Teacher hissy-fits and their absurd salary demands.

A local woman of numbers did an analysis of the typical school year for teachers (at the end of this post) who are, I believe, already absurdly overpaid for both what they do and how long they do it each year.

As I understand it, the teaching year is statutorily set at a minimum of 183 - 7 hour or so days per year.

For that, teachers in the Evergreed School District are demanding... DEMANDING... a 30% pay increase over the next 3 years.

That, of course, is insane.  No teacher is worth that kind of a raise and these morons need to remember that those of us paying their salaries do NOT see that kind of an increase, anywhere.

The product teachers punch out like movie tickets... when they managed to graduate at all (Around 1 in 5 don't make it) are sadly not all that prepared for the world in any senses, let alone the academic.

In Hockinson, my two graduates of Hockinson high school did very well academically: one was a 3.6 GPA, one a 3.1.

Neither could pass the math placement test at Clark College.

Go figure.

Anyhoo, like teachers all over the state, Hockinson teachers are gearing up to throw their OWN hissy fit in a district where property taxes exploded as a result of the GOP Senate ripoff known as the McCleary decision.

The problem is the pay, benefits, retirement and so forth of these prima donnas is simply getting out of hand.

This woman professional posted her analysis... only to be met with the standard

Make sure you factor in the work done at home, and during the days school is not in session. Most of classroom set up and curriculum planning is do e on our own time, as well as time spent answering emails and student questions, the time we volunteer for advising student clubs and meeting with parents after their work day is finished.

Nonsense.

Before I rip this attitude of entitlement to shreds I need to start with this part of this idiocy first: 

(T)he time we volunteer for advising student clubs and meeting with parents after their work day is finished.

As a teacher, you would THINK this person would understand what the word "volunteer" actually means.  Clearly, she does not.

So, for her edification, I'll consult one of the dozens of online dictionaries available to help her out with that:

vol·un·teer

[ˌvälənˈtir]

NOUN

volunteers (plural noun)

1. a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task.

   synonyms: subject · participant · case · client · patient · guinea pig

   • a person who works for an organization without being paid.
   • a person who freely enrolls for military service rather than being conscripted, especially a member of a force formed by voluntary enrollment and distinct from the regular army.
   • a plant that has not been deliberately planted.
   • 
     

     law
     a person to whom a voluntary conveyance or deposition is made.

VERB

volunteers (third person present) · volunteered (past tense) · volunteered (past participle) · volunteering (present participle)

1. freely offer to do something.

   "he volunteered for the job" ·
   

   [more]

   "I rashly volunteered to be a contestant"
   

.______________________________________________________

So.  This paragon of altruistic virtue now believes she should get paid for volunteering.

See, *I* volunteer.  I have worked in a mobile food bank on a monthly basis for the last 6 years or so.

I also volunteer at the Clark County Veterans Assistance Center every week.

I don't expect to get paid for any of it.  I wouldn't TAKE money for any of it.

You see, THAT'S what it MEANS to VOLUNTEER.

As for some nebulous claim about "work done at home," how do we know any of that is true?

"Classroom set up" is also voluntary and can certainly be accomplished during the school day: teachers should put in an 8 hour work day like anyone else.

"Answering emails and student questions?"

Gee.  Who knew THAT wasn't a part of teaching?  Is it possible to answer their questions at school?  Again, this seems to be a "volunteer" issue... I mean, how did *I* ever make it out of school without being able to email my teacher who would then drop everything else in their life to answer me after school hours when they've gone home.

While this IS the typical response from these greedy slime, none of it justifies anything.

Here's the thing: teachers, if you don't like the pay, the benefits, the retirement and the working conditions?

Then feel free to quit.

You see, I have to wonder: what level of intelligence did a teacher have when, in choosing this job, they failed to fully understand the requirements?

And when they signed the contract TO teach, how is it they didn't seem to understand what the job PAID for their part time, 183 day gig?

Look, I get that it's all about teacher greed.  The McCleary decision was a scam that the Legislature should have... and easily could have... ignored.  But the GOP-controlled Senate sold us out with Sen. Ann "Gas Tax" Rivers being the lead saleswoman.

The result was this explosion in our property taxes, increases unheard of in this state's history.

And now the teachers and their unions want to rape us and extort us by threatening to go on yet another series of illegal strikes.

Here's the thing, teachers: you are once again holding your academic gun to the heads of our children to extort more money going into YOUR pocket from out of ours.

If you don't like the deal the districts are offering, then feel free to sue the districts in question.  But now, you've lost your cover and the truth has blown the lid off:  your bogus strikes have NEVER been "for the kids."  You just use them like a shield... like ISIS used civilians as a shield to stop air strikes.

As it is, what these teacher strikes/extortion efforts have taught us is that NO number will EVER be high enough.

Pay them $200,000 this year, and next year, they'd want $10,000 more.

Sadly, the quality of the product they actually produce is never in question: bring up the issue of teacher accountability (Which the GOP-Senate failed to address in any way, meaningful or otherwise) and the teachers lose their minds because, well, you know: they can never be like any OTHER employee, right?  The best teachers can never be paid for being the best, and the worst teachers can never get fired, right?

But THIS time as you striking teachers go about your efforts to extort more money out of us, remember:  that is not the way to get taxpayer support and in the end, when you need it most?

It ain't gonna be there.

Here is the entire analysis by Tiffany Couch, Forensic Accountant Extraordinaire.

Because I'm an infinitely curious person, I decided to look at the local school calendars and figure out the number of days a typical teacher works. I assumed they had to work 10 days before school starts and 2 days after (very generous, based on what I know about my teacher friends). I assumed they had to work all snow make-up days. Total days worked = 192. The rest of the year, they get 45 no-work days and 23 paid holidays. In other words, they get 68 no-work days, the equivalent of 13.5 weeks, or 3 months plus a week of no work per year (this does NOT include weekends). 

Conversely, someone in my office works 236 days per year. This is 251 working days minus 15 days of PTO (fairly standard). They also get 9 days of holiday pay. In other words, they get 24 no-work days, the equivalent of 1 month and not quite another week of work. 

The difference in working days is 45 days. 9 weeks. More than 2 months. 

When you start to look at the equivalent hourly rate between a teacher who works 192 days and someone making the same in a full-time job the difference per hour is between 5 and 7 dollars, depending where on the scale the teacher falls.  

And this is before medical, dental, and pension benefits. Each teacher gets a little more than 15% of their annual salary posted to a pension account (for a teacher making $50,000 this equates to $7,500 in additional benefit).  

If your company needed to get its product to market, needed to pay its debt, and ensure that its people were paid, would you agree to double-digit raises? What would happen to your company if you did?