BC Teacher's plea for help

[Sn0man]

Nilsson has 27 students in her class at Khowhemun Elementary in Duncan, B.C. Eight of them are designated as having special needs.

Most of the classes I attended throughout school had more than 30 students. Nearly all had some special needs students and my teachers managed just fine. Those with really special needs had their own class - is it not this way still?

Nilsson says many of her students come to school hungry, tired and too stressed to learn. "As a district, we have to take from core money to supplement special needs kids," said Rhodes, adding the district gets $5 million per year from the province for special programs, but spends $9 million.

Ensuring that the kids are fed and rested is the responsibility of the parents not the school district or the government imo. Are hungry, tired and/or stressed students to be considered special needs now?

[toughnut]

teachers are liberal left wing.They are advocates of full entitlement to all .They make $50.00 per hour and then they complain
Show me a job where U can make $50.00 hour and get 3 months off on top of that.?Enough already DO your job and teach the kids the subjects that you are paid to.Your a teacher not a frigging social worker

[KGT]

Nilsson has 27 students in her class at Khowhemun Elementary in Duncan, B.C. Eight of them are designated as having special needs.

Most of the classes I attended throughout school had more than 30 students. Nearly all had some special needs students and my teachers managed just fine. Those with really special needs had their own class - is it not this way still?

No, all special needs students are now integrated into the classroom. For the most part, it's a good system. However, the cracks are beginning to show as lack of funding is cutting back on CEA and other support staff time.

Nilsson says many of her students come to school hungry, tired and too stressed to learn. "As a district, we have to take from core money to supplement special needs kids," said Rhodes, adding the district gets $5 million per year from the province for special programs, but spends $9 million.

Ensuring that the kids are fed and rested is the responsibility of the parents not the school district or the government imo. Are hungry, tired and/or stressed students to be considered special needs now?

I think hungry, stressed, and tired students are being mentioned, not because they are special needs (athough that could be debated I'm sure), but because teachers are trying to point out the challenges of teaching in poverty-stricken schools with significantly less support. When many of the students come to school hungry, tired, sad, or scared, it makes learning all that much more difficult.

[KGT]

teachers are liberal left wing.They are advocates of full entitlement to all .They make $50.00 per hour and then they complain
Show me a job where U can make $50.00 hour and get 3 months off on top of that.?Enough already DO your job and teach the kids the subjects that you are paid to.Your a teacher not a frigging social worker

We do not get paid for our TWO months off.

So you want us to ignore the fact that a child comes to school neglected, hungry, beaten, etc and just say, "Suck it up kid, you've got to learn to read today. What do you think I am? A social worker?" ??? Your opening sentence explains why we can't. We are compassionate people who care about kids who often need a hug more than anything else.

You do not have a clue what you are talking about. I suggest you visit an inner city school for a day and help out in a classroom. It might open your eyes, and your heart.

[Amarow121]

teachers are liberal left wing.They are advocates of full entitlement to all .They make $50.00 per hour and then they complain
Show me a job where U can make $50.00 hour and get 3 months off on top of that.?Enough already DO your job and teach the kids the subjects that you are paid to.Your a teacher not a frigging social worker

Yeah, I'm not sure what your point is.
Can you clarify what you mean? Are you upset that this teacher has noticed things that a social worker ought to notice? Are you upset that the teacher might be concerning herself with issues best left to a social worker?
What course of action would you suggest for this teacher so that she doesn't accidentally preform the duties of a social worker and yet still be connected and relevant to her students?

