Letter to the Editor
Respect teachers
Published Tuesday, October 7, 2008
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To the editor:
Respect is spelled C-O-N-T-R-A-C-T. I attended the Fairbanks Education Association general membership meeting Tuesday and found out I wasn’t the only one with a bee in my bonnet.
Despite our bargaining team’s best efforts to come to contract negotiations prepared with research showing our salary request justified, the district has (barely) moved from its original offer of 0 percent salary increase for the next three years to 4.25 percent across three years. What a slap in the face! Let’s consider some points of fact:
• The state provided $9 million (inflation-proof) to the district for the next three school years.
• The district has already been budgeting for a 4.8 percent increase in teachers’ salaries.
• School districts around the state have settled for about 4 percent increases in teacher salaries.
• The cost of living in Fairbanks is about 11 percent higher.
• Inflation and energy costs are through the roof.
• The District tried to justify its 0-0-0 increase by saying two things (according to our bargaining team):
1. They aren’t increasing our health insurance contribution — that’s a raise! The problem is that money saved is not money earned — it’s already mine.
2. They wouldn’t want to encumber other school boards by giving us a pay raise. Other school districts should not be the concern — a fair contract is!
With money sitting in your pocket and already allocated, don’t you think it’s a little disingenuous to offer so little in a time when your best asset is feeling the bite of inflation like everyone else?
At the end of the meeting, our president asked us how resolute we were to get a fair contract (meaning, would we be willing to strike if arbitration failed?). Virtually every teacher in the room stood to show support for our bargaining team.
Careful: Those bees in our bonnets may become a swarm, and everyone will feel the sting.
Community Discussion
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Then hopefully parents will finally understand that private schools would be more than happy to receive a fraction of the state funds you feel you are entitled too and such parents will choose alternative education to public schools.
200 million dollar budget for 15,000 students. Greed is everywhere.
If teachers strike, where will children under the age of 12 go for 6.5 hours a day? Who will take care of them and ensure that they are safe? Who will pay for this care?
Ponderous: There are only a few private schools in this area and they are not very large. Can explain more about your idea?
Heh, the teachers onion sounds like its starting to turn it's cogs and serve it's purpose. Expect more hostility later in the year, I heard teachers were planning the next strike last year for this new contract.
Wow! Ponderous...I think you need to walk a mile in some serious shoes first before you make such a comment.
As one who lives with a VERY dedicated teacher....one who I hardly see during the week because she is working DURING school hours and AFTER school hours....and furthermore one who tries hard not to bring the "frustrations of the day" home...I'm constantly in awe of that dedication.
It CAN'T be the money!
Teaching is a passion.
Put yourself in their shoes....educating our youth today, but also seeking a better way of life for themselves and their families.
I've said it a few times here. I'll say it again. You couldn't pay me enough to do it. Not in a million years.
Why are these individuals called "greedy" because they seek what EVERYONE wants. A better way of life?
Not everyone wants or can afford your "private" school Ponderous. And not everyone wants your "alternative" education either.
My child attends public schools, and I'm proud to say so.
And finally, its my hope this contract mess can be settled.
Before a bad situation....becomes worse.
Here's a few more questions . . . I seriously do not know the answer; maybe Ponderous does:
1. Do private school teachers in this borough have to be certified?
2. Do private school teachers in this borough have to be highly qualified?
3. Do private school students in this borough have to take the Benchmark exams?
4. Do private school students in this borough have to take and pass the High School Graduation Qualifying Exam in order to get a real diploma?
http://www.alaska.net/~fea/FBack090408ba...
According to the FEA's schedule, the new contract was estimated to be ratified last week but the FNSBSD did nothing at all. The school board better do something now or our kids are gonna be sleeping in for a long time.
The school board's lack of competence and unwillingness to comply with the union is inexplicable . The money is there, the teachers need it, students need qualified teachers. There should be no argument over this situation whatsoever.
Then make sure you vote today. Casting my vote without thinking twice for Rice.
