Oxendine says he wouldn’t have ordered teacher furloughs
Remember how we said those eager to replace Sonny Perdue might consider the governor’s decision to give teachers a three-day furlough to be something of a gamble?
Here’s something from this morning’s Athens Banner-Herald:
The leading Republican candidate for governor Wednesday criticized money-saving teacher furloughs and the way Gov. Sonny Perdue handled tri-state water negotiations.
Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, campaigning in Athens, said Perdue should have exempted teachers from the three-day furloughs he announced Tuesday.
Oxendine did not say specifically what he would cut to save the $300 million the state will save by not paying 100,000 teachers for three planning days, but he said he would have looked elsewhere in the budget for savings.
“When we are lagging the country in test scores and dropout rates, cutting education is probably not the best of ideas,” he said.
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67 comments Add your comment
Just A Teacher
July 23rd, 2009
9:41 pm
Only those people who are educators or know someone well who is an educator know what we REALLY do for our students. How many other professionals or state employees spend their OWN money to make their jobs better or for others in their work place? NONE, teacher spend their own money for their students. We work more days on our day off then any other profession and we don’t get paid. Why? For YOUR children. We can have a doctorate degree and make barely over poverty level. There SO many other ways to make or save money for the state, for example FAIR TAX, 6 months tax free from income tax, the state would have more money then they know what to do with.
Reader
July 23rd, 2009
10:23 pm
Wow, don’t you just love this conservative, core value, republican run state! God Bless America!
Adrienne
July 23rd, 2009
10:33 pm
I’m a teacher and I’ve been in the position where I was out on maternity leave and did not have enoug time off and my husband’s job shut down so for 3 months we had no where near the income we normally had coming into our home. People are complaining about 3 days off with no pay, well consider this option for some people– 365 days off with no pay. I know what its llike to try to survive on unemployment and it is not a good feeling. So if furloughs are the way to possibly save another’s job, I am all for it. Sorry if I upset some, but it could be your job that is being saved.
rebecca tabb
July 23rd, 2009
10:55 pm
As a teacher, I can honestly say that even though furloughed, most teachers will give their time even though they are NOT paid. I have already worked in my classroom SEVERAL days over summer break. Class sizes are INCREASING. My husband, a GA State Trooper, most likely will receive furlough days as well. They have gone to a dicey, central radio system where ONE radio operator is in charge of SEVERAL counties and troopers at ONCE! This is a dangerous way to save money. It’s time we REBEL and take our politicians to task. Many ABLE BODIED people do NOT work and are on the public dole. We need to clean house!
Eric
July 23rd, 2009
11:37 pm
How about getting rid of the dead weight that is working for the state, including (especially) the dead weight in county school offices. Why do schools need 15 administrators and county offices to have assistant to an assistant to an assistant.
No instead Sonny taxes teachers and parapro’s (who are even more underpaid than teachers) and at the same time preaching how teachers need to produce more. Even a ten year old can tell you this makes no sense.
Anyone who thinks teachers life easy because we have summers off really is ignorant. Most of us have to work a job in the summer to make up for inadequate pay during the year. Never mind having to bring up other peoples kids during the year.
Sonny, have you met Roy Barnes? Your day is coming.
gacitizentoo
July 23rd, 2009
11:38 pm
Will someone tell Bill White there is no teacher un ion in Ga. Wow, he is full of …..misinformed statements. Maybe he should run for office. Seems he has spouting off before doing the homework down-pat. One of the biggest problems facing our state is illegal immigrants draining all state systems beyond the breaking point. Add to this the thousands of Katrina gypsy still in Atlanta. We Ga tax payers can’t keep up the bottom dwellers, but still we take the hit. State WORKERS now face cuts in pay. Oh well, I guess that will be a little less income tax paid.
