When the spin needs spin but the spin isnt good enough for the agency that created the spin.....WOW!!!! Sorry for the length but this cant be done in a paragraph!!! A couple of weeks ago I made a post about our teachers here in CC. I am not naïve enough to think that the following news articles and FB posts were because of my post but evidently someone is feeling the need to defend their positions but are not doing it very well. Recently an article and FB post used comments made by Dr. Karol, president of the BOE. In this post, Dr. Karol extolled the benefit package our teachers receive, making it sound like our BOE goes above and beyond in doing for our teachers. Many people would have looked at that post and thought WOW, what do our teachers have to complain about, the BOE is more than generous to them.......so lets set the record straight once again. First let me make clear that the BOE gives nothing to our teachers. Here is the proof. Dr. Karol states these benefits.... 1. Each teacher receives Term Life Insurance valued at 150% of their salary... Sounds great right...well this is pretty much a standard policy for many government employees and many in the private sector as well, not one that the board came up with on their own. Only one problem...SOMEONE HAS TO DIE TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR THE PAYOUT. This is not a benefit that helps teachers now, only their families, on the chance that their loved one passes away, leaving a void in the lives of their loved ones, not to mention the loss of salary and other benefits that are so crucial to families now. 2. Each teacher is covered by a $1,000,000 dollar liability policy.... Another great sounding benefit right....well again this coverage is law for teachers in the state of MD, not a BOE decision at all. Again this coverage is used if a teacher has a catastrophic event, most likely rendering that teacher disabled and unable to teach any longer. I could go on and on about the things said but in an effort to keep this short (lol), please look up Dr. Karols article. Many other benefits are mentioned but lets be clear, almost every one of these benefits are either negotiated or mandated. Do not believe the spin that the BOE gives these benefits to any teacher. And evidently the whole board is not in agreement which leads me to ask, just what do you agree with then. One board member made a post shortly after my last one, telling all that would listen how much money the current board has saved itself and the county. Well with all of that savings I still have to ask why you would say that without using the 1.9 million EXTRA the commissioners gave the BOE ( funny that this is the same amount used to fund other govt employees steps, so whether the BOE just missed it or just didnt care it should have been clear to you that this is what you received the money for) you would have to lay off 42 teachers. Then after saying that the BOE had to dip into the unassigned funds to balance the budget to keep from laying off those teachers, the BOE finds the money to hires 60 additional staff. Where did that money come from? If you even use the starting salary of 45,000 dollars that amounts to $2,700,000. Again, I wonder where you found that money after crying poor!! Again the bottom line is this. We entrust our teachers to give outstanding instruction to our children and we have some of the best teachers in the country, that is a proven fact, its in black and white, its one of the biggest reasons people move to CC. They are given nothing, they earn every penny, dont believe it, spend a couple days in their classrooms volunteering or go home with one and see what they do most of the night and you will change your mind. They do not deserve spin, they do not deserve double speak, they do not deserve to have to shop at thrift stores or food pantries. Numbers dont lie, math doesnt lie. Anyone who wants to do a little research can easily show the fallacies in the response from Dr. Karol. Now you can blame it on taxes or whatever you want but I can tell you with all certainty that the vast majority of our teachers are bringing home less in their paychecks than they made the last few years. You want to give us spin, thats fine, I will show you paystubs!!! SPIN THAT!!!
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 00:00:57 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015