Milton teachers union: Classes too large
MILTON — A surge in grade school class sizes in the Milton School District has drawn concern from the teachers union and is prompting the district to review its policies.
A growing number of students in fourth and fifth grade classrooms has teachers concerned and stressed, even in the early days of the new school year, said Michael Dorn, president of Milton Education Association, the district's teachers union.
District records provided to The Gazette show that since 2009, average class size at Northside Intermediate School have climbed from 25 students to nearly 27 in fifth grade classrooms and from 26 students to more than 28 in fourth grade classrooms.
At the same time, the district this year has trimmed a class section from the first, second and third grade levels at Milton East Elementary School and cut one class section at the fifth grade level. Those reductions come even as enrollments have held steady and even increased in most of those grade levels, according to district records.
Dorn sent an open letter to the school board this week that called class sizes in fourth and fifth-grade sections at Northside Intermediate School "simply too large" and "unacceptable."
The union would like to see classes of less than 25 students in kindergarten through sixth grade classrooms, Dorn told The Gazette.
Three or four extra students in a classroom is "a big difference" for teachers, Dorn said. State and federal guidelines require teachers to give students a certain amount of individual attention, particularly if the students are struggling in math or reading.
With more students, it becomes a difficult balancing act for teachers.
"The biggest concern I'm hearing from teachers is that they don't have time to give every student the individual attention and focus that they may need," Dorn said.
The district has hired extra classroom aides this year, along with a new math "coach," school officials said. Dorn said that helps, but it's not enough.
The teachers union wants the district to hire more teachers during this school year and create new class sections—particularly at the fourth and fifth-grade levels, he said. That would thin the largest classrooms.
The district does not have a policy that sets a cap on class sizes. By comparison, Janesville Schools has a policy on maximum class size set at 25 students for kindergarten through third grade and 30 students in fourth through eighth grades.
In the past, the board and district officials have worked to respond to large class sizes on a "case-by-case" basis, Milton Superintendent Mike Garrow said.
But that method has broken down in the last few years amid state cuts and budget slashing within the district, Dorn said.
"There was always no real decision on it. It was just, ‘We have this many students and, OK, if we need to hire more teachers, we hire more teachers,'" Dorn said. "They (the administration and the board) have always assured us (teachers) that they'd monitor class sizes and have staffing that ensured class sizes remained reasonable.
"That's happened, until the last few years."
The district plans a special school board meeting to discuss class sizes. It would likely be held prior to the board's next regular meeting Sept. 24, Garrow said.
Garrow said the district wants to be responsive to concerns over class sizes but that he would be hesitant to "get in a corner" by adding teachers and class sections midyear or setting a cap on class sizes.
"Is it (adding teachers) feasible right now? Certainly. Is it sustainable? I don't know. That's a question you have to ask year to year," he said.
Garrow said he doesn't believe there's an ideal number of students for class size, and he would not say whether he thought 28 students was too many for one classroom.
He said he believes some teachers could be better than others at having larger classes.
School board member Janet Green, who is a former school principal in the Rockford, Ill., School District, said her first year teaching was in a classroom of 25 students.
"I remember that being a handful," Green said.
Still, Green pointed out the challenges of adding new teachers and class sections midyear. For one, it would create a "ripple effect" because it would require adding a section of physical education, art and music for each new class.
She added that there is limited space for additional classrooms in most of the schools.
It could take about nine weeks to hire extra teachers, Garrow said. It could be a shock for some students to be moved midyear to a new classroom with a new teacher.
In the fifth-grade, it would mean moving three or four students from each classroom. Garrow said he wasn't sure how the district would decide which students to relocate.
"I've already talked to parents who have said ‘If you're adding class sections, you're not moving my child,'" Garrow said.
Dorn conceded challenges exist, but he argued there's an overriding need for individual students to get the most attention possible from teachers.
"We have to make these kids a top priority, and frankly, it's your (the administration and board's) job to find a way to make it happen," he said.
Sep 17, 2012 at 2:25 p.m.
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*Just wanted to add that Japanese Teachers have a very strong Union. You want to find out why they have success in their schools, you can put that fact high on the list.*
Keep in mind that Japan is not even breeding at replacement level--far below it--I doubt that class size is a problem there.
Sep 15, 2012 at 9:09 a.m.
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bowlgal yapping about patriotism... how special. That's a devotion to one's country NOT yourselves... a BIG fact you people don't get!!!
Sep 15, 2012 at 8:55 a.m.
