[Vision2020] More Idaho teachers leave profession

Sun Sep 30 12:39:47 PDT 2012

Just looking at the teachers who have gone through the National Board Program, with the salary holdbacks, and the freeze on advancement, plus the loss of the state-allocated stipend, their loss through the Luna Laws could be as high as $8,000, and that doesn’t count the coming year.  Even were they to get  a $2000 bonus (I read that’s the ballpark figure) it doesn’t replace lost salary or stipends and will not go to count toward retirement, so over a dozen years or so, that loss could be substantial.  Additionally, even though Luna says he’s requesting one year of salary makeup, the way the law is written, it occurs only AFTER the Luna laws are fully funded, so teachers know it isn’t likely to happen.  Why wouldn’t they leave?  Even with all it’s budget problems a teacher who leaves Idaho for Washington will get a better salary and $5,000 or $10,000 yearly stipend for National Certification depending on where they work.  Districts in Latah County have continued to pay $2,000 stipends (replacing the state allocation)  hoping to hold teachers here.   And you know, it isn’t just the salary; it’s  increased work load, class size, and other issues...teachers in some districts having to buy their own supplies so students will have what they need, in others knowing there is no money for subs should they become ill, in others having more kids in a class than there are desks.   There are many others, these are just three that have been highlighted in the paper recently. 

And by the way, if anyone would like a No On Props 1,2,3 sign please let me know.  The cost is $3.00 but a number of us are just paying for what we get so that isn’t a problem.   I need an address obviously. 

Sue Hovey 

From: Tom Hansen 
Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2012 4:58 AM
To: Moscow Cares 
Cc: Vision2020 discussions 
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] More Idaho teachers leave profession

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFAh_7oEMCg

Seeya at the polls, Moscow, because . . . 

"Moscow Cares"
http://www.MoscowCares.com

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students.  The college students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)

On Sep 29, 2012, at 5:31 PM, Moscow Cares <moscowcares at moscow.com> wrote:

  Lookin' back . . .

  Forum Concerning Education and State Revenue (February 19, 2911)
  Capitol Building, Boise
  http://www.moscowcares.com/forthepeople/EducRally_022111.htm

  Presidents' Day Education Rally (February 21, 2011)
  Friendship Square, Moscow
  http://www.moscowcares.com/forthepeople/EducRally_022111.htm

  Idaho Senate Bill 1108 (February 24, 2011)
  Education - Collective Bargaining
  Before the Idaho Senate
  http://www.moscowcares.com/forthepeople/IEA_SB1108_042711.htm

  Moscow High School Students Protest Superintendent Tom Luna's Education Reform Plan
  (March 4, 2011)
  http://www.moscowcares.com/forthepeople/MHS_Protest_030411.htm

  And (crank up your speakers for) . . . 

  Protest in Support of Teachers' Right to Collective Bargaining (March 9, 2011)
  Intersection of State Highway 8 and Farm Road
  http://www.moscowcares.com/Protest_030911.mp4

  Seeya at the polls, Moscow, because . . . 

  "Moscow Cares"
  http://www.MoscowCares.com

  Tom Hansen
  Moscow, Idaho

  "We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students.  The college students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

  - Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)

  On Sep 29, 2012, at 3:41 PM, Kenneth Marcy <kmmos1 at frontier.com> wrote:

    More Idaho teachers leave profession
    by Associated Press

    KTVB.COM

    Posted on September 29, 2012 at 2:04 PM

    Updated today at 2:21 PM 

    "BOISE -- More Idaho teachers left the profession last year, but state officials say they've also certificated more educators.

    Data obtained Friday by The Associated Press shows about 1,800 teachers left the profession for various reasons during the 2011-2012 school year. That's up from the previous year, when 1,300 teachers left, and the year before, when 700 departed.

    The statewide teachers union attributed the increased exits last year to reforms that limited collective bargaining and job protections. Public schools chief Tom Luna countered that the recession was more likely the culprit.

    While teachers left the profession in bigger numbers last year, Luna's department says there's also been a 25 percent increase in the issuance of teaching certificates and as a result, the number of certificated staff in schools is about the same."

    ================

    Based on the 2008 number of full-time equivalent teachers in Idaho of 15,148, a three-year turnover of 1,800 + 1,300 + 700 = 3,800 is equal to 25.08 percent (3,800 / 15,148). If this turnover rate is maintained for the next nine years, there will have been a total teacher turnover in Idaho schools from the base three years ago.

    I suppose it's possible Idaho might become an education recruiting convenience location for other states who know that after two or three years of modestly-paid Idaho experience, at least some Idaho teachers will be ready to move out-of-state and up the salary ladder in a new teaching position.

    If Idaho has a relative plenty of positions that don't require lots of higher education, and for those positions that do require engineering, science, and other technical and professional skills, employers tend to hire from out-of-state, what is an Idaho graduate to do? Leave the state? Well, . . ., yeah.

    So, just how effective is Idaho's higher education leadership? Teacher turnover up to rates that would get most managers probation, if not a pink slip, and high-quality graduates as likely to export themselves for employment as not.

    Times are changing. I remember my mother saying that one of her strictest grade school teachers turned up in her school life again as a high school English teacher. So, I was not at all surprised when my fifth grade teacher turned out to be my high school freshman English teacher. Those were the days when a high school yearbook picture of the students who spent all twelve of their school years in the same local school district would have enough students in the photograph to fill up the outside entrance stairway into the high school auditorium.

    We seem to be steadily moving from relatively more static social conditions to relatively more fluid social conditions. Perhaps we are observing an ongoing social climate warming within which the growing population is creating more pressure and raising the social temperature. Maybe Sartre was onto something when he suggested existentialism, and that, from a No Exit perspective, hell is other people.

    Ken

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