Sunday, March 21, 2010

District 51 seeks to save money on backs of students

The new buzz word found in District 51 future plans seems to be outsourcing substitute teacher jobs. When checking this topic on line it was found that not only is this a great idea for the nationwide companies that have undertaken this business, but it is another way to reduce salaries for actual, teaching certificed, capable substitutes from what could be considered a decent salary of $12 an hour to the wonderful salary of $8 an hour. Now, in these times of budget cuts, this is necessary and will appeal to many as a great job. The nationally recognized companies that hire and place personnel for such jobs will, of course, operate at a profit.
Applicants to those companies will be required to pay for training and who knows what else, to qualify as an employee. The school district will pay some sort of fee for the company's services as well.
School districts then will save some funds by hiring this outsourcing job. Supposedly, company staff will be able to follow all teacher directives, be able to continue a quality instruction level so students will not miss a beat in their learning curves. All such personnel hopefully will be able to deal with the uncertainties concerning students' behavior, emergency situations as well as other possible senerios that do take place in the everyday classroom education.
This is but one example of the working American, many out of jobs, who now will be helped by such benevolent actions of the big employers who recognize this as the time to shaft  the "have to work to eat and have shelter," working class.
Looking around the country, it is easy to find countless individuals, who afraid to lose their jobs, now work through any time formerly given for lunch, gratefully work overtime, often with no increase in wage and keep their mouths shut when schedules are changed at the last minute, sacrificing family time, personal needs and more.
Koodos to Mesa County School District 51 for such careful consideration of their students and the present substitute pool who serves them. Let us hope this "outsourcing: will not occur, especially with the present pool of over 700 individuals in the present substitute job search.
The present substitute office will remain staffed as is. With the outsourcing of substitutes to a private company, they will be needed, why?
Yes, the mission is to educate the whole student...but,...how?

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