panda? you've gotta be kitten me!

you had me until "prisons"

oh my, she named her kid panda. Thats the kinda name that will get a kid wedgies all throughout middle school.

So teachers get 14 weeks off, which makes their hourly wage ~ $47/hr, and they're complaining about a yearly 5% COL raise and an average of $75,000/year?

DA FUQ?!

@4 Well, they work 60+ hours a week and get spat upon by the public, and it's hard to get a decent temporary job in that "summer time off" period, so, yes: they want a lot more money.

Kimya rocks!

@5:

And that's assuming they're not taking extra classes or workshops during the summer, which are required as part of their maintaining core competencies in their grade level or subjects of specialty and for which they pay a goodly percentage of their salary out-of-pocket (along with all the OTHER things they pay for out-of-pocket during the school year), or teaching summer school or program camps, or whatever else they can get, because yeah, who is going to hire someone with a college degree for three months when there are a bunch of teenagers out there who will do those temporary jobs for a fraction of the pay?

Seriously, I think people who complain about teachers making too much are those C and D grade former students who hated school to begin with, and who were too lazy to even attempt to learn anything useful in the 12 years of opportunity they were given.

"ryjan" two things: 1, this strike is about a LOT more than money. If you take a moment to read everything the teachers are asking for, you will see that. You can start on the SEA site here: http://goo.gl/My7SA3. 2, teachers don't punch in at 8:00 and out at 3:00. They come early, leave late, work nights and weekends and most every teacher I know (three siblings and many friends) works through half the summer to close out the previous year and get ready for the next. Look, I know you're trolling and I guess you caught me in your garbage net, but I didn't feel like your willful ignorance could go unaddressed.

@5, 60 hours a week? LOL. As a kid who grew up with a teacher parent, I repeat: LOL

And then the spit on by the public? No, spit on by the parents who should never have become parents. Granted, that's 50% of them. Don't like it? Don't go into teaching.

And I didn't even touch on the part about the union protection of shitty teachers or the buying of the state supreme court!

Apologies, the above comment was directed to "seatownr" not "ryjan"

@7, our kids? This is about paying teachers more, it has nothing to do with money for kids.

Half of these kids should never have been born. That's the real reason education blows in this country. With parents who don't give a shit about their education, the kids surely won't give a shit about it. Throwing money at them solves nothing.

@10 I guess we're both glad you didn't have any children.

We have to Fight

For the Right

To Recess!

Good grief PP.

I support the strike. I think that educators should be paid well. They encourage, support, and TEACH all kids regardless of if the parents help at home or if society respects education. I think that kids should be able to run around twice a day and kids who are schools with high poverty rates need it the most. I believe that monthly testing and tying that testing to if a teacher is teaching is ridiculous. I have been having discussions with my kids to explain why it is important that the teachers are striking.

And if you don't support the strike, the use this time to educate your child as to why. If it is teachers are selfish then explain why. If you think that special education teacher should have more children to see and be responsible for, then explain why. If you think that recess is unimportant, explain why.

And look at the pay scale. And the. Do the math. Yes, a lot of teachers make a lot of money. But many of the them have advanced degrees and in the private sector they would be making more money for similar education and experience. And including principals or admins the average salary for SPS personel is bad math.

@10 doth thou not spit?

That's awesome Kimya but can you please vaccinate your kid?

All that shit you heard from Jenny McCarthy? Lies, Kimya. All lies. Do it for your kid, and do it for everybody else's kid. Weak herd immunity kills babies Kimya. Not your kid, but somebody else's brand new kid who can't yet get vaccinated for whooping cough could die if you drop the ball on vaccinating your own kid because you believe a bunch of total shit spread by an ex-Playboy bunny host of Singled Fucking Out. Say that out loud and think about how stupid it sounds.

Give Panda all her shots, Kimya. Or keep her out of our schools, OK?

http://data.spokesman.com/salaries/schoo… suggests the claim that teachers make $75k is counterfactual. But hey, feel free to buy into the usual lazy thinking. Don't like the 14 weeks off? Propose year-round school that allows teachers to keep their credentials.

Vaccinate your offspring, dammit.

Thanks to the Stranger for providing the only decent coverage of the strike. Now, could you publish it on paper every day and deliver it to my house so I can read it over my morning coffee? Thanks!

This article wins my Wishful Thinking Award for the day.

The teachers in my school districts went on strike more than once when I was young, back in the 70's. To suggest kids at that age are learning any high-minded social justice ideas from the experience is quite a stretch. Know what we learned?

We learned that unexpected days off were really cool - until the end of the year when we had to make up the time. Then we were just pissed off.

Teachers will never be able to convince people like those bitching above that our work deserves more pay and respect, because it's obvious that these people have no respect for the work we do. It's abundantly obvious that the vast majority of people think differently, so fuck all you haters. We teachers do a job that is more difficult than virtually any other. Come try it for a week. See how much we work outside of our contracted day just to stay afloat. We have to pay out of pocket to keep up our credentials, and have to pay the same high costs for higher education that a doctor or lawyer often does, but we have trouble paying off loans and paying rent because we don't make enough to live in this city, even if you consider our 'time off'. Ugh. These tired and false talking points are just silly to us who do this work. If you truly believe that we don't deserve a professional wage and professional respect for our profession, keep your kids in private school, let us advocate for the ones who don't have rich, selfish parents, and just shut the fuck up.