Another teacher
July 23rd, 2009
11:42 pm
Yes, I am a teacher that is happy to have a job and do not want any of my fellow collegues to lose theirs. Yes, I will be spending my own time and money to prepare for my students, furlough days or no furlough days. My concern is more for teacher moral and the apathy that furlough days will foster. With all that the state needs us to do to prepare our students for the “test”, we have to go above and beyond to develop crafty and creative lessons to stimulate the minds of today’s students. Some teachers will use furlough days as a reason to continue doing as little as they always have and in a way, who can blame them. If you consider working for 190 days into our salary, it is not horrible but it is never 190 days. It is so much more. Yes, we are underpaid but we do have jobs. I think that the governor should just cut our salaries instead of asking us to take furlough days. Most of us will not “stay home” and do nothing. We will be in our classrooms working. He should just call it what it is. Oh yeah, and Governor, good luck with raising those test scores!
Thanks to those who understand
July 24th, 2009
1:52 am
Well, there are some of us who do have to take 3 furlough days and a $750 pay cut. I read where we are supposed to receive the 2.5% increase. I’ve not gotten that in years in my county. I’m blessed to have a job. I know that there are many that don’t appreciate what I do, but there are many lives that I changed. I have students whose parents still communicate to me and state that I’m their favorite teacher, or the best one they’ve had. That means that I’ve had a positive impact on their lives. That is why I entered the field, and no amount of furloughs will stop me from helping my students.
Dedicated Teacher
July 24th, 2009
3:16 am
Furloughs might not stop you from doing what is best for your students, but they might stop you from paying ALL of your bills. Do you also realize that as of July 1st, TRS has increased our retirement deduction and will increase it more over the next two years? When will the craziness end? When will we begin to place a higher value on education and raise our state out of the depths of underachievement?
Billy Bob
July 24th, 2009
8:17 am
Let me think about this. If I had to choose who shouldn’t get furloughs because they are more critical- teachers or troopers, who would I choose? My vote would definitely go with the troopers. I can’t see being without a teacher for 3 days being a life or death issue, but I can see not having that trooper on the road as a danger. I have never seen a teacher save someone from a burning car, get into a fight with a criminal on the side of the interstate, respond to an accident in the middle of a thunderstorm to help me when I was injured, confront an armed man, or spend their Christmas away from their families so that I could be safe with mine. I have seen troopers do all of these. So , teachers whining about the furlough days need to suck it up and deal with it.
One more thing, the actual teachers are underpaid, but most systems have way too many central office administrators who are overpaid. School systems seem to have the philosophy of promoting poor principals to the central office instead of giving them the boot.
Concerned Teacher
July 24th, 2009
9:51 am
All counties this past year had to make up the work for missing teachers. We were under a hiring freeze last year so we did more with less as teachers were let go and not replaced. At the end of the school year teachers from every school were surplussed to other schools whose teachers may have retired or to new schools that are opening this year. They released almost all the Teach for America teachers and some of the surplussed teachers went to fill those shoes. Teachers also haven’t gotten a raise although they have been approved by county boards. With the furloughs I will be making less as a third year teacher then when I started. So not only have I not gotten a pay raise I have had my pay cut.
Those of you who think that teaching isn’t a critical need have obviously forgotten where you learned all those skills you do every day. I’m not saying other jobs aren’t critical but in the long run, if students get low quality education then as a country the overall decline in our ability to be economically competitive is certain. We are already behind in math and science, which are the key fields to creating better technology. Without this better technology we get car companies that haven’t been unable to advance in fuel reduction like our foreign competitors. If you keep chipping away at education funding, you will continue to create the same sort of economic woes this country is seeing now. I may not save a life in my classroom but I have produced students that will go on to jobs in nursing, service, and law enforcement that will save lives.
Oh and Billy Bob there is plenty that goes on in a school that you don’t see. I guess it is hard to understand that criminals are younger these days and bring their weapons to the class and threaten me. I also have to break up the fights in the school like every other teacher. Some of my students have gone on to jail for drug possession, theft, rape, murder, etc. So yes I actually do get in scuffles with criminals even though you don’t see it. Did you know they have taken away school nurses as a funding cut this year. So guess who will be saving the lives of students when they have a medical emergency? When you look at it that way it looks like we are educators, law enforcement, and 1st responders all in one. You’re right we aren’t that critical.
