How about 35%...that's still much lower than it was.

Facebook, just posted it on my wall...

Really? No scholarships? No grants? No gifts from relative? No help from parents? No aid or assistance from ANYONE, ANYHOW OR ANYWHERE? "Blaming" everything you are all by your little lonesome, eh?

Bullshit! No stands alone.

Saw that on Facebook the other day. Posted by a white fellow I know, in fact.

I wouldn't say a poor white male with schizophrenia has it easier.

But I agree. A white male with 3 noses probably doesn't have it easier either.

Working 8 months a year is pretty sweet....

My mother was a teacher and father a guidance counselor. They had summers completely off along with all the one week vacations. We took month long vacations to Maine every summer staying at a small cabin on a lake my grandparents had.

Admittedly, my mother was on the lazy side and very stressed out by the bad behavior of the kids in the South Bronx (Teddy Roosevelt HS) - the 9th graders tormented her - though the older kids were better behaved though. She gave decent lectures on the material, but outside of that did not go the extra foot (as opposed to mile).

She retired 17 years ago, so teachers getting overworked with budget cuts may make my mother not comparable to today. Furthermore, my story was purely anecdotal.

is not proof that there were only 8 months offered. Dolt.


My wife (a teacher in a public school) is looking at losing one month's work out of the ten she usually puts in each year. Thing is, there's no PAY for that lost month. Yeah - it's a veritable walk in the park - having to do with considerably less income when everything costs more.

ends meet.

School finishes for the summer here, but the teachers I know in town are going to be spending all but the standard couple of weeks on prep work and additional training.

You think that's all there is to it?

Next you'll say firefighters sit around all day.

Just saying.

until Wednesday. They return the first week of Sept. Teachers are still working for a week or 2 after school ends and before school starts. How is that 8 months? Maybe you're just bitter because your teacher never taught you how to count.

Actually, here in my town, summer breaks are 13 weeks long. Add to that about 3 weeks for Christmas, another one for spring break and all of the various holidays and you actually get more than 4 months of break. But, I cut them a little slack because of the added week or so it takes to wrap up grades at the end of the semesters, etc.

However, I'm not bitter about it in the least. I think that they deserve all of the vacation. Teaching can be quite a stressful profession and I think that the down time is helpful.

I have two teachers that work in the summers for me (oddly... they are not in "extra training", "lesson planning", or any other teaching activity). They tell me that they quite enjoy the summers off so that they can do other things for a while. Likewise, they tell me that most of their co-workers do the same or just enjoy their time off.

I don't begrudge them their off time. I think that it's a great perk for a tough job.

I wouldn't say bitter... simply undereducated re: teacher responsibilities; and that basing any so-called knowledge off mere anecdotal evidence reinforces the premise of your need for more education...

But most certainly not bitter.

Teabaggers can't read or write. They certainly can't spell and math is totally beyond them so they have no need for teachers. They already know everything.

UE, student loans, and police and fire protection to the following address _____________"

are complaining is because voters were told their compensation was outrageous (even though that was untrue) and that public employees needed to be punished for having better benefits than those in the private sector. So it was petty jealous assholes who voted to reduce teacher compensation who have the nerve to turn around now and whine that too much is being expected of them by paying more taxes and to insult those who have already taken pay cuts telling them they need to take more responsibility and stop living off handouts.
The hypocrisy and cruelty of the right knows no bounds. Bill Maher is right, those that continue to call themselves republicans are immature a-holes.

My friends are already well aware.

I would not spend a dime of my own money on classroom supplies. All these parents who voted in Chris Christie and Scott Walker can hold fundraisers to raise the money themselves. Teachers should no longer be expected to foot the bill for these expenses themselves if their states are going to continue to cut their salaries and benefits and generally just treat them like crap.