[Urbane]

No question that the writer comes from a conservative perspective and no question that he's writing about education in the United States. But there are some lessons to learn on this side of the border as well when it comes to spending money wisely in education. If you're interested in education this is definitely worth a read:

By MARK STEYN / Syndicated columnist
In one of those inspired innovations designed to keep American classrooms on the cutting edge of educational excellence, the administration has been sending Joe Biden out to talk to schoolchildren. Last week, it was the Fourth Grade at Alexander B. Goode Elementary School in York, Pennsylvania, that found itself on the receiving end of the vice president's wisdom:
"Here in this school, your school, you've had a lot of teachers who used to work here, but because there's no money for them in the city, they're not working. And so what happens is, when that occurs, each of the teachers that stays have more kids to teach. And they don't get to spend as much time with you as they did when your classes were smaller. We think the federal government in Washington, D.C., should say to the cities and states, look, we're going to give you some money so that you can hire back all those people. And the way we're going to do it, we're going to ask people who have a lot of money to pay just a little bit more in taxes."
Who knew it was that easy?
So let's see if I follow the vice president's thinking:
The school laid off these teachers because "there's no money for them in the city." That's true. York City School District is broke. It has a $14 million budget deficit.
So instead Washington, D.C., is going to "give you some money" to hire these teachers back.
So, unlike York, Pennsylvania, presumably Washington, D.C., has "money for them"?
No, not technically. Washington, D.C., is also broke – way broker than York City School District. In fact, the government of the United States is broker than any entity has ever been in the history of the planet. Officially, Washington has to return 15,000,000,000,000 dollars just to get back to having nothing at all. And that 15,000,000,000,000 dollars is a very lowball figure that conveniently ignores another $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities that the government, unlike private businesses, is able to keep off the books.
So how come the Brokest Jurisdiction in History is able to "give you some money" to hire back those teachers that had to be laid off?
No problem, says the vice president. We're going to "ask" people who have "a lot of money" to "pay just a little bit more" in taxes.
Where are these people? Evidently, not in York, Pennsylvania. But they're out there somewhere. Who has "a lot of money"? According to President Obama, if your combined household income is over $250,000 a year you have "a lot of money." Back in March, my National Review colleague Kevin Williamson pointed out that, in order to balance the budget of the United States, you would have to increase the taxes of people earning more than $250,000 a year by $500,000 a year.
OK, OK, maybe that $250K definition of "bloated plutocrat" is a bit off. After all, the quarter-mil-a-year category includes not only bankers and other mustache-twirling robber barons, but also at least 50 school superintendents in the state of New York and many other mustache-twirling selfless public servants.
So how about people earning a million dollars a year? That's "a lot of money" by anybody's definition. As Kevin Williamson also pointed out, to balance the budget of the United States on the backs of millionaires you would have to increase the taxes of those earning more than $1 million a year by $6 million a year.
Not only is there "no money in the city" of York, Pennsylvania, and no money in Washington, D.C., there's no money anywhere else in America – not for spending on the Obama/Biden scale. Come to that, there's no money anywhere on the planet: Last year, John Kitchen of the U.S. Treasury and Menzie Chinn of the University of Wisconsin published a study called "Financing U.S. Debt: Is There Enough Money In The World – And At What Cost?"
Don't worry, it's a book with a happy ending! U.S. government spending is sustainable as long as by 2020 the rest of the planet is willing to sink 19 percent of its GDP into U.S. Treasury debt. And why wouldn't they? After all, if you're a Chinese politburo member or a Saudi prince or a Russian kleptocrat or a Somali pirate, and you switched on CNN International and chanced to catch Joe Biden's Fourth Grade Economics class, why wouldn't you cheerily dump a fifth of your GDP into a business model with such a bright future?
Since 1970, public school employment has increased 10 times faster than public school enrollment. In 2008, the United States spent more per student on K-12 education than any other developed nation except Switzerland – and at least the Swiss have something to show for it. In 2008, York City School District spent $12,691 per pupil – or about a third more than the Swiss. Slovakia's total per student cost is less than York City's current per student deficit – and the Slovak kids beat the United States at mathematics, which may explain why their budget arithmetic still has a passing acquaintanceship with reality. As in so many other areas of American life, the problem is not the lack of money but the fact that so much of the money is utterly wasted.
But that's no reason not to waste even more! So the President spent last week touring around in his weaponized Canadian bus telling Americans that Republicans were blocking plans to "put teachers back in the classroom." Well, where are they now? Not every schoolmarm is down at the Occupy Wall Street drum circle, is she? No, indeed. And, in that respect, York City is a most instructive example: Five years ago (the most recent breakdown I have), the district had 440 teachers but 295 administrative and support staff. If you're thinking that sounds a little out of whack, that just shows what a dummy you are: For every three teachers we "put back in the classroom," we need to hire two bureaucrats to put back in the bureaucracy to fill in the paperwork to access the federal funds to put teachers back in the classroom. One day it will be three educrats for every two teachers, and the system will operate even more effectively.
It's just about possible to foresee, say, Iceland or Ireland getting its spending under control. But, when a nation of 300 million people presumes to determine grade-school hiring and almost everything else through an ever more centralized bureaucracy, you're setting yourself up for waste on a scale unknown to history. For example, under the Obama "stimulus," U.S. taxpayers gave a $529 million loan guarantee to the company Fisker to build their Karma electric car. At a factory in Finland.
If you're wondering how giving half-a-billion dollars to a Finnish factory stimulates the U.S. economy, well, what's a lousy half-bil in a multitrillion-dollar sinkhole? Besides, in the 2009 global rankings, Finnish schoolkids placed sixth in math, third in reading and second in science, while suffering under the burden of a per-student budget half that of York City. By comparison, America placed 17th in reading, 23rd in science, and 31st in math. So the good news is that, by using U.S. government money to fund a factory in Finland, Fisker may be able to hire workers smart enough to figure out how to build an unwanted electric car that doesn't lose its entire U.S. taxpayer investment.
In a sane world, Joe Biden's remarks would be greeted by derisive laughter, even by fourth-graders. Certainly by Finnish fourth-graders.