Ticked Off Teacher
July 24th, 2009
10:00 am
Why doesn’t Sonny and his staff take a 3 day unpaid furlough? Or how about sthe state legislators? We already sacrificed a raise, now this? We need a UNION!
concerned teacher
July 24th, 2009
11:29 am
I think most of what I am feeling has already been said, however, I thought I would add a little reality for everyone out there. I just finished making plans with my classroom roommate to meet and set up our room on what was to be the first day of pre-planning (yes, we have two teachers in one room b/c we don’t have enough classrooms to accommodate all of our students and teachers so we have to share a room – just think about the logistics of that b/c we are not teaching the same thing). Now, we have been told that the first day of pre-planning will be our first furlough day! So, I am going to work anyway – for FREE. If I don’t, then I won’t have my classroom ready to meet parents on orientation night. What will parents say if my room looks askew for orientation? It just seems like there is no way to win in this situation.
Don’t get me wrong, I am happy to still have a job. It is just very frustrating to know that the work still has to be done and I don’t get paid for it. It is not a great way to start off a new school year. I will not sacrifice the quality of my classroom b/c our politicians tell me to go home unpaid. When I was a fairly new teacher I went to a conference (yeah, one of those that I paid for to keep my teacher certification on my off time) and the speaker advised new teachers to stay away from the teachers’ lounge b/c of what she called lounge lizards. These are people who go in there on their planning time and every time someone comes in they start fussing about something and trying to drag them into it. Can you imagine how many of those we will have to start the school year with now? The lizards usually don’t show up until October or November!
On a more serious note, please understand that I hate this for all state employees. I don’t know what is required of your jobs and if you have to come out of your own pocket for things then you need to speak up also. My issue with my job is that b/c of budget cuts I can’t order anything new for my classroom. I have been reduced to lining up my husband and three kids in Staples and making them go through the line on penny days and get their limit of everything that is on sale so I can stock my classroom. I want to teach a new novel this year, but to do so I will have to buy a class set myself. I want to take a course to help me be a better teacher, but there are no funds for continuing education to pay for that class, so it will also have to come out of my pocket. My insurance rates are going up. So between supplies, the novel, the class and insurance I am already out about $2,000 from my bank account and that is before figuring in the furlough days. I just want people to understand that all these “awful” teachers out there that so many of you keep saying should all be fired care so much about YOUR children that we are willing to dip that far into our own money. When it is written like this I am even starting to think we are all certifiable, but we probably have to be a little crazy to put up with everything that we do and still come back year after year. This is truly a labor of love. We certainly don’t do it for the money. That is why it hurts me so bad to read some of these posts that have no regard whatsoever for the personal sacrifices that we make.
GSU
July 24th, 2009
2:33 pm
Concerned teacher, you may know a good bit about science but you seem to be lacking an education in free market economics.
GSU
July 24th, 2009
2:34 pm
and oh, yes, ticked of teacher, a union is the way to solve it. Unions destroy organizations.
Ticked Off Teacher
July 24th, 2009
3:53 pm
GSU, provide some examples? They protect workers from being abused by their employer. If I sign a contract to work for a certain amount of days and get paid for thise days, should it not be honoired and enforced?
What do you do GSU, how about you take a 3 day furlough?
uninformed
July 28th, 2009
4:33 pm
My question which I know can be found, but I didn’t look, is how many furlough days did our top state government workers take? How much does our Governor make?Does he thinks the lowest paid people on the state payroll magically can grow money to pay bills?
Sounds like many people are just uninformed. The problems I see are that as a teacher I am on a fixed income. You take away my pay, I can’t pay my bills.That just leads to more problems.Afterschool care was free to the teachers last year in my district so we could stay later to plan and such (on our own time). This year we have to pay. This is a huge added expense. To take away even more money due to furloughs is seriously putting teachers in financial crisis. I worked my way through school, have thousands in student loans still and make piddly squat to help educate the leaders of tomorrow who often don’t care in the least. Faced with shortages at the school, supplies come out of my own pocket. At what point is my breaking point? I don’t know.
I just am amazed at the anger toward teachers from others. To those rude people saying ugly things about educators: Have you ever been in a room all day with children who have been raised by people like you? Obviously rudeness and ignorance is a learned behavior. Some of you need to get a life and stop blaming your unhappiness with yourself and inadequate parenting, on others.