[StBernard] teacher raises

[Westley Annis]

Deborah,

Let me preface this by saying my wife is a teacher, so naturally I want her
to get paid as much as possible.

In my mind there are a few things that can done that will put more money in
the budget for salaries.

1) Reduce the number of administrators.

2) If a current teacher "retires" so they can start drawing their retirement
and then gets rehired by any school district, they must return to the end of
the line.  In other words, they should be treated and paid as a first year
teacher.  No double dipping.

A prime example is Doris Voitier.  As a former student of hers, I'm one of
her biggest fans, but she is double dipping.  I believe a year after she was
hired as Superintendent, she reached her "max" years for the retirement
system, so she retired and was hired as a new employee, but with all the
perks of being a 30+ year employee.

3) Bring in vouchers.  My numbers are fuzzy, going back 5-6 years, but I
think the average "cost" per student in a public school was $2,000 from the
state and $4,000 from the local parish.  Take only the $2,000 state funds
and let that travel with the student.  That's $4,000 that just got freed up
in the public system.

4) Separate the bad eggs from the good ones.  Teachers as well as students.
Cut the crap about having an education degree (I'm sorry, but I think an
ex-CPA has the knowledge to teach math/business courses).

When you get the bad students, put them into their own school.  Some
districts, including St. Bernard have done this, but they need to move the
students faster.

5) Stop babying students, especially in high school.  I still cannot
understand how a college can teach the same material meeting three times a
week for twelve weeks that it takes a high school meeting five days a week
36 weeks to teach.

6) Bring back the vo-tech classes in high school.  There is good money to be
made as an electrician, plumber, welder, tile-layer, you name it.  

Westley