tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10348701.post3668538362722638665..comments2024-03-13T21:26:03.011-07:00Comments on Right on the Left Coast: Views From a Conservative Teacher: Shorten The School Year To Save Money?Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15730642770935985796noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10348701.post-74560019489275065432009-01-16T21:48:00.000-08:002009-01-16T21:48:00.000-08:00when the state of California took over my district...when the state of California took over my district a few years ago, one of the concessions that teachers took in order to help pay back our multi-million dollar loan, was a reduced benefits package. We went from full coverage to an 80/20 split (District paid 80%/employees paid 20% of benefits). <BR/><BR/>As a former employee who once worked for our now State Superintendent of Public Instruction when he was a state senator, my benefits package was one of the best I ever had as an employee anywhere. I also used to work for a major insurance company and trust when I say that my benefits package through them paled in comparison to the one I received when working as a state employee.<BR/><BR/>I'm curious as to how much the state of California could save if state employees were required to pay for a portion of their benefits package. After all, teachers in many districts in California already do so and we make a lot less than state employees (and I dare say that teaching is much harder than the position I held when working for O'Connell).ms-teacherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07800541997565774872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10348701.post-45126575032161840432009-01-13T21:14:00.000-08:002009-01-13T21:14:00.000-08:00How about laying off those people at the State Dep...How about laying off those people at the State Dept. of Education whose job seems to be changing the standards in order to maintain their jobs, and all those expensive bodies in all those county offices of education.....in short, all those who suckle at the trough of educational funding but do not teach children.Dan Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13397636504405471939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10348701.post-28636906161347785992009-01-13T21:01:00.000-08:002009-01-13T21:01:00.000-08:00Maybe it's just me, but there's a huge amount of t...Maybe it's just me, but there's a huge amount of time wasted in our schools. I don't know about other states, but we have an entire week's worth of testing. And that doesn't even touch on the pull outs for every other tangent test in the books. Frankly, while elementary schools are more or less forced to be standardized in time and attendance days, high schools could go to a college system. That way, kids who want to accelerate their classes could do so and kids who fail would just have to sign up again. And if they did this truly like college, kids who needed to work could arrange a three day week. I could get used to that.Ellen Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02845981491726296767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10348701.post-91497219500134323042009-01-13T10:47:00.001-08:002009-01-13T10:47:00.001-08:00all this talk about cutting budgets, laying off pe...all this talk about cutting budgets, laying off people, and shutting down organizations because the state is running out of money.<BR/><BR/>know what i haven't heard yet? why dont the legislatures and representatives take a budget cut? why should all of us loose all our jobs, but they get a salary increase? why don't they offer to take a salary decrease?<BR/><BR/>i guess it's hard to when you're in charge of your own paycheck, coming from other peoples' wallets.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10348701.post-2478465045424826582009-01-13T09:47:00.000-08:002009-01-13T09:47:00.000-08:00"I could probably save up a week's pay if I have a..."<I>I could probably save up a week's pay if I have a year's notice, don't you think?</I>"<BR/><BR/>Just for some perspective ... my company has been holding forced shutdowns of one week per quarter for the last year and 1/2 or so. So ... four weeks per year that you can either take without pay or that you can burn accrued vacation days.<BR/><BR/>Late last year we *also* had a 15% layoff.<BR/><BR/>I'd like to think that with a 1/2 year warning, California teachers could find a way to manage one fewer week of work and one fewer week or pay. They are bright cookies, no? :-)<BR/><BR/>My company is far from alone in doing this in Silicon Valley...<BR/><BR/>[Whether this makes sense compared to laying off a bunch of non-teachers, or, God forbid, lots of Sacramento DoE types is a second issue]<BR/><BR/>-Mark RouloAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10348701.post-17342124560260074102009-01-12T21:58:00.000-08:002009-01-12T21:58:00.000-08:00When 50% of the state of California's budget goes ...When 50% of the state of California's budget goes to education and the state faces a SERIOUS financial shortfall, I think it is reasonable to consider this type of proposition.<BR/><BR/>As a math teacher, I, together with my department have planned the year with basically one focus in mind: Preparing students to be as successful as possible on the California Standards Tests with inform our API scores. Those tests, for the whole school are administered in May.<BR/><BR/>After the test, we still do instruction that is valuable but in <I>some</I> ways our school year is over.<BR/><BR/>To be honest, 5 days less at the end would be no tragedy, so long as the 5 days less are not taken from the time preceding the state tests.Foresthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12337422752350099149noreply@blogger.com