Comments on: Students join their teachers on the line http://www.ibabuzz.com/education/2010/04/29/students-join-their-teachers-on-the-line/ Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools Fri, 24 May 2013 21:57:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Cranky Teacher http://www.ibabuzz.com/education/2010/04/29/students-join-their-teachers-on-the-line/comment-page-1/#comment-25763 Cranky Teacher Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:47:27 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/education/?p=9056#comment-25763 It’s not just the district, it’s the whole state. I am really saddened at the dearth of activist leadership by the state teachers unions to have us all on the same page — all the public school teachers in the state should be on strike at the same time to wake people up to the fact that our current revenue and distribution models are broken.

Why is it so hard to see that investing in schools for poor and middle-class people is practical, not idealistic? That it is cheaper to help a child with a learning disability to read through intervention than to pay for their prison care later? To have a school psychologist who can talk a kid down from suicide or murder? To have enough security and truancy staff to make sure students are in school and not running the streets?

]]> By: David Orphal http://www.ibabuzz.com/education/2010/04/29/students-join-their-teachers-on-the-line/comment-page-1/#comment-25761 David Orphal Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:38:55 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/education/?p=9056#comment-25761 It’s true that teachers do not get paid near what they might in the private field. When I thought I might have to move out of the area, I began looking for work. One job I interviewed for offered $73,000 as a starting salary… a starting salary! That’s nearly $10,000 more than I make with 15 years of experience teaching in Oakland.

The one thing this private job didn’t have… All of the wonder young women and men that I get to teach every day here at Skyline High.

I teach because I love kids. The District must not take advantage of our love for our children in order to continue imposing the lowest pay in the county. I love kids, but I have to pay rent, too.

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