UFT members just received a 2% raise on Valentine's Day and the total 42 month contract (Feb 2018 -September 2022) is 7.5% or 2% annually. This contract was negotiated by New York City which has a multi billion dollar surplus. How does our contract compare to the recently settled Los Angeles and Denver teacher contracts?
The Los Angeles teachers contract gave them a 6% raise for the two years, or 3% annually, despite a one billion dollar shortfall for the Los Angeles Board of Education. Moreover, the City committed to have a full time guidance consular, librarian, and nurse for every public school. Additionally, the City will reduce class size by two students next school year. Finally, the City agreed to a charter school moratorium for the next year.
The Denver teachers contract was all about raises. The three year contract had an average raise of 9% or 3% annually. Moreover, the contract increased and added steps, 20 in all, that guaranteed raises for every teacher. Finally automatic cost of living raises, based on the local CPI will be included.
Comparing the three contracts, one can see that our annual raises are 1% lower than both Los Angeles and Denver for the length of the three contracts. Furthermore, Denver has an improved salary step scale and a cost of living raises based on the local CPI.
The bottom line is our UFT leadership negotiated an inferior contract when it comes to annual raises.
Note: After a 7 day strike the Oakland California teachers received an 11% raise for 4 years (2.75% annually) plus a 3% bonus. Also including a reduction in class sizes.
13 comments:
This is no surprise to me.The reason LA and Denver got better raises etc. is because their teachers demanded more. Until NYC teacher wake up and for lack of a better term grow some balls we will continue to receive crappy raises, huge classes and a joke of a discipline policy. I personally voted NO for the contract while many colleages voted yes. That was their right to do. However, I will continue to have to listen to them complain about not having enough money to pay their bills. Change does not happen on it's own.
How can you expect trust fund babies who are "volunteering" their time to help poor brown kids in exchange for a free masters they can use as a stepping stone to whatever field their rich daddies can nepotize them a job into to have any balls?
Chaz:
Did you expect that our union would give us a raise that was the inflation rate? You have written about inadequate raises for a decade.
Yeah it was real nice to see the raise of 2% in feb 15 check and that they took money out because they overpaid us a bit last yr
Excellent point. But, you failed to mention how NYC has made teaching into a 5 year disposable position at best. I feel bad for the students they are the ones been shortchanged by the same idiots who bundled the Amazon deal and let under qualified administrators to harass its employees. This Union has no balls plain as day!!!!
Anon 10:31
The post was simply comparing the raises, not the culture of teaching.
I've been in the DOE for only about 12 years and moved a few times to different schools.
I have seen how the culture has shifted to the 'disposable' teacher model, having hired in at the tail end of the more traditional school model.
What have I seen? The endless harassment masquerading as "coaching", the mountains of paperwork (YOU try and fight your principal on this and see your ratings plummet), the insane Danielson's micromanaging, rife-for-abuse rubric, and the shift of ALL responsibility from the student to the teacher for them passing.
At my school, even the most principled teachers now joke with each other that "65" is the new requirement if the kid shows up at least 3-4 times in a semester. The new "students teaching each other" model is an utter joke, but we have acquiesced at my school due to constant bullying from the principal.
So the model we follow now is this: students are give 5-10 minutes 'modeling' on how to do the activity, with no content given (that is a no no!), and then we put them in groups to do the 'activity guide' and they have to teach each other the material through 'deep, rich' discussion.
We pass everyone, because you know, group work!
I cannot for the life of me understand why any teacher in NYC would ever send their kids to a public school these days. I know some still do traditional teaching, but with the 'restorative circles' instead of punishing bullies and all the violence and drugs, why?
@10:50 being one of those trust fund babies that help "poor" "brown" kids I would have to disagree with you. My mother got me a job at PS175 in City Island. Suck that loser!!!
@10:50
feeling a little anger/jealous
sorry you didnt't inherit one
Yeah it was real nice to see the raise of 2% in feb 15 check and that they took money out because they overpaid us a bit last yr
5:17 PM
NO. We are only getting paid for two days. They added the full amount and subtracted the old contract days. It was stupid, but you are just making stuff up. Learn so math.
Hey 221 am maybe you should learn some spelling first. Maybe get all your facts straight too, instead of being a Unity shill.
The 2:21 AM poster is right. The rate on the first line "Recurring Gros" is the new pay rate. However we only earned that for 2/14 and 2/15. The following line "recur gross ad" is the adjustment done so we were paid the prior rate for 2/1 to 2/13. It has nothing to do with last year.
Do the math: old pay rate * 13 days + new pay rate * 2 days. Divide that sum by 15. Compare to the "Total Earnings" box. They will match, provided you did no coverages. Otherwise, compare to the amounts in the "Recurring Gros" and "recur gross ad" added together (keeping in mind the latter is a negative number".
Thank you for indulging my desire to teach, considering we can't do that anymore. Forgive me for not putting you in a "cooperative learning group".
8:53, excellent post. My experience and I'm sure others here may not be exactly the same, but I bet they're close.
Anything below 50% attendance still gets a 55 from me, as does missing tests.
I also never go below a 20 minute lesson, and you better believe the students are in rows for that. However that's the end of the teaching, because as you said, we all acquiesce somewhere. Then there's the pointless collectivist "group activity" where 1 smart or motivated person does the work, and the others copy it, because that's what admin wants; "evidence" to "memorialize" that "all" met the day's objective (not to be confused with Aim). Furthermore, said activity and attendance in class counts for almost half the report card grade, with tests a measly 30-40%. This way, one only needs to show up for tests (or make them up) and bubble anything in, in order to pass. Of course there's no "evidence" there that "all" can reproduce what they handed in during the group work, which makes sense considering most were bs'ing with their friends or on their phones. Speaking of phones, I don't bother anyone about them anymore. It keeps the idiots and unmotivated quiet at least instead of bothering their classmates interested in learning.
The kids get sent to NYC schools because they're "free". Even I send my kids to my local public suburban school because I paid the property taxes and I'm not about to pay more for Catholic school. I'm seeing a lot of the same collectivist BS in my district as well.
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