Educatoin Minnesota column: Legislature missed opportunities to repay schools, address achievement gap
May 10, 2012 at 10:41 am in Duluth News Tribune
The 2012 Legislature showed that Minnesotans will have a clear choice in November between leaders who truly value public education and those who view our classrooms as places for political games. Continue Reading
“Educatoin?” In a headline for a story about education? That’s priceless.
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danH when you have to start paying to read this article online let alone be able to comment on it then you can demand that the newspaper pay someone to double check for no spelling (in this case typing) mistakes. That being said if its in the actual newspaper as well i suggest sending it to Jay Leno for headlines.
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Many wish they could have health care insurance like the teachers. Duluth gave employees $1,900 for single and $3,800 for family coverage to a health reimbursement account.
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For the typical school district in Minnesota, 78-80% of their operating costs are for salaries and benefits. Don’t ever tell me these folks can’t participate in give-backs like the rest of us had to make during the economic crisis, and are still being called upon to make. The average teacher pay in this state far exceeds the average family income, and benefits are even further out of the average person’s reach. And, all of this for 9 month’s of work.
Don’t tell me the taxpayers and legislators are hurting our kids until I see more of school district money going to the kids, not employees. How can these school boards and unions continue to ask common tax-paying citizens, who have lost so much to a bad economy and changing employment conditions, to pay more? My god, in the early 1960′s schools had far far less of all these amenities, and produced kids who averaged higher scores on SAT and ACT tests than anytime in history.
I have children who are teachers, and they agree the system, its compensation and benefit programs, work expectations and priorities are in need of serious review and change. I have spent a lot of time in school, and a lot of time in corporate America, and I wholeheartedly agree with my kids!
Their advice: keep it simple, really refocus priorities, develop some fiscal restraint, and show more respect for those who pay the bills.
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so your kids agree they should get a paycut and less benefits??? am i really hearing this right? Cutting teacher salaries and offering less benefits on top will only lead to worse teachers in the long run because all the better ones will leave for greener pastures and no new graduates will want to work in a field that has no incentive to join.
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Levi…my kids agree they should not be immune from the same impacts that have negatively affected those who pay their salaries. They are willing to make sacrifices in their own pay and contribute more toward benefits to have a better environment to teach kids about fairness and what is really important in this world. One of my kids, who was near the top of her class and had offers from many well-heeled districts, happily accepted a substantially lower paying job to teach in a poverty stricken, minority dominated, crime and underfunded area. She wanted to make a difference. Isn’t that what it is really about?
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