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Hey media outlets, not all of us parents support a teachers strike! Teachers say their Service Award is non-negotiable, so clearly at least part of their problem is the money. They get up to $20,000 at the end of their career through this award, and that’s on top of their healthy pension. Should taxpayers pay for that payout? NO! Teachers are also saying they will walk out because they have too much student tracking to do. Please tell me how knowing the strengths and needs of your students is a bad thing? Wouldn’t that make customizing your lessons easier? Oh, right, it cuts into the time you have to give extra help—well how about doing that paperwork during the monthly PD day, or during your March Break, or say, during one of your OFF periods? Gee, time management is SO hard. But, please, tell me again how this is “all about the children.” When I was a student teacher I remember the NSTU boasting about how it literally runs the public school system and can get the government to do what it wants if they threaten to strike. That’s the type of union attitude that makes me sick. (I did not end up joining the NSTU.) Our children are legally entitled to an education—no, not a babysitting service, but an education. If they go on strike, they are violating our children’s legal right to an education, plain and simple. So NO, this parent does not support the NSTU. —Anti-NSTU
This article appears in Oct 27 – Nov 2, 2016.
Not all, but the majority DO support them. Think of your children. WHY won’t you think of your children?
I DO think of the children. I think of the kids who have to do coloring pages because their teacher’s don’t have a clue how to accommodate for their learning difficulties. I think about the children who graduate reading at a grade 4 level. I think about the hours of learning lost because teachers don’t have a clue how to manage their own classrooms. I think about the pointless homework children are given that never gets checked or followed up on. At some point teachers should be held accountable and stop blaming everyone above them for the lack of success of our children. Not every teacher is a good teacher. Should every single one of them that retires be given the equivalent of the price of a new car (up to $35k for an average teacher) on the tax payer’s dime?
I am not anti-NSTU. but I do feel that they are payed enough – and they pay enough union dues – that we should be able to demand that the lawyers duke it out in a board room instead of a strike.
At least I am not the only one thinking that way. They lost my support when the union leader came out saying contradicting things. It’s not about the money, it is workload/conditions. Then later on, two of the points they want to address are salary increase and keeping the service award. There was even a letter from a teacher in the LocalXpress, first two points are award/salary: https://www.localxpress.ca/opinions/open-l…
Enough with the BS, all I am asking is for honesty/transparency (I know, pipeline dream….)
Isn’t getting a pension good enough? And while the lot of the teachers will say they fully fund it; no employer contribution: BS. There have been a few instances where the province threw in money to top up the fund, these were in the hundreds of millions
Yes – let’s make people work on their days off. Culture of resentment towards those who work and make a decent living is alive and well in NS. I have had people say to me in the past “you must be rich making $60k a year…” Sorry that I make a living salary, but no – I won’t feel guilty that you don’t… Also, no, I won’t work for free on days off because I take home 1300 dollars every two weeks. No, I am not a teacher.
@ustwess I am not saying they should work on their days off. PD days and OFF periods are used currently to either learn about some new teaching strategy or time for teachers to do the insane amount of student tracking they claim to be forced to do. March break and the summer are also not technically time off either. Those are days that their salary covers, it is simply because the students have 195 days of education a year that they have those off days. They have separate vacation days on top of summer and march break. To ask that they use march break or summers to do some of the administrative and educational tasks they already do, but complain they have no time for, doesn’t sound unreasonable to me. As for the culture of resentment-there is no resentment here. I also earn over 60k and have no issues with the fact they chose a profession that pays well. I don’t see why they need to get a new car (if you used the 35k for that) at the taxpayer’s expense upon retirement for simply belonging to a union.
