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You may have hated your fifth grade teacher. You may think the AEA is too powerful. BUT do you realize that a bill is in the state legislature to spend 9.8 million dollars of General Fund money to pay for insurance that is now being paid for by the AEA. This money can be used to pay for anything in the state of Alabama. It is also a gift to AEA. The proposal is part of an organized effort to break the AEA. Do you want almost $9 million to be spent in such a vindictive fashion? Most teachers do not belong to the AEA to get liabliity insurance. If you are a Republican you should consider informing your legislator to spend your tax dollars more wisely. Not only is this vindictive stupidity, it borders on insanity. This post is because the post in Politics did not seem to faze anyone. If you can read this, you can probably thank an AEA member. (Edited for a homonym error. I have a children's book entitled "Nobody's Perfick"! Thanks to Jennifer for her great reading ability and her very critical reading- and for knowing the difference!)

I am an essentially flawed individual who nevertheless does the right thing enough of the time.

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I agree with you that money is being wasted by the state offering liability insurance. However, if AEA folded, the state would save considerably more than 10 million dollars annually.

Also, why not make liability insurance available through a private party. If the teacher wants it, they can purchase it. Liability insurance is around $100 a year. AEA and NEA dues are 4 times that.
"If the teacher wants it, he/she can purchase it." This sentence was corrected by an AEA member! LOL! Current salaries and benefits in the state are a result of AEA efforts. This includes sick leave and personal leave policies. BTW, teachers now make enough. Salaries need to be frozen for several years. Class sizes are too small. I began teaching in AL in 1959. In 1960 the governor locked the doors of a public auditorium to keep teachers from leaving. I believe this is against the law. A thorough review of educational history in the state should be made before the AEA is condemned. What is your primary problem with the AEA? I also would be interested to know the insurance company which offers liability insurance for $100 a year.



If the teacher wnts it, he/
Yes. Many classes up into and including some high school classes are limited to under 20 (15,I think in lower grades). There are innovative ways to provide quality education with more students. Several years ago I worked in a local school system on a contract basis. Classes are too small. On many occasions only 10 students were present. I know sudents have discipline problems nowadays, but I taught 30 35 and most did quite well. My child was in a class of 40 and she is doing quite well. The state continues to mandate without support! BTW, the small classes have not alleviatd the discipline problems.
quote:
Originally posted by earthmomma:
You may have hated your fifth grade teacher. You may think the AEA is too powerful. BUT do you realize that a bill is in the state legislature to spend 9.8 million dollars of General Fund money to pay for insurance that is now being paid for by the AEA. This money can be used to pay for anything in the state of Alabama. It is also a gift to AEA. The proposal is part of an organized effort to break the AEA. Do you want almost $9 million to be spent in such a vindictive fashion? Most teachers do not belong to the AEA to get liabliity insurance. If you are a Republican you should consider informing your legislator to spend your tax dollars more wisely. Not only is this vindictive stupidity, it borders on insanity. This post is because the post in Politics did not seem to phase anyone. If you can read this, you can probably thank an AEA member.


Nation wide the Republican party has an agenda to bust the unions, especially the ones in the public service area.
I wonder if the people of Alabama have the stones to go to the streets in protest like the citizens of Wisconsin are doing right this very minute.
quote:
Originally posted by earthmomma:
"If the teacher wants it, he/she can purchase it." This sentence was corrected by an AEA member! LOL! Current salaries and benefits in the state are a result of AEA efforts. This includes sick leave and personal leave policies. BTW, teachers now make enough. Salaries need to be frozen for several years. Class sizes are too small. I began teaching in AL in 1959. In 1960 the governor locked the doors of a public auditorium to keep teachers from leaving. I believe this is against the law. A thorough review of educational history in the state should be made before the AEA is condemned. What is your primary problem with the AEA? I also would be interested to know the insurance company which offers liability insurance for $100 a year.



If the teacher wnts it, he/


All you have to do is google in liability insurance for educators and you will find several companies who offer it for far less teachers pay the union. Also, my wife is a teacher so I get the newsletters and keep up with the AEA. When she started working several of her teacher friends told her the main reason they are in AEA is for the liability protection.

If the classes are too small and teachers get paid enough, what is the point of the AEA?
Your wife's salary and benefits are partially due to the AEA. I do not know the details behind the class size mandates, contrary to popular custom on the forum, I will not comment. BTW, salaries can be cut at any time without the efforts of AEA. What part and how much of your wife's salary and benefits do you want cut? I would like an answer to this. Your wife's salary is a direct result of AEA efforts. We will take credit for that. Her salary can be cut more than $300 to $400 without AEA protection. You betcha! I am sure she is well qualified and works hard, but she can also be fired because the principal's niece needs a job witout a sort of tenure law. I have been there and seen that! I leave you with my original questions. Is it worth the $9.8 million? Do you want your wife's salary and benefits cut? I have seen neither addressed by you.
You are right. She could get a pay cut or get laid off, just like myself and the rest who work in private sector jobs. Teachers work for the tax payers. If there is no longer a need for a position or tax revenues are down, positions and pay should be changed accordingly. I don't want my wife's salary and benefits to be cut, but I would rather have her take a little less at certain times in her career to maintain her position.
I dont know what school system you are talking about, but here in Lauderdale County, our class sizes have doubled. We have just been told we will be losing more teachers next year (tenure teachers) and class sizes will be even higher. This is not fair to the teacher and especially the student. YES on paper class sizes are suppose to be 16 k-3rd and so on with high school classes no more than 20, which by the way if you read The foundation of Education which our state receives funds for this, they send money to our state 1 teacher unit per this many students. But our gov riley signed a bill that stated local board of educations in "extreme circumstances" could choose to cut teachers and use that money elsewhere. Where else would be more important than keeping class sizes at least managable so that students would have a fighting chance to get individual help?
as far as AEA I agree that most of us was not around before the tenure laws and I have heard horrible stories about this. Lauderdale County is already so political in its hiring, it scares me to think if we didnt have tenure laws how political it would be in their firing. It would not be based on a teacher's performance but like she said, who's neice needed a job or who owed who a favor. There is nothing wrong with AEA fighting for our rights. We are already scraping the bottom of the barrel now trying to hang on. There is a bill right now waiting to be voted on that teachers would have to work till age 60 no matter how many years they have in, (exactly how is this going to save money?) and new teachers will not have alabama retirement but 401ks...but besides all that...if your wife is a teacher, you know that we have not had as much as a cost of living raise in years, our insurance keeps going up making us make less, we use our own money to buy supplies for our classroom, and if we get a 6% raise or whatever somewhere in the future it will hit the paper like some big deal, but wont mention that we havent had a raise in however many years. Then it will get those people out talking about how good teachers have it..yea right
Yes, Jennifer, I did mean to say faze! I went back and edited - probably forgot to post edited material! LOL! I am glad you could read so young! I actually am through with pointing out what the AEA lobby has done for education in AL. I have also voiced MY views on its problems. Both sides of the issue need to be addressed. I'm going back to re-edit my post! LOL!

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