Teacher Support Tuesday

I want to just take a moment to discuss a very pressing issue to me. I won’t normally discuss issues like this, but my mom is a teacher. My brother works a school district. I teach at the gym and my daughter will be entering the school system in the next couple of years. This should be an issue for any parent out there.

This morning, over 30,000 LAUSD teachers are on strike, attempting to better the schools for our children. This is not the first of teacher strikes across our country and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Why? Because our teachers deserve better working conditions, smaller class sizes and better pay. They want more counselors and nurses for our children’s health. Are these really such an unrealistic requests?

Many of our classrooms are filled with outdated books and have done away with the projects and programs that made learning fun. Budgets have been cut back to the point where teachers are buying even the simplest of supplies, pencils, paper, etc. How can we expect them to teach our children if they haven’t been provided with the proper resources?

Our children are sent to classrooms that have unpredictable heating and air systems, flooding, and other unsafe hazards. This is the environment that we, as parents, are forced to send our children to. How can we expect them to learn and retain that information if they are in conditions such as these?

We pay taxes to support our local schools. But really, have our schools benefitted from these funds? Lots of classrooms that I have walked into are much barer than I remember classrooms in my childhood being. Most of what you see in the classrooms, teachers have bought out of their own pocket, trying to bring what light and excitement they can. More and more though, it seems as if the districts look at our teachers as glorified baby sitters, than the trained educators and nurtures they are.

So, let’s just take a look at the difference in pay between those two jobs.

An LAUSD middle school teacher on average makes about $63,000 a year (from Google). Most schools are in session for 180 days a year. That’s about $350 a day. $5250 a month. Sounds like a good number. Right?

We’ll be conservative and say we pay a baby sitter $12 an hour. For roughly 7 hours a day. $84 dollars a day.

But wait. That’s for one kid. Most teachers have anywhere between 30-35 kids in a class at a time. We’ll still be conservative and say 30. 30 kids at $84/day is $2520. Now, if you take that number and multiply it by the 180 days in session. That’s roughly $453,600. $38,000 a month. That’s a close to what an entry level teacher makes in a YEAR. Big difference. Right? Of course, those are just estimated numbers, but it gives you an idea.

Daycares only allow there to be 10 kids to one teacher. That’s a third of the load we expect our teachers to take on. And while they may teach our children some things, they do not go the depths and lengths of teaching that the teachers in our Public School System do. The hours of lesson planning, the hours of grading. The hours spent making their classroom a safe and welcoming place for their kids.

Can you blame them for asking for a decent living wage in Los Angeles?

We expect so much out of our teachers and give them almost nothing in return. Accountability in our students and parents is at an all-time low. And when the child fails, we blame the teachers. Instead of the sources of the problems that are holding education back. Instead of taking accountability for our children’s education as parents.

I stand with the teachers of the LAUSD.

They are striking to put an end to teachers having to find a night job just so they can pay their bills and provide our children with the supplies they need to grow and thrive. They are striking for a better future for our children. For their education and their livelihood. How can anyone argue against that?