Thursday, May 19, 2016 25
Coastal View News • Tel: (805) 684-4428
What are public school teachers worth? CVN
A MONTHLY MUSE MELINDA WITTWER If you ask someone in public education why she became a teacher, one person might say, “I want to change lives,” or, “I enjoy working with children,” or “I want to have vacations off with my family.” I can guarantee the answer would not be, “I want to get into education to get rich.” Having been a teacher myself, I’ve heard all the misconceptions over the years. “You are so lucky to get all those paid vacations.” Teachers get paid only for the days they work. Each school year has so many working days—approximately 175 to 180. Each teacher’s yearly salary is divided by the number of work days and that is the teacher’s daily rate. Teachers do not get paid for summer nor can they collect unemployment. Usually teachers have their salaries divided into 10 equal payments (September through June) so receive only 10 checks. This means two months with no income. And if teachers are hired to teach summer school, this extra pay is not included when it comes time to figure out retirement. I’ve also been told, “Teachers have such a short work day. Class starts at 8 and ends at 3. How hard can that be?” Personally I was at school in Oxnard by about 7:15 five days a week. I rarely took more than 20 minutes to eat lunch, made calls to parents during breaks, and made sure to use the bathroom whenever I was near the office because it’s not wise to leave 32 seventhgraders alone even for a few minutes. I did try to depart from school between 3:30 and 4 each afternoon but usually spent an additional hour each night doing paperwork and grading. The weekends were no exception. I have a friend who is still teaching first grade in Ventura, and she spends two to four hours each weekend at her school prepping for the following week. You see, teaching is one of those jobs that is never totally finished. Teachers can always find more to do. And, of course, there’s the teacher pension, which is “making retired teachers rich at the expense of the taxpayer.” First, a large part of that retirement was withheld from each teacher’s paycheck. Second, the payout once a teacher retires is determined by the number of years taught, the age of the teacher, and the amount of the teacher’s salary. Unlike public officials in city, county, or state positions, public school teachers rarely make over $80,000 or $90,000 at the very top of the pay scale so pension amount limits are pretty much built in. Unfortunately, California is one of the states that penalizes teacher pensions if social security is also on the table. A retired public school teacher who is a widow will not be allowed to collect
If we want good teachers in Carpinteria, we need competitive pay rates. If we want dedicated teachers in Carpinteria, we need a good benefit package. If we want the best teachers to stay teaching in Carpinteria, we need to give our teachers the best offer we can possibly afford. most if not all of her deceased husband’s social security benefits (or her own if she earned them). This seems not only unfair but should be illegal. There has been pressure on Congress over the years to correct this issue, but as we all know, Congress has been way too busy solving so many other problems. Consider this, a person must have a four-year college degree plus one more year of graduate school to become a credentialed teacher in California. The average starting salary is $35,000 to $40,000. If teachers took their college degrees to the business world, they would have the potential to make a lot more money. But people generally become teachers because they want to teach, period. And, yes, along the way it would be nice to support a family, buy a house, pay for groceries and maybe even save for college and/or retirement. We ask teachers to educate our children, counsel them, inspire them, protect them, keep them out of trouble, and on and on. We expect coaching and extracurricular events and field trips and phone calls and notes and personal attention. After all, we the taxpayers are the ones paying the bills. Now I am generally conservative where money is concerned. I believe our school district should have a budget that provides enough to pay bills even if something unexpected happens. In its questionable wisdom, the state of California demands school districts come up with a budget before this same state tells each district how much funding it will get. Not a very bright or constructive way to do business. Thus each district has a general reserve fund, in part, to balance the unpredictable flow of money from Sacramento. How much is really needed in this fund is open to debate. So I ask again, how much is a good teacher worth? As much as we can afford to pay and a little more. If we want good teachers in Carpinteria, we need competitive pay rates. If we want dedicated teachers in Carpinteria, we need a good benefit package. If we want the best teachers to stay teaching in Carpinteria, we need to give our teachers the best offer we can possibly afford. We can’t afford not to. Melinda Wittwer first moved to Carpinteria in 1972 and taught mostly junior high students in Oxnard during her 25-year career. Now retired, she enjoys pottery, writing, books and travel.
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