Denver Teacher's Strike

[johnflesh]

Denver Teachers Strike Over Base Pay

Denver schoolteachers are going on strike over how their base pay is calculated after more than a year of negotiations between the teachers union and the school district failed to reach agreement.

It is the first teacher strike for the city in a quarter century and it affects about 71,000 students across 147 schools, Colorado Public Radio reports.

More power to them.

Teachers hold this country together in more ways than teaching kids. Some of the stories this morning, of kids going to school without staff have been pretty interesting. "Bedlam" and "unsafe" was used to describe some.

 

[johnflesh]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1095009145218977792

 

[johnflesh]

Many schools are deciding to close after all. Thankfully.

Only... only if they had any clue that Monday morning teachers would be striking. Only if they had the proper information to make an adult decision to close these schools beforehand...

 

[OlGuy]

Mo' money. Teachers strike In Sacramento was getting dirty with teachers among other things ,calling for the investigation and removal of the super for gross missmanagent, to put it nice terms. Interviews on the street were more visceral. Mayor didn't take the teachers side on that issue.

 

[OldGaffer]

@BigLeRoy has said teachers in Colorado have really, really shitty pay<shrug> Don't know of that applied to the Denver area or not. I remember when Colorado Springs city government was so cheap they quit mowing the lawns in the city parks and turned off the fucking street lights.

 

[boontito]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1095009145218977792

Not really related to the strike, but kudos to those kids. That's a real melting pot of celebration. If only adults would look that happy when all gathered together.

 

[BigLeRoy]

@BigLeRoy has said teachers in Colorado have really, really shitty pay<shrug> Don't know of that applied to the Denver area or not. I remember when Colorado Springs city government was so cheap they quit mowing the lawns in the city parks and turned off the fucking street lights.

It is bad in Colorado in general, but of course it is FAR worse in the rural areas than it is in the urban areas. Indeed, there is a terrible SHORTAGE of teachers in the rural areas of Colorado----that is so bad that a lot of those rural students are simply not getting ANY advanced science or math courses in high school. They are being CHEATED out of a good education. Does America even care? Apparently not......

But yes, I've heard of Denver teachers having to work two or three side jobs, just to make ends meet and keep a roof over their heads, and/or to have up to three or four roommates.

Truthfully, I think a young person would have to be OUT OF THEIR MINDS to go into teaching these days. It is not a profession that America values. Shrug.

 

[bajisima]

It is bad in Colorado in general, but of course it is FAR worse in the rural areas than it is in the urban areas. Indeed, there is a terrible SHORTAGE of teachers in the rural areas of Colorado----that is so bad that a lot of those rural students are simply not getting ANY advanced science or math courses in high school. They are being CHEATED out of a good education. Does America even care? Apparently not......

But yes, I've heard of Denver teachers having to work two or three side jobs, just to make ends meet and keep a roof over their heads, and/or to have up to three or four roommates.

Truthfully, I think a young person would have to be OUT OF THEIR MINDS to go into teaching these days. It is not a profession that America values. Shrug.

It appears the strike might be over soon. Saw on the news that now the Denver teachers will be making up to three times more (base salary) than some rural teachers in CO. Can that be right? Will they strike now too? I assume that these areas are poorer, can they afford this?

 

[Reason10]

There are different rules for different states. Florida has no teacher strikes because the statutes consider them to be government employees and it is illegal for them to strike. (Think back to Reagan and PATCO, the air traffic controllers.) Not all states have that. Colorado apparently has no such rule. Apparently, neither does Wisconsin. It differs, state by state.

The Florida unions, (and there are many) have very little power, in that this is a right to work state, which means no closed shops anywhere. A teacher cannot be forced to join a union in order to get a school contract.

So what is the point of Florida teachers unions?

A couple of things: (and remember, this varies, county by county). Often unions can use their sheer numbers to get good deals on group health and life insurance. Not all counties offer such benefits. I didn't know that. I thought they all did. Two weeks ago, a teacher during lunch told me she needed to get a health plan. So it isn't universal throughout the state.

Secondly, (and this is REALLY valuable) unions offer dispute resolution when there are conflicts between them and students or them and parents. Yes, the little brats are smart enough to lie about a teacher touching them inappropriately, and the unions often are able to head this off at the pass. Yes, it's bad enough that the little shits would think to do such a despicable thing. Unions save a lot of careers in this manner.

Okay, the conservatives here are probably wondering if the unions are protecting some teachers who are lousy at their jobs and should be fired. Are these incompetent teachers tenured and able to coast through the job while doing a crappy job?
I haven't seen any evidence of that in this county. I have seen one teacher suspended from the job for a few weeks (I even subbed for her for one week) because she slugged a student. The prevailing rumor was that she was getting surgery, but management took me aside and told me the truth.

Yes, there are bad teachers. I saw a lot more of them up in Orlando than this town. Here, with very little exception, I've seen maybe 99 percent totally dedicated teachers who go above and beyond the call of duty. They work 12 hour days mostly. They take their day home with them.

 

[Reason10]

It appears the strike might be over soon. Saw on the news that now the Denver teachers will be making up to three times more (base salary) than some rural teachers in CO. Can that be right? Will they strike now too? I assume that these areas are poorer, can they afford this?

One of the more inflammatory statements I've made about teacher pay has pissed off a lot of conservatives. But I work in the system and I see this on a daily basis. (Bear in mind, this is just one county, and they all are totally different.)

McDonalds treats its knucklehead burger flippers better than a lot of counties treat their school teachers. After a few months on the job, some idiot who dropped out of high school WILL get a raise. I've seen teachers in this county taken on larger and larger work loads with NO corresponding raise in pay even after 7 years on the job.