Recently, proponents decided to shelve a proposed $195 parcel
tax which would create a pool of money to use as stipends for
teachers. I hadn’t completely decided against it, but there was
very little support for it in the community at first blush.
Recently, proponents decided to shelve a proposed $195 parcel tax which would create a pool of money to use as stipends for teachers. I hadn’t completely decided against it, but there was very little support for it in the community at first blush. Last week, Dispatch columnist Tom Mulhern opined that teachers who aren’t doing their job effectively should be fired and replaced with more qualified individuals. Gilroy High teacher Wayne Scott wrote in to inform us all about the shortage of qualified teachers and the dismal pay situation.
They are both right.
Unfortunately, we are dealing with the realities as they exist in Gilroy, not some typical school district with typical problems. Having three children in the public schools, I have personal knowledge of many wonderful teachers – all of whom are underpaid.
I also know that there are a few teachers in Gilroy who are ineffective and unqualified to teach the subject or grade level they are teaching. There are a few teachers who remain year after year, while complaints from the community mount about these teachers.
It is unlikely that a disparate group of parents over the course of a decade all had some grand scheme concocted to undermine a particular teacher.
When you have hundreds of teachers in a district, you are bound to have a few who aren’t cutting it. The question I am left with is how they can remain employed by GUSD while “not cutting it” year after year.
I also know that some of our most effective and highly qualified teachers are Gilroy residents who are successfully educating students in other districts. Some of these teachers report that the personal satisfaction, support and appreciation are the reason they choose to teach elsewhere.
One reason I would need to be convinced to support a parcel tax is that it seems to be an unfair method of taxation when one looks at the school population in Gilroy.
Most of our schools spend the bulk of their budget on the underperforming students. It costs more money for remediation, summer school, intervention and instructional aides, etc. Since we want all children to be successful, most homeowners in Gilroy accept the reality of putting most of our resources towards raising the achievement of students who are performing below grade level.
The majority of the parents of these students would not be paying the parcel tax, so it would not affect them. The parcel tax will come mostly from the middle class – so what else is new?
Frankly, I already feel like I am getting too little bang for my tax dollars out of our schools. Many Gilroy homeowners do not have children, or they send their children to one of the many private schools in the area, or they might be one of the hundreds of people whose kids go to public school in Morgan Hill or San Benito. It is unfair to further burden these already overburdened people. The only fair tax would be one that is levied equally upon each family who has a child in GUSD, and that will never happen.
So, I agree with Tom Mulhern. We should get rid of those teachers who aren’t doing their job. But more importantly, we need to reward those good teachers who are out in the trenches. Very often, good teachers are not able to overcome the huge obstacles they face as a classroom teacher. Success in the classroom might be a hard-won battle, but if there is no buy in from the parents, the war is ultimately lost.
Elementary teachers are now faced with groups of second graders whose reading abilities range from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade level. You may be a teacher who only speaks English, and you could have a class of 20 students, half of whom speak little or no English.
These second graders hopscotch around all morning to various rooms and language arts classes, so a typical second grade teacher might actually teach 60 different students.
Wayne Scott is right, qualified teachers have little monetary incentive to stay in the district. For the best teachers, teaching is more than a profession; it is a labor of love. While a better salary may attract more qualified candidates, there is no guarantee that they will be more successful than the aforementioned second grade teacher.
She is the unsung hero who plugs along doing her job to the best of her ability, absorbing each new district mandate that comes down the pike. I’m sure she could use the extra money, I’m sure she deserves it, but I’m certain that it won’t make her any more effective at doing her job.