[Sn0man]

Brilliant article Urbane. Thanks for posting that!

[steven lloyd]

This guy could have been writing about the BC Liberals philosophy for managing the public sector in general - ie. cut the people who do the actual work and hire bureaucrats to observe and "manage' the consequences. Oddly enough, they’re only starting to realize (bureaucrats think slow and move slower) they now need some of those workers back (except they now have to hire and train new people, at a greater cost, to replace the already trained and experienced people they previously had who left in disgust) - but at least their bloated, high cost bureaucracy is in place.

"... in that respect, York City is a most instructive example: Five years ago (the most recent breakdown I have), the district had 440 teachers but 295 administrative and support staff. If you're thinking that sounds a little out of whack, that just shows what a dummy you are: For every three teachers we "put back in the classroom," we need to hire two bureaucrats to put back in the bureaucracy to fill in the paperwork to access the federal funds to put teachers back in the classroom. One day it will be three educrats for every two teachers, and the system will operate even more effectively."

[Urbane]

This guy could have been writing about the BC Liberals philosophy for managing the public sector in general - ie. cut the people who do the actual work and hire bureaucrats to observe and "manage' the consequences. Oddly enough, they’re only starting to realize (bureaucrats think slow and move slower) they now need some of those workers back (except they now have to hire and train new people, at a greater cost, to replace the already trained and experienced people they previously had who left in disgust) - but at least their bloated, high cost bureaucracy is in place.

"... in that respect, York City is a most instructive example: Five years ago (the most recent breakdown I have), the district had 440 teachers but 295 administrative and support staff. If you're thinking that sounds a little out of whack, that just shows what a dummy you are: For every three teachers we "put back in the classroom," we need to hire two bureaucrats to put back in the bureaucracy to fill in the paperwork to access the federal funds to put teachers back in the classroom. One day it will be three educrats for every two teachers, and the system will operate even more effectively."

I can see why you're frustrated and I have a feeling that the bloated bureaucracy syndrome reaches into most if not all areas of government.

[flamingfingers]

^ So, what can we do about it? Cutting front line workers to provide 'managers" and "administers' who do nothing more than move paper and justify their positions and receive 'bonuses' for trimming all but their own and other 'administrivia' positions is a ridiculous waste of money! When you look at the number of 'administrators' in our school district and see there is 1 'supervisor' for every 9 teachers there is something VERY WRONG.

