There is a charter school in NY that is proposing to pay its teachers $125,000 (and its principal only $90,000). People are saying it can't be done, but honestly, there is so much waste in education.
I'd happily settle for "only $90,000"!
But seriously, it seems like such a no brainer. The reason really bright people are willing to go through crazy tests and years of school and ridiculously high standards to become lawyers and doctors is largely because of the financial reward on the other side. Would some people go into medicine because they really believed in it and wanted to help other people if they got paid a teacher salary? Sure. But would we always have the best and brightest doing so? Hell no.
On the other hand, I would rather see salaries stay they same but 100% more teachers get hired to alleviate issues with class sizes in most public schools than just get more cash.
Yeah, the one skeevy thing bout the $125K teachers is the projected class size is 30 kids. Which...ew. Even if they're awesome teachers, I feel like that's not that great for the kids.
From Kat's link:
In place of a menu of electives to round out the core curriculum, all students will take music and Latin. Period.
Love this. Although this is probably my favorite quote from that article:
Ernest A. Logan, president of the city principals’ union, called the notion of paying the principal less than the teachers “the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”
I LOVE that idea, Allyson. I think I will have paper so people can just write them on the fly here.
Maybe a poem... this is cribbed from somewhere else:
Noah and Grace have stuff galore
In our house we can barely fit some more
They'll be grateful when they turn 18
If you'd like to donate some college "green"
I think my blonde, pale-assed self would have difficulty blending in.
Dios mio!
One of these days, I swear I will fucking learn to eat before my blood sugar goes crashing through the floor.
You know what's fun, in a totally NOT kind of way? A full-on, got-the-shakes, sweating-and-pale blood sugar crash *during sex.*
Ayup. Last night, as a matter of fact, if I may overshare.
Worst. Timing. Ever.
Yeah, the one skeevy thing bout the $125K teachers is the projected class size is 30 kids. Which...ew. Even if they're awesome teachers, I feel like that's not that great for the kids.
Sadly, that's a small class size for many public schools.
I was just going to say that 30 kids, at least for 6th and 7th where there isn't class reduction in CA, is a totally manageable small class. 35 is the norm. 38 isn't unheard of. And in PE, 60-80 kids is usual.
...yeah, and that's too many!! I had a lot of classes in even high school that were so much better with 20, or 25. (And the best were the random advanced level classes with like, 12 people in them, but i realize that's not frequent or likely...) And that was high school!
The poem is quite cute, Kat. It was wonderful to read earlier that Grace is spending time off the vent. Go Grace!
Soothing thoughts for all the swollen and bruised folks.
I'm watching Graham Norton. I really should turn off the tube and go to bed. Risking odd dreams for sure. I've only seen him a couple times before. Just too lazy to channel surf after Torchwood.
The reality is, though, that a shitty teacher with only 16 kids (and I know of one who is teaching that many kids now) is actually much worse for those kids than a very skilled teacher with 30.
