Mail Trib Op/Ed is ridiculous..

My comment to an Op/Ed in the Mail Trib, found HERE

The PERS "pickup" in raw numbers is a 6% reduction in the gross pay, which, oddly, is the same % as the raise. Hrm. Math "iz" hard, but I am pretty sure X+6-6=X, so... that would look a lot like "no raise"... Then, wait, current pay is based on 190 days worked (we can have the fight over what counts as work and whether that is fair in some other comment), but the NEW pay is based on 196 days worked, so... going back to X+6-6=X, lets change that to read: (X/190)+6-6>(X/196)... that looks a lot like "pay cut" (and in case you're curious, the added +1 and +1 in the subsequent years actually don't make up the difference of the added days in the X/190 vs X/196 calculation)

And THEN, just for kicks, let's consider that $67,000 earning teacher... 15 years of experience, right? (this salary number is arrived at by reading to the bottoms of the "BA+75 credits" column of the 549c salary schedule, then adding the Master's and Doctorate degree bumps, so... um... how many teachers in the district is that?

OH WAIT, but what about the degrees and credits earned BEFORE they got their teaching license? Seems the new contract language is a little vague on that. Only credits and degrees earned after licensure count in the new language. Seems that if the teaching license came on the heels of an MAT program, following a BA/S in a subject area (many of the secondary teachers), then the Masters and somewhere between 45 and 60 of those post-Bachelor credits won't count. So now that teacher with 15+ years of experience actually maxes out at the 8 or 10 year level and has a max pay (assuming they did get their Doctorate (cough) after licensure) somewhere from $49 to $52k... and, boy howdy, if they were making $67k this year and dropped to $49 or $52k, pretty sure that is a "pay cut", too... <

I've been teaching since 1992 (and in 549c since 2005). My credential came from a post-baccalaureate program that didn't include an additional degree. No Masters bump, no Doctoral bump, and fewer than 15 credits earned post-license. Right now, I am maxed out as a 12th year teacher (despite actually being in a classroom now for 20+ years), but with the new contract, I get to be maxed out as a 6th year teacher, unable to ever move again on the pay scale until I go back for about a dozen additional credits... then I can max out as an 8th year teacher while I pile up 15 more to earn the salary of a 10th year teacher. My "PAY CUT" under this contract will be almost exactly $20k; approximately 1/3 of my income will vanish instantly upon adoption. I know my home mortgage holder will understand if I prioritize my 5 month old's food. I will, of course, be looking for a different job should the contract somehow be adopted. And drawing down my IRA to hold off the creditors.

I am sure glad Ms. Wallen and Ms. Killen have been so forthcoming about why this is such a good deal for the teachers and we must just be pitching a little sandbox fit by not skipping happily over to Oakdale Street to cast our hearty "Aye" in favor of adopting it. The offer is flawed. The offer is insulting. The PR spin is repugnant. The Board should be cowed in shame, but apparently has no concept of how completely uninterested I and most of my colleagues are in having our already stagnant earnings fall off a cliff in a year where MORE MONEY HAS BEEN MADE AVAILABLE TO OREGON PUBLIC SCHOOLS as a result of economic upturn coupled with legislative action in Salem.

The divergence from what was written in the article and what is REAL is staggering.

Those of you who believe we are parasitic leeches should be thrilled.