APS short 276 teachers

[aries63]

I think this "recipe" by Rebecca Klein based on the Kansas teacher shortage applies here in New Mexico and elsewhere:

The How To Create A Teacher Shortage Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup of rhetoric against teachers

2 pounds of bills and programs that attempt to de-professionalize teaching (specifically, a proposed bill that would make it easier to jail teachers for teaching materials deemed offensive and a new program that lifts teacher licensure requirements in certain districts)

3 tablespoons of a lack of due process rights for teachers

½ cup of finely diced repeated budget cuts amid a state revenue crisis

1 stalk of a new school funding system that is currently being challenged in state court

2 grinds of growing child poverty throughout the state

3 tablespoons of low teacher pay

1/3 cup of large numbers of teacher retirements

[nmguy]

[quote=aries63;40995597]From the article posted by funkymonkey:

"The state of California has not been spared. Students in the Bay Area of San Francisco may find their teacher is a central office staffer, as schools scramble to put an adult in the classroom. Although the California shortage is most acute in the northern part of the state, some lawmakers are concerned that it is spreading from north to south."



The new superintendent of the Palo Alto Unified School District, in Nothern California, cannot buy a house in the city where he works, even though he makes $300,000 per year and has been given a $1million, interest-free house loan from the district. He says he'll probably end up purchasing a townhouse.

[lobo]

The median APS classroom teacher salary is not 50k, it's 41k and that's after 10 years of experience. Teachers cannot move up to the 50k tier unless they have a Master's Degree or are nationally board certified. Starting salary is 34k even with a Master's degree. After 3 years, a teacher can move up to 40k after going through a state dossier process. The they have to wait another 3 or 4 years to move up another tier to the 50k salary and agin have to submit a dossier to the state dept. of ed. Once at 50k, they get a dollar raise per year unless the legislature passes a raise that is not vetoed by the governor. There has only been one raise in the last 8 years. That raise was 1% which was offset by a 1.2% increase in retirement contributions (which have increased 4% in the last 10 years). When you factor in the increase in health insurance premiums over the years (another one is coming this December), teachers are taking home less pay than they did several years ago.

This is how Susana Martinez feels about teacher salaries in private. She is talking to her advisor Jay McClesky on the phone during her election campaign.

Scroll down to the first soundcloud recording to listen.

https://progressnownm.wordpress.com/...graphic-audio/

Also, I don't know if you've looked inside at apartments lately, but a $600 apartment is not very nice! I don't find it acceptable for a new teacher to have to live in a dump and have to rely on government assistance to feed a family.

Originally Posted by aries63

For example a quick search shows that the median salary for a public school teacher in Berkeley is $60,000, and average rent there for a 1 BR apartment is $3044/month. In Albuquerque (Taos is harder to find) median teacher salary is $50,000, and average 1 BR is $633/month. In this environment it would make better economic sense to take a teaching job in Albuquerque.