Career Track

I officially accepted a position as a mechanic last week and gave my notice to the school where I've been working. I was only a substitute at the school, so the giving of notice was either a) overly-dramatic, or b) a little too formal, or maybe 3)both, but since I have a conscience and they treated me nicely, I felt sort of obligated to give them a heads up. The decision was made all the more complex by purely practical, financial reasons because on Friday I had passed the step that put me at regular teacher pay on their pay schedule. (I'm speaking only in terms that business folk will understand here - viewing my profession as an industry and focusing on the bottom line has greatly helped me ignore any sense of obligation to my students)

In most districts, if you teach in the same position for 20 straight school days, you jump up to first-year teacher pay, which is somewhere around $90-120 per day. I made $120. And, like most districts, if you end up in a long-term substitute spot for 60 straight days, you actually get paid for your experience. In my case that meant on day 61, as long as I didn't have a break in service, I jumped to $220 per day.

That was Friday for me. That's what a 9-year veteran teacher (actually 8.7 years according to the State Teacher's Retirement System) who doesn't pay for any benefits, and who doesn't spread their pay out over 12 months makes per day. (That's just under 40k annually for those of you following the math) I never actually grossed that much in my last permanent job even though I was a coach and an advisor of a year long activity, but that's how the numbers shake out when you're a temp who doesn't pay for anything else.

So anyway, my point was that just as I start earning the pay I was earning before I moved back home, I'm faced with the decision of permanent employment for a little less money, or temporary employment for a little more. The difference in money, sadly, isn't that much. As a mechanic for this particular company I'd start at about a grand less per year than I made as an 8-year veteran teacher with 8 lesson plans to write and 120 students to chase around. This particular company, for whom I would be converting regular vans into handicap accessible and controllable vans, has a 401k plan that rivals the current teacher retirement system in Ohio. Benefits for me are comparable, and only a little more pricey for my family, but the real clincher is, this company values my experience.

I've been told, explicitly by some administrators, implicitly by most in their refusal to even interview me, that traditional public schools can't afford to value experience. They have little interest in filling vacancies with experienced teachers. Strike that. It's not that they aren't interested, it's that they can't afford it. In some places the unspoken cutoff is 3 years. In others, where budgets are tighter, it's rookies only, with a few exceptions for those who will coach the sport in need. The official line is usually around 7 years, but that's only to hire coaches who have had 5-7 winning years at a previous school. The unfunded mandates of NCLB have forced schools to meet the standards that "hold teachers accountable" by doing away with experienced staff and replacing them with rookies, who then become somewhat indentured to the districts where they start because once they rack up 3 or 4 years of experience and get the state mandated master's degree, they're absolutely too expensive to get a job in any other school district.

To be clear, it's a budget issue, not a conspiracy. It's not like the schools have much choice. That's just how it is these days in most places, but especially in Ohio where the state legislature has refused to solve the funding issue at the state level in spite of being ordered to do so by the Ohio Supreme Court almost 20 years ago. Ohio has chosen to revert back to the method of funding used in the early ages of Christianity wherein the rich hired tutors for their children and if their servants' children had time, they could sit in on the lessons - as long as the servants didn't interfere with the rich kid's lessons. So too it goes in Ohio now. If you live by rich kids, your schools are well funded by local investment. And that's not so bad really. I'm all for a free market and am confident enough in my experience that I'd fair well enough were that the case, but education isn't a free market. And this method of funding it violates the very principles of law and the conditions under which Ohio was granted statehood. As a State, not as a collection of little towns, Ohio agreed to fund public education as part of the Northwest Ordnance which granted us statehood. It was one of several conditions the founders of the nation required and the founders of the state agreed to. For all the talk our modern day leaders have wasted about education, their actions tell us that's no longer a priority. Instead, they've pawned this responsibility off on local school districts, and because the citizens in those districts still do value public education, they've hesitantly coughed up levy after levy to cover the state's irresponsibility. But that well's running dry. At some point Ohio's legislators will be forced to act and to show whether or not they really value education. For those watching, either because they believe in education, or like me, have a direct financial stake in the outcome, their opinions are already too clear.

Just as financing is purely a practical matter for school districts, so too is it for the Luther family.

Banks won't write mortgages to substitute teachers even if the teacher has been working consistently for almost 10 years in the profession. I guess the level of pay and the inconsistency of it frighten banks away?! So if all goes well, and we close a deal on our old house in early April (knock on wood and cross fingers) I'll need something more "permanent" before we find our new house and try to finance its purchase. (It probably comes as a shock that I wasn't able to bank enough cash to buy a home on my salary)

So I'm not choosing to leave education out of bitterness or frustration or because I believe I'll be more satisfied working with my hands again, and seeing the concrete results of my efforts at the end of each day. I'm not leaving because I'll be able to sit with my family without a stack of papers to grade every night, or because this particular job actually pays for any training it requires. I'm not leaving because I get burned out at being a parent to parentless kids all day then neglect my duties to my own kids most nights. I'm not leaving because I'm embarassed by the massive outpouring of respect offered to teachers. I'm leaving because I need a full-time job and I need it soon.

Likewise, I didn't even actively pursue this particular opportunity. I simply updated by resume on a couple of online career places. I had hoped to not even have to consider what I'd do next until closer to June, when my current employer officially has no further use for me. But suddenly I have two offers in my lap - the second came right after I accepted the first, and I'm still struggling with that one, but it's a good struggle to have at this point.

So anyway, now that I downloaded all of that from my system, I suppose it's time for the 9-girl slumber party to once again lay waste to the short-lived peace in this household. I'd better do some pre-emptive cleaning before I start the countdown to taking this group home again. As with all of life's trials, we are on the brink of surviving this one. Having done so makes us richer, stronger.

Fight the power!... and in so doing, usurp it.
Luth