Teachers deserve more then fair pay and good benefits, they deserve thanks from the parents. My 6th grader and 9th grader both had teachers who provided an after school program for an additional 2 hours this afternoon. The 6th grader had robotics club, and my 9th grader had tutoring in English.
Our teachers deserve better from our School Board.
Mrs. Howard,
You get an A, and I hope that you all get what you deserve: RESPECT.
Strike! Please! Hold fast district!
Schools are not supposed to be baby-sitting factories either.
Gil- in answer to your questions-
Please note- you use the phrase "have to"
1- No. Most ciriculum (never could spell that word ;} )is set up so that it can easily be taught by anyone who can read and understand it.
2-No. Qualifications are nice but not needed in all private schools. Most private schools have degrees that they require and must meet in order to teach the work.
3-Yes. All State and federal testing is the same standard for all schools.
4-Yes. See #3. Thank you for asking.
Peace
Half of the Fairbanks teachers are below average.
Why doesn't a union member write in with the current contract specifics, pay, health insurance, work time required, retirement. With this information we may be better able to determine what a new contract should look like. After all it is the public who will be paying for it.
smap-all of the info you ask for is available through the union and the FNSBSD office. It is ,of course, way to long to print here.
However- I agree w/ you that it is Jane-Joe Taxpayer ultimately paying for it.
A good example of how school funds are /can be spent and accounted for is always available through all of the home schooling services.
I believe that there is way to much $$ being spent for admin services and not on the teachers.Yet money will not a great teacher make! Pay the value and be accountable.
Also-the NCLB act is a joke. Our teachers can't teach it and the students struggle w/ it and the admin people have difficulties w/ it. It NEEDS to be re-pealed and/or disposed of.
Peace
"Half of the Fairbanks teachers are below average" - where does that come from? All of the teachers I know around here are truly dedicated. And, even if that "half" statement were true - wouldn't that argue for a better contract, to attract a higher caliber of teachers? When teachers can make more money/have a better standard of living elsewhere, like anyone else, they do so.
If the school district got $9 million from the state...where is it? Be wary of the FEA. They do not exist for education. Those members who know what is wrong with our school system are outnumbered by those members who don't care to change it.
How is it that with all the comments about all the extra hours put in by teachers the FEA is not responding? How is it that the standard of degrees and upgrades our public school teachers must have and maintain does not reflect itself in national math and reading skills?
Something is wrong here and it is not the teacher. Give them quality representation and use their well educated brains to make the real changes needed to provide a real education for our children.
We administer an education system....it ain't working. Get your ducks in a row and change it. And you call yourself the Fairbanks EDUCATION Association? How appropriate me thinks!
Correct me if i am wrong don't teachers make more than the averave income in the borough? Don't the administrators make even more than them? The school district needs to CUT the budget not raise it. How many hundred million a year are spent on education here? Throwing money at the problem has done nothing for education anywhere in the us except raise our taxes. Here is a plan CUT admistration by 50% reduce our taxes and give only the teachers that do their jobs a raise,fire the rest! And as for rice I have spoken to him and on most all of his questions he answers "I DON'T KNOW",I am thinking if he is running for office he should know more than his name and the UNION HE IS A PROUD MEMBER OF!
If teachers were paid on a performance scale, maybe it would be a way to save money.
The teachers have my full and total support. They have the incredible task of keeping our children safe, and on task. They are helping our students achieve local, state, and federal standards. PLEASE pay them accordingly. Many teachers stay well into the evening, and on weekends to plan and grade papers. To the rest of the public who are so anti-teacher: think about home schooling your children, or volunteer in the classroom. You can also receive and pay thousands (35) in student loans to become a teacher, and find the incredible task that each is responsible for.
buboy-- The only problem with a performance scale "especially in government" is the person that determines that scale is an uncle or a close friend. With many nephew's & nieces, plus friends in the system.
