• PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      5·
      3 months ago

      Feels to me like COVID really pulled the mask off, on that idea, and it just…stayed off.

      “Essential workers”…who we permanently, societally, treat as disposable.

      (I realize I’m muddying the waters with what you said and what I’m saying, my bad. “Essential workers” never really meant teachers on the COVID tip, but the fundamental point of the most actually useful workers in our society being shit on the most is profound, and feels at least somewhat new (new lows we’ve reached, to be sure) - this place is super fucked)

  • CitizensTyrant [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    58·
    3 months ago

    That’s the point. An educated working class is a dangerous working class. Therefore, underfund everything to do with education and make it as unappealing as possible and make it an unrealistic economic decision for future proles.

  • electric_nan@lemmy.mlEnglish
    53·
    3 months ago

    The fee market has determined that bartenders provide more value to society than teachers. All hail the invisible hand!

      • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        18·
        3 months ago

        It was a long time ago not sure how keen they are on taking yanquis these days. But I took mandarin in college and my Chinese teacher made the connection. Center for Teaching and Learning in China. Not sure if it’s still around

  • Dimmer06 [he/him,comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    22·
    3 months ago

    Not to say school teachers are adequately compensated for their labor, but these two occupations operate on wildly different pay and benefit structures which makes it kind of inaccurate to only compare take home pay.

    As a bartender she was probably making $15k a year (or less) in wages and $40k or more in tips. She probably wasn’t paying FICA taxes on a portion of those tips which will hurt her retirement, disability, and unemployment benefits. She probably also wasn’t paying income taxes on some of those tips which is illegal and carries a huge risk of the IRS fining her. She almost certainly didn’t have employer paid health insurance, sick time, retirement benefits, or any other fringe benefits. Her labor hours and working conditions were entirely up to her employer. Her tips were based on customer goodwill and being scheduled to work during busy hours. The restaurant industry is notoriously unsafe, retaliatory, unstable, and offers very little wage growth, especially for women as they age.

    A teacher is usually salaried and guaranteed pay. They probably have a union and a CBA with fantastic healthcare and retirement benefits, time off, guaranteed wage increases, and just cause protections. They have access to loan forgiveness. They have limited work obligations for a quarter of the year, on weekends, and public holidays. There is career mobility in education. Even just having a daytime work schedule is a huge benefit if she wants to have a family or even just an evening to herself. Of course teaching comes with its own problems but it’s a much steadier career than bartending and higher take home pay is one of the tradeoffs for that security.

      • Alaskaball [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
        121·
        3 months ago

        If you’re teaching high school, you have to spend that time grading or prepping for the next year

        It only takes a few years to set up a generalized “course” if you’re allowed to choose what grades and what educational course you’re teaching, i.e 10th grade u.s history or 9th grade world history. Of course the shit you may be contractually required to teach, or materials you’re forced to cover may change year by year, or you’re forced to adopt some kind of new educational formula or technology by your bosses because of some bullshit or another, etc. You may not have as much time off as younger grades but it’s still not a complete shitshow.

          • CarmineCatboy2 [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
            15·
            3 months ago

            And that’s not dealing with the elephant in the room: you have all the institutional conditions necessary to create a ‘standardized’ course so you can do less prepping for the next year. But the students’ needs are never standardized. It is indeed a myth that teachers have limited obligations during the off seasons - you have administrative duties, meetings, gradings and prep time to do. But teacher’s obligations are doubled from expected during on seasons simply because they are expected to implement a standardized course according to public (laws, curriculums and such) and private (whoever owns the school and textbook systems you’re meant to apply) requirements, while also personalizing stuff for classes and students that are all massively different from each other. If you teach 60 kids in two different schools, they won’t be the same and they won’t be the same as the next 60 kids the following year either.