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Just wanted to add that Japanese Teachers have a very strong Union. You want to find out why they have success in their schools, you can put that fact high on the list.
Sep 14, 2012 at 11:48 p.m.
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Japan keeps being brought up. In Asian countries they "weed" out the slower children at an early age and train them for manual labor. Children in elementary school have to be all taught at different levels, so a teacher may have 10 different lesson plans per class per subject. Maybe our taxes should go more for education instead of dumping billions in other countries matters.
Sep 14, 2012 at 9:21 p.m.
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bowlgal, that is some weak sauce there. I do have a twin Patriot brother, but it's not any of these names you mention.
So you in for that homeschooling? They teach the kids a trade....stitching crisp little American flags.
Maybe you can guest teach art class -"The Art of Patriotic Internet Commentary." Lesson one- cutting and paste from Breitbart.Com, Lesson two - cut and paste from townhall tipsheet. Lesson three - cut and paste from The Blaze. Lesson four....
Sep 14, 2012 at 6:44 p.m.
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greatplain, we USED to take education seriously here. Now we see it as a burden.
Sep 14, 2012 at 6:07 p.m.
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No increased budget because homeowners cannot afford a property tax increase. If you want to increase the number of teachers, each teacher will have to take a pay cut so that the budget is not increased. In the private sector, employees have taken pay cuts and increased workloads.
Sep 14, 2012 at 5:34 p.m.
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Why don't you post as mouse anymore? Did the Gazette kick you off for your vile comments because you are starting to pick up your old habits again using brotherkoch. And using yada is no secret either.
Sep 14, 2012 at 5:32 p.m.
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Mouse - patroitism is a devotion to one's country. I guess we just need to know which country you are devoted to.
Sep 14, 2012 at 4:21 p.m.
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winterstinks: My wife teaches special education, (no quotes) in a Rock County community. Your sister works in a right-to-work state. How does NC compare to Wisconsin regarding education marks? We take public education more seriously here.
Sep 14, 2012 at 3:59 p.m.
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Coming from someone that knows Patriotism as well as bowlgal,...that is a compliment.
Sep 14, 2012 at 3:14 p.m.
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Since you're not a Patriot of the USA, what are you?
Sep 14, 2012 at 3:13 p.m.
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Wow, possibly the most UnAmerican post I've seen in months mouse - not surprised however.
Sep 14, 2012 at 3:05 p.m.
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I can hook anyone up with a home schoolin' lady down the street who has an extra double-wide out back. She will teach yer kids for 100 buck a week -payable in Walmart gift cards, and/or child labor in their home business.
On here, I can't say what business it is they have there, but you will all agree, entrepenuership is a Patriotic virtue. (hint-tiny fingers are adept at stitchin together tri-cornered hats and little American flags -can't have those Chinese cornering the market).
She figures she can fit about 30 more or so kids. Probably could do more, if they didn't have 15 cats. Don't worry, the kids will get some good Patriot values. They play Glenn Beck and Limbaugh's shows on the airways all day long.
Oh yeah, and I hope you don't mind your kids getting taught a little Old Testament while they are there. And they don't give free lunches, so don't even ask. (not that you would want them to have free lunch there, as self-reliant libertarians...and with all the cats).
And don't worry, they do believe in discipline there. Kids won't get away with what they do at those public schools.
They need to promote it more -perhaps the CRG can tell them how to print up some fliers. It's really a great and underutilized resource at zero cost to the taxpayers, until we start getting voucher cash.
Sep 14, 2012 at 2:22 p.m.
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That figures winterstinks. Easy to make stuff up on the internets, says the brotherkoch.
Yes, there are classes that can be taught in a larger group. Aren't we talking about elementary school, though? This isn't monitoring recess.
I wonder if winterstink's "sister" works with the same type of special needs school that my "mother" works with -because 30 kids are a lot to help out occassionally with bathroom duty, getting up and down stairways, on and off the buses, restrain from physical violence, make sure they eat lunch etc etc.
If your "sister" manages to teach '30 kids" in the same special needs scenario as my "mother" then good for her, then maybe "she" needs to complain about the paygrade in her district - much to the dismay of her tea party patriot relative.
Sep 14, 2012 at 2:17 p.m.
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I love the references to Japanese Schools on these posts. In japan, teachers are well paid and revered unlike here. Maybe we should think about that while we're making comparisons.
Sep 14, 2012 at 2:12 p.m.
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Brotherkoch mouse yada wiggle who ever you want to post as this hour, if you are not a patroit to the USA, what are you?
