Teachers

It's not that difficult, hell you can get rid of teachers in Texas if you think they are teaching CRT.

Teachers get evaluations goals every year and if those goals are not met yearly you don't have to offer the teacher a new contract.

 

Why after multiple times being called out, do you keep using HISD as a baseline for teacher pay? I hate to say it, but it has essentially built in hazard pay. Plus the fact that most HISD teachers have long commutes or have a very high cost of living.

My wife has been teaching for 15 years, won 4 state titles in a great district, and only makes 56k plus a measly 2k stipend. Under your theorizing, my wife would be making like 80k which isn’t the reality for the vast majority of teachers in Texas most of whom started before or around when my wife did when the starting salaries were in the low 40’s at best and just now they are getting closer to the bottom range of what a HISD pays starting teachers.

 

What tremendous benefits?

Benefits have been getting cut yearly trying to save money in budgets.

Most private sector jobs have better benefits than teachers.

 

I think the pension system needs to be phased out, it is too costly and not sustainable in 2022. I would advocate phasing out the pension system and increasing pay, especially for teachers that are there a long time and perform well. The starting salary is less the issue than the increases there after.

How much? I don't know honestly, but if you are going to strip away or chip away the pension then that money should go directly to the pay towards teachers. I also think that there should be further incentives for when teachers have students that perform well.

 

Teacher salary schedules look consistent across school districts in Houston. It’s not just HISD. You think I’m cherry picking Houston because its some sort of rich magical teacher Utopia? I’m taking Houston because that’s where most of us live. Duh.

 

Study: It’s Far Too Hard to Fire Bad Teachers

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/study-its-far-too-hard-to-fire-bad-teachers/2016/12

citing this study:

https://fordhaminstitute.org/nation...wenty-five-diverse-districts-rarely-get-fired

 

You been in other threads before, do you limit yourself to only discussing local events?

Not sure why you can't step out of Houston for a little bit to discuss the teacher issue as a whole. It's not just a local issue.

 

Not all teachers get pension plans, and pension plans vary by state, and many state pension plans have been underfunded, so teachers have been required to contribute more into their pension plans, and states have cut benefit plans. All this makes it tougher to attract new qualified teachers.

But... again, you avoided my question... if you believe we are spending too much on education, where will you cut?

 

I will say that dismissing someone in the public sector takes time and requires a lot of paper work. So yeah, in reality your job is usually a hell of a lot more safe in the public sector. No one wants to do paper work, so in reality you really really really really have to **** up. Hell, I remember when my first boss at the City of Houston told me about a previous worker he had that had pretended to have an engineering degree. Of course, the previous manager relied on HR to screen the candidate, but yeah, she slipped through the cracks and didn't actually have any engineering background. When my boss came on board, he quickly realized how bad she was and did a bit of research to see if he could pull up her background. Low and behold, the lady did not have an engineering degree. He immediately tried to get rid of her, but he had to go through a mountain of paperwork and it took a freaking year to get rid of her.

He tried to get rid of other underperformers, but gave up since it just took waaaaay too much time. Instead, he would "Milton" people and you would just see them disappear from our group into god knows where lol.

 

You're asking a disingenuous question. You're asking me to have complete knowledge of a system which takes in like $700 billion a year and how to more efficiently administer its finances. That's a disingenuous question. You can form the opinion that a system isn't getting the most out of the funds given to it without having exact knowledge about the inefficiencies and waste.

Do you think inefficiencies and waste don't occur in education spending in the United States? You think every dollar is used well and efficiently?

 

Our tax dollars at work. Love to see it.

 

Ok, I'm happy to look at state wide or national averages if you'd like. I haven't been looking at the worst paid or the best paid. Just jobs that are local and seem reasonably accessible.

 

No doubt man. I'm definitely familiar with some of the government sector jobs here locally and yeah, **** takes way too long to move along. I definitely hate to see the inefficiencies since those are my tax dollars, but for whatever reason, government jobs are not always focused on efficiency.

 

@NewRoxFan Here you go, ponder how many Miltons are absorbing education spending.

 

Bit of real talk , just passed my 7-12 math content exam .. definitely considering / trying to teach in Texas soon .

not sure what I’m in store for . I’ve taught before , but never full-time public . Did some Econ courses for a summer program , but I’m sure this experience will be very different . Not looking forward to 30 kid classrooms , dealing with ******* parents (I’m sure there will be a few ) , and standardized testing ... granted I’m confident I can teach.

Any Kevlar suggestions ?

Starting pay is Pretty good factoring vacation Don’t wanna work somewhere where I’m expected to go the extra mile outside of work hours , though some work outside of work is expected.

I would say I’m doing it for the money first and foremost. I enjoy teaching , but I’m not passionate about it . Will prolly try to change careers or move into tutoring etc (In a couple of years )the max $ is pretty pretty low .

I’ll give y’all the inside scoop after a year

 

I know a guy who does tutoring full time. We don't really have the relationship where I could ask his annual income but it doesn't seem bad. The hourly rate can be pretty good depending on the subject and the clientele and what not. Doesn't have the benefits though obviously.

They get to teach but skip a lot of the parts that make it so distasteful and make a pretty good hourly rate.

 

HISD no. I'm sure the vast majority of those here are actually in the surrounding areas of the suburbs of Houston which is where most people live in Houston. Many of us are also from Houston, and it's our city we can home, but live in Austin, SA, and North Texas areas. So the experience with ALL of Texas' education system actually makes the conversation much more nuanced than just focusing on HISD.

You also didn't read what I said about factoring in legacy teacher salaries. Not current starting salaries. The vast majority of teachers did not come into the profession at that scale. So you cannot assume that because the current scale is 58 to 80, that a 15 year teacher is making 75K. It's more likely they make 62K because most Texas teachers have that amount of experience on average probably 10 to 15. The Texas Teachers union has been a complete failure at pulling up legacy teachers to be within the appropriate pay scale that is currently in place due to rising cost of living, etc.

I don't know how you keep ignoring this fact. New teacher salaries listed and the Texas Academic Performance Reports conveniently leave this out. The only thing the TAPR that they did in 18-19 will show is a recommendation that they give a 2% cost of living increase. They say nothing about the need to increase enough to align with the current scale that is set for new hires to align with proper cost of living, and value as a veteran teacher.

Plus there is the fact that the Texas Education Board and the TRA gutted the benefits prior to these changes in the new starting salary ranges recommended. So they are paying less long term benefits in order to pay more in salary. So the legacy teachers in that range of 8 to 20 years are getting royally screwed because their pay is not in line, and they have sh$tty benefits now.

 

When I said "Houston" I was counting the suburbs such as Pasadena, Klein, Katy, Cy-Fair... I figured that was apparent.

Basically all of the districts in "The Houston area" (better?) have the same salary schedule. New hires start at $58 across the board in the Houston area.

As to your other point, that's something to keep in mind, I haven't seen the data on it.

 

No... its a very valid question. Its easy to complain about a problem, its hard but worthwhile to consider solutions. You claim teachers should not be paid more, you claim there is enough if not too much spending on education and you claim there is mismanagement of existing spending. So... where is that mismanagement. So what are the solutions?

Sure, I believe there are inefficiencies. But I also believe teachers are underpaid and should be paid more. If I had to cut spending... I would target athletics, facilities especially. HS sports has gone way overboard with stadiums, gyms, workout rooms, etc. And I played ports throughout school and had a daughter pay basketball and track throughout school. I'd much rather had that money redirected to teachers and books.

 

I have no clue what you are posting. Its certainly not a list of improvements to spending on education or increasing teacher pay.