[Amarow121]

^ So, what can we do about it? Cutting front line workers to provide 'managers" and "administers' who do nothing more than move paper and justify their positions and receive 'bonuses' for trimming all but their own and other 'administrivia' positions is a ridiculous waste of money! When you look at the number of 'administrators' in our school district and see there is 1 'supervisor' for every 9 teachers there is something VERY WRONG.

I wonder if I could just write a letter to my MLA telling him to start firing managers...
And yes, I think it is rampant in most government branches.

[toughnut]

QUOTE:
So you want us to ignore the fact that a child comes to school neglected, hungry, beaten, etc and just say, "Suck it up kid, you've got to learn to read today. What do you think I am? A social worker?" ??? Your opening sentence explains why we can't. We are compassionate people who care about kids who often need a hug more than anything else.


Ok so in terms of numbers? how many students fit this discription? second its your duty to inform the proper authoritys to these circumstances.Its not your job to look after these people in those unfortunant situations.You are a teacher not a social worker.You make very good money.You get a lot of time off. You have no right to complain as far as I can see and tell.

[KGT]

QUOTE:
So you want us to ignore the fact that a child comes to school neglected, hungry, beaten, etc and just say, "Suck it up kid, you've got to learn to read today. What do you think I am? A social worker?" ??? Your opening sentence explains why we can't. We are compassionate people who care about kids who often need a hug more than anything else.


Ok so in terms of numbers? how many students fit this discription? second its your duty to inform the proper authoritys to these circumstances.Its not your job to look after these people in those unfortunant situations.You are a teacher not a social worker.You make very good money.You get a lot of time off. You have no right to complain as far as I can see and tell.

Numbers? It depends on the school and the area. I've taught in schools where I may 5-6 neglected kids in a classroom and I've taught in schools where I've had none (at least none who are visibly neglected). But I know for a fact, that there are certainly classrooms where neglect is the norm.

Yes, we are obligated to report any situation where we believe there is neglect. The fact remains, that many/most stay with their parents in difficult situations and we have to deal with that in the classroom. Again, we are not complaining that we have to care for these children, we are simply trying to make the public aware of some of the concerns teachers have.

[Veovis]

So if it's all administrations fault for everything, and you need to report neglected children, who are you reporting to? Keep in mind everyone already knows that apparently administration is unneccesary and teachers could run the show on their own, except that they will tell you thats not their job and they don't have the time, so who's job should it be then?

People also wonder why there is more administration these days (which I think is heavy....but needed) It's because we have developed a couple generations of self entitled people who want to work less hours for more pay and someone else should have to fill out forms for me. Add to that that as a society we have become so namby pamby delicate that we need government to make a rule and regulation for almost every common sense aspect of our lives.

And you wonder HOW there seems to be a pile of crap paper that need analysis and reviews. YOU wanted all these regulations so you could ask schools, teachers, police and TV to deal with your kids because parents just don't feel like doing it, but don't they dare ever make a mistake or you'll ask for more rules and paperwork because hey you love your kids....just not enough to actually do anything yourselves.

And yes, there are neglected children, and it sucks, and I'm glad teachers do try to help them, but some actual parental accountability is the only way some of that changes...not more TA's, ECE's, teachers and money thrown at it. Yes a 2adm to 3 teach ratio is out, but WHY? How many pointless things are being done and filed, and reported and evaluated and analysed simply because a lot of parents suck and no one else will do it, so you hire someone to do it, because like many unions the catch phase taught is "Thats not my job"

[Libelle]

Although she is a member of the teachers' federation and on the local union executive, Nilsson said she does not work for the provincial union, and is speaking out after encouragement from other teachers.

Typical grandstanding by a union flunky.

Waaaaaa, waaaaaaaaaaaa, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I don't wanna work!

Tough beans lady, go get another job and quit using students to push your ridiculous contract demands on the taxpayers of BC.

WOW. It is not that she does not want to work..far from it. Not all teachers are the same, so really love their job, love the children that they teach. She is doing the best that she can, but she is only one person.