Sep 14, 2012 at 2:10 p.m.
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Here's an alternative--take all the "extra" kids and put them in a charter school--then watch that school outperform the union-run schools.
Sep 14, 2012 at 1:24 p.m.
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I should clarify, those were not my words. I agree 110% with the authors' points but that is not my blog nor my words.
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Regardless, Sigma, if all you got is "nobody forced you" from that... you just don't get it!
Sep 14, 2012 at 1:09 p.m.
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Hey Winterstinks. Winter does not stink.
You really are going to have to back that claim up with more info. Is it a charity?
Mother Teresa worked for free too. That's not to say her work wasn't hard, or important enough to be paid. Or was it Patriots?
Perhaps this is the GOP education reform plan -Get the old nuns back to teach at schools for free.
Sep 14, 2012 at 12:18 p.m.
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Sigma: If you have time, please volunteer at a local public school. They need you, and you would learn a lot about them. I believe the curriculum is public info, so you can request to see it. We're always updating it in a world that changes incredibly fast.
Sep 14, 2012 at 12:15 p.m.
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Whythink - No one bent your arm and made you only earn $20k a year teaching art. If teachers are so smart and teaching is so hard, any teacher anywhere should be able to get up and leave and make more money in a better field. Then again we have reality.. Teaching is not that hard that is why you are stuck at your salary and cant find a better one. We all choose our path.... dont choose and then complain it just makes you look dumb. And I doubt people want dumb teachers teaching their kids.
Sep 14, 2012 at 12:09 p.m.
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Everyone complains about their job, truth is that all jobs could always be better. Reality is they are not. Just because these teachers are in a union and using the kids as an excuse doesnt justify anything. Make due with what you have. 3-4 more is nothing worth crying about....10-15 more then you might have a point. People need to just shut up and address the real problems....the ciriculum. Its dated material irrelevant to our times. I dont know how many years of shakespeare I had in English class... Why? It isnt even in modern English.
Sep 14, 2012 at 12:01 p.m.
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whz_bng-Maybe maller classes would have helped your reading skills and ability to recognize sarcasm. Sometimes words in capitals mean something. Refer to - WisconsinResident -See I work for the University of Wisconsin in the athletic department and we raise tuition 5.5% to meat the cost of education.
Sep 14, 2012 at 11:57 a.m.
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I'm pretty sure in Japan, they seperate the meat from the bone pretty early in school. So yes, I'm sure 40 smart kids in a class do fine. But in a class of 30, where you have 4-5 smart kids, 4-5 above average kids, 10-15 average kids and the rest below, who do you think has the best chance?
Sep 14, 2012 at 11:27 a.m.
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Reduce all class sizes at all levels of education. It's what the rich want for their children. Why shouldn't all our children have the best education?
Sep 14, 2012 at 11:23 a.m.
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Sigma, and that would be you ? Fedup...maybe you could contribute as well,have any used bedpans you could sell, your really dealing out the crap today !
Sep 14, 2012 at 11:18 a.m.
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Sigma 40: I know education. You don't. I've done it. You haven't. I've had up to 29, and as low as 22, with most being around 26. That is a whole lot of work load variance. More students means more conferences or two each, contacts with divorced parents, grades, listening to each read, enough technology for all...I could go on.
I'm also a parent in the district I work in. I want smaller classes for my own children, and I want more parents to be present at the Milton School Board levy meetings so they quit lowering the levy and cutting off money sources for more workers for kids.
Sep 14, 2012 at 11 a.m.
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Sigma - please keep posting! You know there is a difference teaching children ages 10 and under vs teaching adults and older kids. I bet you wouldn't last 1 day in a 4th grade classroom. (Neither would I, for that matter, but I know when to trust the professional in a situation)
Sep 14, 2012 at 10:50 a.m.
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Excellent posts, WhyThink. Art was and is my favorite subject, but I'm sure many of the haters here will find no value in it. Teachers are our children's second most influential adults in their lives, but there seems like so little respect for them. Teachers and parents should work shoulder to shoulder to raise smart, responsible, respectful adults.
Sep 14, 2012 at 10:31 a.m.
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wasp, you should not be volunteering in schools if you do not know the difference between "meat" and Meet.
Sep 14, 2012 at 10:14 a.m.
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wasp2491 - Ive had to teach groups of people before. 20 or 30 really makes no difference if the room you are in accomodates them. if we have too many students I would think the problem is we need bigger rooms.... not more teachers. I also would think that the reason we only have the number of students in a class now is because the size of the rooms. As stated already.... other better schools in other countries have no problem with twice as many students. This whole argument has nothing to do with education.... its all about the teachers wanting more money or to do less. Any fool can see though this.