The OB and many of the post above serve as proof that there are a lot of people out there who have espoused a culture of ignorance around the education system in this province. More ostriches with their heads in the sand. The amount of people who speak with authority on a topic they know very little about is astounding ( but sadly, not surprising). Teachers ARE NOT paid for March Break or Christmas, or STAT holidays or summer vacation. They are paid for the teaching days and PD days in the calendar year. Yes, they opted a number of years ago to have their paychecks stretched out over the course of the year rather than draw EI but that does not mean the public should expect that they work for hours that are not in the contract. Teachers do that anyway…because they care. That is what draws them to the profession in the first place. Break down the pay by hour and it doesn’t seem so cushy. Take into account that, on average, it takes ten years or more of working as a substitute before one gets permanent status and one may learn that many of those substitutes build up debt in order to teach before they have access to the union benefits. I agree completely with OB that teachers are not a babysitting service and that their children have a legal right to an education but shouldn’t the QUALITY of that education stand for something? It is amazing how many citizens think teachers have control over the standards of education. Does the public think it is the teachers who have made the decision to embrace “inclusion” without adequate resources and protocols in place to do so effectively. Should one suppose that teachers are the reason why more kids are going onto post-secondary education without ever having asked them to remain accountable for their grades, actions and attendance? As a parent, I sympathize with teachers when I hear of my daughter’s class needing to be evacuated from her classroom because of a violent classmate who can not control himself from hurting others when he throws a tantrum in the classroom. I worry when I hear stoties of teachers and students being assaulted verbally and sometimes physically in classrooms across our province. If the teachers negotiated a service award and want a salary that takes in account inflation and cost of living, why deny them and growl but stand by and watch politicians earn 4 times as much in a service award over a measly 4 years as compared to the 30 years of spending 6-10 hours a day with OUR children. I can’t get my head around your ARchie Bunker attitudes. If you truly value your childrens’ education, teach them what it means to research, think critically AFTER collecting all of the facts –without BIAS! (SIGH) I’m tired, and there is so much more to say. How freakin’ tired must those teachers be?
The teachers were given the long service award in return for giving up pension indexing. So their pension will no longer keep pace with inflation and the long service award is a one-time payout to mitigate that. Given that they could be living off their pension for up to 30 years with no adjustments for inflation, I think the long service award is merited. Plus they gave up indexing in good faith based on getting the award instead, so to have the government now take it away too is unscrupulous and dishonest.
Sooooo ..your 30 grand a year long term service golden handshake will make you a better teacher and help our kids? Or your gold plated pension paid for by people like me that have no pension will make you a better teacher (still waiting for a check from the NSTU or NSGEU to put towards my retirement since I help pay for yours). By the way, we the taxpayer just pumped tens of millions into both the NSGEU and the NSTU pension plans because they were underfunded. You are welcome! As for your pay raise I did not hear you whining when the union butt kissing NDP handed you a raise that was way over the cost of inflation. Perhaps the current government is just trying to atone for that and bring you back to reality? How about giving up the 196 sick days you can bank and cash out when you retire? A reward simply for showing up and doing your job. As far as all the whining about working a few extra hours JOIN THE REAL WORLD!! I laugh my ass off when I read people saying that people get paid overtime but teachers do not lol. The fact of the matter is this. When you are on salary at any job you are expected to work as long as it takes to get the job done. I am in sales and I travel alot and spend many weekends and nights either sitting in an airport or a hotel room answering emails, doing quotes etc. My compensation? A job. If I do not like it I can go elsewhere. I suggest teachers take the same approach. There are a ton of new grads that would love your job.
I think it’s funny when people who make a pretty good salary, with the very best of benefits and pension, always find something to complain about. Everything could always be perfect, and you could make an infinite amount of money and your ridiculous union would still find some stupid reason why you are being “mistreated”. The fact is, we do this dance every few years, we give in and shower the system with money for this or that, in exchange for some promises things will get better. Nothing happens. Then a few years later, same thing. We’re bored of hearing it, it means nothing now. You have reduced a high-school diploma to a reward for participation. Clap, clap, clap…everyone gets a raise!!!
@Furious Poprah If you think that it is teachers who are reducing a high school diploma to a reward for participating then you are sadly mistaken. Teachers are not responsible for this. The DoE who makes ALL the policy decisions is responsible for this. Teachers would love nothing more than to have students be accountable and to hold back students who are not ready to move on…..but we are not allowed to. The reason that the education system is a mess is because the governments making the decisions are making the wrong ones; modelling our current system around American models based around success from testing and data collection. We should be looking to leaders in education (Finland) for educational reform.
@Bobby33 You need to get your facts right. Service award is a one time payout not a per/year payment. Also teachers are able to bank sick days up to 195 but are not able to cash them out at the end of your career. You chose your career in sales they choose their career in education. Both jobs have outside of work time that needs to be done. I bet you have bonus incentives or commission built into your contract. Teachers do not. Teachers choose the career understanding that there will be work done outside the regular hours. Not all teachers get free periods every day. Some get as little as 2.5 hours a week. Teachers work past contractual hours everyday happily. Fact is that government initiatives have changed teachers job drastically over the last 10 years. Changes that create extra work and have very purpose except for collecting data to justify spending. I bet when your job changes you get to have some training time so that you can do it right. Teachers often have new intiatives dumped on them with no training. You really have no idea what the job is like. You should fact check before you rant.
