see the world as little bit poorer.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#327

Post by dragonwriter »

seibelj wrote: post #228
DenisM wrote: post #219

The Los Angelos teachers added a few other requests [1]. The introduction starts with: [...] LAUSD educators clearly want to get back into schools with their students, but the underlying question at every step must be: Given broader societal conditions, how do we open physical schools in a way that ensures that the benefit outweigh the risks [...] And then proceeds to the following recommendations, among many others:…

I don't understand the logic around the left's hatred of charters. Parents choose to send their kids there - if the existing public school was so good, why would they send them somewhere else? It's simply about choice, and sending your own kids to the best possible option. No one would ever deny their own children the best possible education available. It's so clearly about administrators and professionals over the n…

> I don't understand the logic around the left's hatred of charters

The left doesn't hate charters, it hates publicly subsidized private schools that are not effectively accountable. That's a subset of charters plus all vouchers.

Actual public charters, by which public schools are granted some variance of generally applicable rules to trial new methods are not a problem to the left; the hijacking of that process to create super-voucher schools when the voucher model failed to gain sufficient political support is what the left hates.

> Parents choose to send their kids there

Often, after the local regular public school has been replaced by a privately-operated charter in the same facility, and often the parents who most choose to send their children their are the ones whose most-local school was replaced, because it's the most convenient public school and going to a more distant one has added cost.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#328

Post by morelisp »

chrisseaton wrote: post #254
hydroxideOH- wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't appreciate how money is diverted from already underfunded public schools to charter schools.

Isn't it the same funding per student? The money is diverted from the public schools to the charter schools... because the student has moved from a public school to a charter school. Or is that wrong?

First, it is wrong. There's no requirement that charter schools get paid the same per student as public schools. Even when they do, charter schools also often lean heavily on public school resources (e.g. charter schools where I grew up used our public gymnasium, theater, and library regularly).

But second, even if the funding is exactly the same, the result is that all the "cheap" i.e. wealthy students (books and technology readily available at home, familial support for their studies, financially able to engage in more expensive educational opportunities outside the classroom) end up in one school while those without these privileges, or with disabilities, end up in the other. Even if you give both the same resources the second school is going to perform worse. And under current US policy, the school that performs worse then gets even less money while the school of rich kids gets more! It's wealth consolidation, pure and simple.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#330

Post by mulmen »

MattGaiser wrote: post #299

I have to ask you Americans. Are you giving up on society yet? I'm Canadian, and it is surreal watching the country below us completely waste the lockdown so they can go to beaches and bars and then urgently move to shoving kids back into the classroom. Do you still feel that you can count on your government? On your neighbours?

I’m optimistic. We are being tested from many directions right now and when we come out of this we will be better for it.
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