Though full time teachers actually report to work 186 days, not 180, and even an average or above average teacher wage gets a lot smaller than $300 a day after you do the usual deductions for salaried work.

Hi. Thank you for your kind note. Certainly, I would love to visit such a nice school again.

I am curious about one thing you said. The District, and numerous news sources, have quoted that the average teacher pay in Oakland is approximately $54,000. You can find numerous cites pointing to this figure. 180 school days x $300 = $54,000. This does not include any benefits, which effectively raise the salaries. Given that, why would you say that the subs today were paid 2x as much?

1/2 of the $300 would be $150, x 180 days is about $27,000. The starting pay in Oakland, again based on many cites I’ve read, is around $38,000. Certainly I am not saying that the “only” days teachers work are actually the 180 school days, but it is a basic number to use in calculations. I am in no way trying to be argumentative with you. I am mearly trying to understand the numbers. I look forward to your explaining it as you are knowledgable in this area.

I’m glad to hear that you thought carefully about how to teach the students you worked with today, and I’m sure the kids had as decent an experience as they could have under the given conditions. I honestly think it’s a great thing for people who are considering getting a teaching license to start with actual experience in public schools.

But man, I’ve gotta tell you that what you did today was NOT going to be indicative of what you will actually experience if you find yourself, in the future, joining the people whose jobs you held today.

If the school you crossed into is anything like most schools in the district today, you got paid twice as much to teach half as many kids with 5 times the support and 1/25 as many expectations.

The children (more of them) and the nice school will still be there tomorrow. I honestly invite you to come visit us again, and see why so many of us were on the other side of the line.

The circumstances of filling in during the strike were unusual, but I took today as an opportunity to get to know some of the students at one of the local elementary schools. In my eyes, if I lived in Oakland and had to send my children to school today, I would want someone to put the children at ease and provide them with a good day.

I brought in several books of different levels and put advance thought into how to fill the day. We read stories, did math problems, constructed a complex story for language arts, and completed several worksheets corresponding to their current homework. We rounded out the day with about 20 minutes of extra outside time and a few games. I also taught a few students Scrabble and had them using the dictionary to find words.

Was it a perfect day? No. I am sure there was a structured lesson their normal teacher would have used. But was it a dangerous day? No, certainly not. The teachers on the picket line, I believe, would never endanger any child attending school. They really do have the childrens’ best interest at heart. Indicating otherwise is silly.

Regardless of the strike, the children attending school today deserved to be well cared for throughout the day, and I enjoyed the opportunity to meet the children and see a very nice school.

Where does this leave me? Well obviously I’m on the picket lines, keeping my children home, and crossing my fingers that more Measure E’s don’t get passed until the district actually uses the money in the same way in which they market it “To attract and retain qualified teachers”. An equitable public education is a civil right for all in our country. I think that some of you union & teacher bashers have forgotten that…but hey, you have your bigger and better jobs to tend to…All I am is a measly underpaid, under-respected, public school, tax paying teacher. Why should my opinion count?

That is one of the things the teachers in Oakland have been pointing out for years. Only a die-hard is willing to stay when the pay differences are so extreme as we get past the first few years. At least without questioning the wisdom of it. Rapid turnover does not help the education of the children in Oakland.

I am sad that the state is gutting the reduced class sizes. I am sad the district is going along with it. No matter what anyone says it is much easier to give attention to 20 children than 30 children.

The imposed contract says we will renegotiate wages next year and the year after. That sounds like fun! The district imposed the contract and this puts us back at the full bargaining table anyway. That sounds like fun! You know those teachers in Oakland love contract negotiations for, let’s see, it will be at least three years; maybe, if we are lucky, four. It really helps us focus on the children we work with. If we don’t go out on Thursday I am sure these trustworthy nice people who imposed the contract on us will give us a wonderful contract. They said such nice ideas at the meeting such as getting rid of the columns on our step and column pay scale this is without any suggestions of what they would put in its place. If they do it by test scores that should really draw teachers to schools that are struggling.

The teachers in the United States have to deal with the constant changes put into places by the pressures of political parties that do not know what they are talking about the majority of the time. One of the reasons a lot of teachers in Oakland no longer work in the flatland schools is because of the reorganization rules required by that brilliant legislature No Child Left Behind.

I personally think the consistent degrading of the public education system is purposely put together by the political powers because the public education system gives power to the people. This takes away power from the elite class in our country. It also assists in this degradation if the political powers choose one scapegoat to blame for all the problems. The teachers did it all! It has nothing to do with the purposeful cutting of funding across education, the punishment methods for schools that are struggling, social ills, writing of standards and tests by people who have no knowledge of developmental levels, forced dumbing down of the curriculum, forced curriculum use that does not support the children, class, or racial issues.

Honestly, how many hills teachers would voluntarily go back to teaching in the flat lands with no difference in pay? I have not heard of a single one.

If we want equity for all Oakland students it means having a well-qualified teacher in every class, every day. It means turnover of less than 10% per year. That’s what the schools in the hills get. If it is good enough for them it should be good enough for every Oakland elementary students. It is that simple, really.

Generally we think of a generation as 25 years – in some neighborhoods a generation is 16 or 17 years. This child conceived is raised in poverty without parents to help with homework, volunteer at school or serve nutritious meals. To educate parents we must educate the child, and keep that child in school. We must be able to increase the generational age gap.

Montclair parents what if I said you will need to give up 25% of your teachers this year, next year another 25% of your teachers, the third year you only need to give up 3 or 4 but you will have to give up at least 2 every year thereafter. And, even though the teachers are gone, your school still needs to provide consistency in curriculum across the grades, keep up morale and help furnish those new classrooms with supplies, a classroom library full of books and manipulatives for teaching math. That classroom library is there because the teacher has been at your school for a long time and has been given books by other families, they have the materials because the PTA gave them funds and they have left over supplies from previous years. But if you get rid of the teachers you get rid of their supplies.

I guarantee every hills school would be questioning turnover like that. It would not be acceptable in any way, shape or form. Yet it seems to be okay to have that in the “other” schools.

For information on the 30 million word gap see: archive.aft.org/pubs-reports/american…/catastrophe.html

And, I apologize I made an error – It is not a 30 million word gap by kindergarten – it is a 30 million word gap BY AGE 3.