1) I call B.S.- you didn’t “join” the NSTU because of your righteousness OR you couldn’t cut it as a teacher and now you’re bitter and jealous?
2) the union’s job is to promote the well-being of the members, and
3) actually they RECOMMENDED the members except the employer’s offer.
4) McNeil’s agenda is to break the unions by undermining the collective bargaining process. he foisted essential services legislation on the health care workers but can’t for the teachers. he wants to claw back labour costs but won’t cut his own expenses, pension, salary, etc.
5) Few of the detractors could do a teacher’s job, and the parent’s expect little Johnny to get an “A” while taking no responsibility for their neglect of the child’s educational needs.
@Skoot. I did not join the NSTU because they encourage complacency. I became a teacher to help change the education system, not jump through union hoops. When it became obvious that in this province that couldn’t happen because the NSTU has a strangle-hold on our public schools, I went elsewhere, not that its any of your business, clearly you enjoy being part of a union.
I do not disagree that the union’s job is to promote the job security of their members, but the job of the government is to its taxpayers, union or not, and I don’t think the government would be doing right by us if they bent over for every union demand at the cost of much needed provincial infrastructure (i.e VG). I am NOT saying that MacNeil has done or is doing a good job but his party was elected by those of us sick and tired of sacrificing our money to the unions in this province, so in that regard he is at least trying.
Could many of the detractors do a teacher’s job? Yes they could (sorry to crush your bubble). Could they do it well? Probably not. Being an effective teacher takes skill, patience, classroom management skills and incredible flexibility, one that I am sad to say is not very common in the classrooms I have seen.
OB must be one of the parents of the idiots who do nothing but loiter and expect a diploma for it.
Being an effective teacher takes having their employer BACK THEM UP when someone’s “little angel” is acting like an asshole just like their parents and cannot be kicked out of class or expelled for their idiotic behavior that they surely getting from ASSHOLE PARENT.
I call it what it is and I am sick of political correct fucking bubble morons in society today who are breeding little bubble morons who think they are entitled.
Fuck off OB!
Furious Poprah,
DaMn! Aren’t you reading the posts? The teachers are fighting for change precisely BECAUSE of one of the complaints you make. “You have reduced a high-school diploma to a reward for participation. Clap, clap, clap…everyone gets a raise!!!” Your mentality is part of the problem. The teachers haven’t reduced the high-school diploma to a reward for participation — The Department of Education ( The Province) has done that. DUH! The teachers are fed up with it, being blamed for it, having their hands tied behind their backs and not being able to do a frigging thing about it. Keep drinking MacNeil’s Kool-Aid, ignoramus!
The department of education cannot impose on teachers anything that is not in their contract. The teachers let this problem materialize, exist and persist. Apparently all that needed to be done was to go on strike, why are we just hearing about your (the teachers) fight for the sake of our children? What about the children that already fell through the cracks? That’s on the teachers, no one else.
You can blame everyone else till you’re blue in the face, but we all know where the responsibility lies. Look, I went to school. I had a couple good teachers, but most of them were shit. They could care less as long as their cheque didn’t bounce. Now you are paying for that shitty, union attitude in a very public way. I can tell you from experience, anyone who blames someone else is the biggest part of any problem.
“That’s on the teachers, no one else. “
….and your kid acting like an asshole in public would have nothing to do with “PARENTING”??
You blame the teachers???? They are not your “free babysitters” so get that out of your head and start teaching your own child at home a little bit of RESPECT in public places.
The problem is the asshole kids who act like their idiot parents in public,not do their school work,never pay attention in class(if they aint hanging in hallways) and intimidate other students who want to learn are not getting expelled or suspended for their shitty behavior.
If my child acts like an asshole in school, i give all and any power to discipline my child and i will not stick up for my child’s idiot actions or attack school administration for my child’s bad behavior. STOP BLAMING OTHERS FOR YOUR BAD PARENTING AND EXTREME POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!
Teachers need to be backed up for the shitty working conditions they are forced to deal with in this political correct moron day and age. Understand?
Isn’t their a glut of teachers who can’t get jobs? Why not just offer them the work, I’m sure its better then subbing and working at Tim Hortons, This is a have not province, A lot of middle class people need an attitude adjustment, The working class has suffered a lot longer, I listen to these people whine about prices all day and I see them apply for credit cards, with $6000 a month income, Get real, Go seek a fulfilling relationship or take up a hobby, there’s more to life then iPhone 7 and the latest new 30k boring Subaru….The unfortunate side to making more money is most people blow it all and still feel like they need more, Lifestyle adjustment time!