So this letter to the editor appeared in today's Patriot Ledger:
READER’S VIEW: Teachers have it pretty good already
By RICHARD OLSEN, Quincy
To the Quincy teachers, It is time to step up and pay your fair share of your health care. It is time to step out of the protective bubble of a publicly funded job. It is time to step into the reality of how people earn money in the real world.
I am self employed, which means I get NO benefits, but fortunately my wife’s job covers 75 percent of our health care costs. Do the math, teachers - we pay 25 percent of our health care.You’re saying you would get the equivalent of a pay cut if you had to pay more than 10 percent of your health care costs.
Through our taxes, we pay for your salaries and benefits. So instead, you want US to take a pay cut (e.g., pay higher taxes) so you don’t have to pay more for your benefits?
As Tony Soprano would say, ‘‘Fuggedaboudit!’’ We are tired of hearing you whine about what should be your fair share. You have a job with summers off. Make up the difference and get a job in the summer.
Oh, by the way, I was a teacher for 19 years and the day I began to work in the real world I quickly realized what a deal I had as a teacher.
You have a pretty good deal, but it’s time to face the same reality as the rest of Quincy taxpayers, and pay your fair share.
Copyright 2007 The Patriot LedgerTransmitted Tuesday, May 15, 2007
This guy really pissed me off. Here I was all comfortable on my couch, reading my newpaper before moving on to rereading The Catcher in the Rye in preparation for the make believe job he thinks I have. So I directed my anger to my Word screen and wrote a reply letter to the editor. Here's my reply:
To Mr. Richard Olsen of Quincy,
I read your letter to the editor on May 15, 2007 (“Teachers Have It Pretty Good Already”). And frankly, I’m disheartened that someone who spent 19 years in the teaching profession and left for apparently greener pastures in the harsh real world could be so completely off the mark in his assessment of what teachers do and how they live.
You talk proudly about “how people earn money in the real world.” In the apparently make-believe world of public school teaching, I earn money by working from about 7am to 4pm (although my contract states 7:40 to 2:35) Monday through Friday, with a 25-minute lunch break. Most of that time I spend teaching or attending to administrative tasks. But some part of it I spend as confidant, confessor, and counselor to your Quincy children. For a good number of students, I play the role of a person in their lives who shows some level of concern or attention that they don’t get at home or in the community. Some days after school and for a considerable part of my weekend, I read their homework, tests, and papers and plan how to best reach them in the classroom in upcoming lessons. Sometimes I go to their choir recitals, drama shows, science fairs, art exhibitions, and sporting events, not just because I enjoy them but because it is discouraging when few of their families go to support them.
In the fall I write, on average, about forty letters of recommendation for seniors who are trying to make themselves competitive in the college market. I help another fifty write, revise, and edit their personal statements before they send them off with their applications.
You’re absolutely correct that I have a job with summers off. However, I am not paid for the summer months, so I guess it’s fair I should get them off. And to “make up the difference” last year, I did work a summer job, and the summer before that, and the summer before that, and the eight summers before that. In fact, it’s not really a summer job since I keep it during the school year to help me pay my bills each month of the year.
I spent many of those summers in the classroom, pursuing master’s degrees and licenses that the state and federal governments mandate I attain. Of course a series of summers is not enough to accumulate all the credits that are required. So one or two courses per semester during the school year is never out of the question. To be honest, the degree and the licenses are nice, but I could never have made any “level” changes and received any significant pay increases without them. In fact, I have spent about $85,000 of my own money in order for my salary to jump from under $30,000 to around $60,000 in eight years.
You do indeed pay my salary and benefits through your taxes. And I understand that to ask you to continue to pay 90% of my health care in a time when costs in that department are out of control is a bit demanding. However, I would suggest that if you do want to increase my contribution level to 20%, you give me something somewhere else to sustain the blow. You say that in either case, I’m asking you and the rest of Quincy’s taxpayers to take a pay cut so that I don’t have to. That’s a perfectly rational point, from the perspective of a Quincy resident and taxpayer. But I would plead with you to not look at it as a pay cut. Call it an “investment.” Yes an investment in me, but more than that, an investment in your schools, in your community, and most important, in your children. When you “invest” in me, I give you everything I have and help to create a system you can be proud of.
One other thing you’re absolutely right about … I do have a “good deal” as a teacher. I wake up every morning excited about going to my job, looking forward to the work that I will do there. I work with some of the most talented administrators and teachers you’re going to find. Best of all, I get to work with the most intelligent, kind-hearted, and hard working children in the world. Everyday I get to meet with them to read and discuss some of my favorite literature and the best books ever written. I get to help them grow as learners and communicators. And , my favorite, I get to watch them take pride in themselves when they excel and go beyond the boundaries they always thought were there.
So Mr. Olsen, yes, it’s quite a “deal.” One that I’m more than happy to enjoy. But don’t fool yourself for one second by believing that I don’t work hard or pay my “fair share.”
And be careful whom you quote. In one of my favorite episodes, Tony Soprano said “I won’t pay … I know too much about extortion.”
Robert Shaw
Hingham
So I didn't send it yet. I'll take it to work tomorrow to be looked at by some trusted colleagues. But I wanted it here if only to be out there somewhere, especially if I end up not sending it or they don't print it.
