Woodstock CT Café

“Why extremists always focus on women remains a mystery to me. But they all seem to. It doesn’t matter what country they’re in or what religion they claim. They want to control women. They want to control how we dress, they want to control how we act, they even want to control the decisions we make about our own health and bodies.”

Here’s Hillary’s full address after a one-minute introduction videoed at the bottom of this webpage at the Daily Beast.

From John: Are we living in Afghanistan where women don’t own their own name? Our extremist politicians and certain Cafe commenters remind me of the terrible situation for Afghan women if the US vacates that country. I wonder if the repetitious attacks on teachers’ pay in Woodstock are more an attack on women by arrogant threatened men since women make up the vast majority of K-8 teachers.

From Teacher’s Point of View: “In order to be a teacher, a person has to achieve a minimum of 6 years of college (due to the law requiring a Master’s degree). If a person deciding on a career is choosing a job, why would they consider one that requires more money for schooling, more time commitment for education and training, but less pay. If you could go to college for 4 years (or no years), and make the same money as someone that must invest in 6 years, why go 6 years. If teacher pay does not stay competitive, young people with promise will not pursue a teaching career. I fear then that the smartest, and the ones with the most promise, will choose other jobs. I feel education needs to bring in the best to teach our children. You have a right to disagree with all that, and I can respect that.”

from Ron

The Teachers are not at the heart of the education expense. (Yes, I know that about 75 to 80% of the school budget is driven by human costs!). The issue is with our state and federal requirements for minimum education for teachers, administrators and others who work within the school districts.

Loadstar mentioned paying a PE teacher 87k/year. Before people laugh at that, please look at the different pay scales for teachers within the state of Conn. Also pay attention to the upper end of those pay ladders and add in department chair as additional baselines to what a teacher can earn.

Before everyone jumps on me, please understand that given the minimum education (6 years) and holding a Masters degree along with continued education requirements someone who has 20 to 25 years in an industry with a minimum of a Masters is making that or much more! I think that education is critical to helping someone be able to have the intelligence to understanding to educate today’s children.

Take a look at what the State of Connecticut requires for someone to be certified within this state to teach. Once you get this as a baseline, take a look at other states and their minimum requirements and you will see that this is a State Level problem. CT is one of the hardest to get certified in to teach in the US. Read the rest of this entry »

from Con

It’s hard to understand your seemingly personalized anger and alienating attitude toward the Teaching Profession. Repeatedly you’ve claimed that teacher’s don’t know what it’s like ‘out there in the real world’. That is quite an ignorant point of view, as that profession is one of the oldest in the nation and anyone who’s pursued it has had equal opportunity to examine and choose among all courses of studies and professional goals as all of their classmates who chose other paths.

Teachers ARE in ‘the real world’ and they have had to pay for 6 or more years of College and Post-Graduate studies – how do you think they paid? If it’s by student loans then their monthly loan payments alone must be staggering. You just seem to have some personal anger against teachers and paint them as The Scapegoat in complex and somewhat intractable fiscal situation.

Teacher’s deserve our full support; they deserve as much salary as possible for all the reasons already pointed out. They literally shape the future of this Nation and if you would think about it instead of reacting out of hand, you might realize that America’s very competitiveness in the future is dependent on Teachers more than any other single group you can name. They are hugely important and valuable.

A deep Recession hurts us all, some far more than others and unfairly so – that is NOT an argument for cutting Teacher’s pay or in any way coming down on them. It’s astounding that you reach some of the baseless conclusions you come up with. If you could leave your emotions at the door you might realize that personalizing comments and CONSTANTLY insulting others only destroys your own credibility – it’s surely not effective against them in any debate! Read the rest of this entry »