A professional should be paid more than the average local salary. It makes sense. Most professionals have some sort of formal training/education that costs money to get. Teachers are professionals. They have to get educated (go to school for usually 5 years for the BA and the teaching certificate), pay for that education (thousands of dollars paid out over 10 years), and continue paying for an education to continue being a teacher (thousands of dollars again--especially if it's a Master's degree). A lot of teachers take out loans to get their education.
It's not as if teachers are just some person off the street with no training/education. Teachers are well educated. They use their education to help kids and parents. MOST teachers love working with kids and spend MORE than 60 hours a week on their jobs (NOT including time spent as a spectator at student events—that’s even more hours!). That's more hours than a 12 month-a-year person will work. Teachers also spend a lot of their own money on their students and classrooms.
This district has GREAT teachers. This district also has GREAT kids and parents. They are all working together to make our community GREAT. If this district continues to drive its educational system into the ground by not giving teachers a worthwhile salary, which will cause a lack of good teachers from which to choose for jobs, the community will go down, as well. Don’t you think a strong educational system helps keep crime lower? If you research it, you’ll find this to be true.
There is no good reason to not give teachers a fair raise--not even if there's a few teachers who aren't worth it. The mass IS worth it.
Teachers' pay in Alaska hasn't kept up with inflation since the '80s. It's time turn that tide. In 2005, Alaska teachers were 50th in the state as far as percent change in pay since just '94 (DOWN 14.5% in terms of actual dollars earned—and the number is higher if we go all the way back to the ‘80s). Last time I checked, inflation and cost of living are going UP, not down.
Because it costs more to live here than many other places, FNSBSD teacher pay (while it looks good on paper) is not enough to attract new teachers. New teachers cannot afford to live here and pay all their bills. That's why there are not very many teachers in the district's hiring pool. If teachers strike, there are not enough non-working teachers here to replace the striking teachers.
No one has to prove that FNSBSD teachers are not performing. The district says they are. See the report at http://webdev.northstar.k12.ak.us/index..... This document shows how FNSBSD students are performing at a higher rate than the rest of AK and the rest of the US. Can't beat that!
Gil,
You bring up an important point about the high cost of living here. My husband is a teacher and we are considering moving elsewhere due, in part to COL. However, the borough doesn't have a problem attracting new teachers. There haven't even been hardly any openings and a lot of qualified teachers, like my husband are in the sub pool, even though he is a male, high school math teacher. He interviewed after the school year started for a position and there were 10 other interviewees for the same position! So, I don't think the borough has a problem attracting teachers.
However, it IS very expensive to live here in this harsh climate. And teachers do deserve a raise because it doesn't pay as well as a lot of other jobs that require less education and experience. But then reading some of these comments, I don't think this community really values public education, which is very sad. Teachers do DESERVE a raise, but what incentive does the borough have if they have almost a dozen qualified applicants lined up to take one job?
Some hiring pools/content areas are low or empty. There are certainly not enough there to replace current teachers if there is a strike.
News flash....it costs us ALL alot of extra money to live here. I don't see other career choices saying they should be paid more to live here over Anchorage just because of the colder climate.
Lets stay on topic about the raise, increase in income for real reasons, not using the climate as justification.
Not to mention, but need to mention, the admininstrators here seek out of state employment
and spend thousands on traveling out of state to hire out of state teachers and administrators.
Where's the instate spending? Come on people, wake up smell the coffee.
The real reason is that it's time for two reasons: to try to catch up with inflation and because the old contract also ran out last spring. It's time to negotiate--teachers aren't just arbitrarily coming out and saying, "Give me a raise because gas and oil recently went up." The old contract ran out.
I don't really understand the threat of a strike. To me the teachers should be thankful that they have a job that has benifits and at least a liveable wage. Yes they work hard for our kids. I just feel that money should be spent to make sure that all classes have enough books and materials for the kids. Instead of the teacher spending their own money to help a kid that needs help with supplies or for materials for the class the school board should allocate money for that. I also have a problem with the writer of this letters last comment. It sounds to me that the threatening comment of strike sounds like one of the kids they teach when they don't get their own way. In the end the only ones who will really suffer for this are t