Vacations for Teachers? 1.04.09

I love teaching. Its a rewarding, challenging, fun, entertaining, exhilierating career where I truly feel I am called to be. However, I doubt I will stay in the teaching field longer than a couple more years. Why? Well, because teachers are taken for granted by society. We are not valued the way we should be considering the job we do and the complicated stress we have to deal with every day. We have pressure from students, parents, administrators, society as a whole, politicians, school boards, and everyone else. We are held to incredibly high standards but are not compensated to match the requirements we are expected to meet.

For example, I have my master's degree. The same level of education as a lawyer, correct? And yes lawyers have to bass the bar exam, but teachers have to pass multiple certification tests that we have to pay for. In Minnesota I believe I have to take three different tests that cost about $100 a piece. Do I make any where close to the amount of money a lawyer makes? No friggen way.

Well, you say, teachers get summers off and christmas break and spring break and all those other days off when school is not in session. Yes, you are correct we do get that time off, however that time is not vacation time. Let me explain. Do I get a paycheck over the summer, over christmas break and over spring break? Yes I do. However, it is not paid vacation. What the school districts payroll department does is take my salary and divide it equally over 26 pay periods for the year. So I get the same pay each pay period regardless of if we are in school or not. Anyone in the workforce could essentially work out a deal with their payroll department or set up their own savings account to do the same thing if they wanted to take extended time off work.

To break it down, when I worked in Chicago Public Schools, they took about $400 from each bi weekly paycheck and put into a savings account for me called "extended pay". When school was not in session, they paid me out of that fund, not out of vacation pay.

Teachers get two weeks paid vacation a year-one week at Christmas and one week for spring break. This never increases. If I worked in any other job, my paid vacation time would increase as I put in time. For example, my sister has worked for Allina for at least ten years, maybe even 15 years, and she has worked her way up to six weeks of PAID vacation. This is not banked time or banked salary, this is time her job pays her for not working. Why do teachers not deserve the same thing?

Another gripe...when we are on these unpaid vacations, we are expected to work. Teachers are expected to take work home with them-do lesson plans, grade papers, organize the classroom, make copies, buy books, etc. Teachers work for free probably an average of 10 hours a week. That is not okay. We are professionals who deserve to be compensated for our time and our value.

One final gripe. To maintain our teaching licenses, teachers have to continue their education and participate in professional development via conferences, meetings, and other events on our own time. Schools do not offer tuition reimbursement for these requirements. We have to pay for it out of our own pockets and our own time. We do not get paid for spending a weekend at a Young Adult Literacy Conference. We do not get reimbursed for taking classes that will improve our work performance and classes that are required for us to keep our jobs. We are expected to pay for those requirements out of our own pockets. How insane is that? Almost every other employer offers some level of tuition reimbursement....why don't school districts?

The best teachers end of leaving education because they can't deal with being taken for granted anymore and being expected to invest hours of our own time because its the right thing to do and because we care about kids. Its time for society to raise the compensation for teachers at the same level they raise the expectations and pressure for teachers.