Okay, well, things are getting a little wierder all around; Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, who to this point, has been an ally to Michigan teachers, now says that one of the ways of curing Michigan's ongoing budget crunch is to reduce the amount allocated per student by $125. WHAT?! I can see the short-term logic, but it still smacks of can't-see-the-forest-for-the-trees. At that rate, the potential give-back in one of my districts amounts to almost $1.5 million dollars, money the Superintendent of the district freely admits has already been spent. So, where's to give back? Off the backs of the hard-working teachers, I guess, in the form of less insurance and benefits, fewer pay raises, and long term, probably students who are simply less able to make it in the world. And we, particularly in Michigan, NEED MORE students who can make it as something other than a factory worker or a fast-food employee. I mean, really, to stay warm in the winter, one of the things we do in Michigan is f*ck, and, well, you can see where THAT has long-term conseqences of it's own. So unless Al Gore is as right as he can be, and global warming will make the future so balmy we can barely stand it, (which, in my estimation, it *hasn't* at this point,) we damned well better DO something, and I mean something REAL, about the state of education in America, particularly in Michigan, or we will be eaten alive by the rest of the known world. Ignorance is bliss, until you're unemployed, and then you just run the risk of getting beaten, shot, or ending up a substance abuser. Maybe it isn't such a bad thing, thinking about working in corrections education; I'm guessing that's where the future is, the way things are going in Michigan. I'm also guessing that it's probably in my best interest, at this point, to remain as flexible as I possibly can, for my own good, because the way things are going, I'm betting I'll have better luck getting steady work by being a substitute than I would by necessarily being a full-time teacher, because if districts are all forced to take drastic measures, well, who ya gonna call? Not the Ghostbusters; guys and gals like me, filling in more, and for longer than ever before, simply because regular teachers just bloody well can't survive in this economy any more. And all that is just sad as hell. There's not, perhaps, another solution that's not so COMPROMISED?! This is the future of AMERICA we're talking about! And from MY view of things, it's gonna get a WHOLE lot worse before it even thinks about getting better. The Koreans, for example, would never REMOTELY contemplate cutting into education funding, because they KNOW it would compromise their edge. And the fact that their kids study as much as they play makes an odd kind of sense. But what do I know, I've just seen the world from some of the most arcane views possible. Feel free to tell me what you think, whether you think I'm right or wrong.
I went to my meeting for PESG, which is a concern that is essentially conglomerating and privatizing ALL the substitute teachers in most of the major districts in Michigan, including Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties, which are all the major Detroit-area ones. They currently represent at least HALF of the districts in Michigan, with more on the way, by, say, 2010. They're able to offer substitutes really cool stuff like getting a paycheck from only ONE concern, even if you've worked in 4-5 districts in a given week, (which is not impossible as a sub, by any means,) and health insurance and a 401K, which, of course, the districts RARELY were able to offer you. Getting certified means that I'll have more opportunities, in more districts, (and nicer ones,) so that's still a goal. And in June, I have yet ANOTHER PESG meeting, in one of the *other* districts I'm in, since they'll be in the system too. And another of my districts has switched to that really NICE automated phone system, which is tied-in to PESG, as THEIR job distribution source. Gads.
And the high-schoolers, headed into this last two weeks, are MUCH cooler, at least given the experience I had working today, because none of them but the dumbest want to risk getting written up, and not graduating on time. Boy, you wouldn't THINK that would be the motivator that it is, but there it is. Score one for a peer-pressure positive.