Sep 14, 2012 at 9:53 a.m.
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It's love, dumb**s. If you'd bother to volunteer at the little school down the street you could have a sample. I won't even tell the kids what you wrote about their teacher.
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http://luminouspage.blogspot.com/2011/02...
Sep 14, 2012 at 9:52 a.m.
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So do it. Reduce my pension. Make me poor, since I don't qualify for Social Security. Make my medicine unaffordable. Make my raise contingent upon proof that my art lessons somehow improved state math scores. Continue firing at my feet to see how long you can make me dance. It still won't change the fact that life did not work out as you planned and you're now a bitter little t*rd. AND I will STILL f***ing love my job, because I am rocking this for all the right reasons. After you take every tool and incentive and support away from me, and millions like me, you won't suddenly have anything great that you don't already have. And then you will be terribly disappointed to find out that this isn't a scam after all. Whether decorated or destroyed, inside every school we run on something you can't legislate, isolate, measure or destroy. Much to your inarticulate all caps despair.
Sep 14, 2012 at 9:51 a.m.
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Now at the high school level it feels like alarmed inquiries following my every absence, it feels like a crowd around my desk, like emails during the evenings and weekends. It feels like a 6'2 kid standing up from his computer animation to announce loudly "I AM AN ARTIST". It feels like kids who come back during their lunches and study halls, spending half the day in my room, and sometimes come to school only for my class: this according to parents. It feels like emails and letters, even years later, saying I was the best teacher they ever had. It feels like all my letters of recommendation, begging for college admission or a scholarship for another fine young person. It feels like trust, or just relief that I listen.
So guess what; I am rich, you miserable, bitter harpies. But you have it all wrong. Just because your job sucks and you can't wait to get out of there every day doesn't mean that's how I feel making my living. It's a shame, but it's a world of your own making. If you loved your job, I doubt you'd be investing this kind of time degrading mine. In contrast, I enjoy the luxurious power of changing kids' minds about school *every day*, even on eight year old computers that run on my sheer will alone.
Sep 14, 2012 at 9:51 a.m.
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I feel less and less that way when I read angry tweets and newspaper comments about my profession. Maybe I shouldn't read what angry tax paying trolls write and say on the internet, but I'm so appalled I keep checking to see if it's still there. I'm told I'm ungrateful. I read that I am greedy, or a tool of greedy union bosses. I am a selfish son of a bitch, one guy informed me, when I was trying to explain the details and the facts of current legislation. I read that everyone's life is going down the toilet, because I am breaking their backs. I have ruined everything. Everything is ruined.
Please know it did not feel like ruining everything. It felt like sitting in a tiny plastic chair at a tiny table, cajoling an autistic preschooler into brushing watercolor across a white wax face i had pre drawn, then watching him laugh at the big reveal. It felt like receiving a drawing as a gift from a talented little boy who drew like an adult, but suffered crippling arthritis in his hands and for whom i had arranged free classes at SAIC. It felt like crossing a name off a roster because she and her grandmother had been raped and killed in their house near the school. It felt like a million little notes shoved into my hands and pockets from eager little people who only came up to my waist. It felt like tamales from mothers who could not speak much English, but beamed widely as they handed the foil package over.
Sep 14, 2012 at 9:51 a.m.
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I Ruined Everything (& Why It Was More Work Than You Thought)
Dear twitter users boiling with anger about forced subsidization of unionized teachers:
I've taught art for seventeen years. I've complained about certain things at work, but I've never regretted my profession. We all knew what we were signing up for when we chose our jobs; I knew I wouldn't get rich, but I knew I'd have summers off, and a steady paycheck. So did you, actually. The summer thing is an antiquated agrarian anachronism, (read, not new), so please don't act outraged at this fresh new insult. If you became a banker or waitress or IT guy or whatever job you have that doesn't seem to mind your constant vigilance of pro union tweets, you knew it had two weeks vacation a year. You knew the salary, and the risks of advancement. When i started teaching in 1993 my contract said $20,000. I thought that sounded AMAZING. I thought a bulldozer with a haystack of twenty thousand dollar bills was going to pull up and dump them all over me. When i started getting paid I had to take a weekend job at Carmen's Pizza taking phone orders for delivery so I could pay my bills. But I had no complaint.
To earn this $20k I taught art on a cart to 850 kids at 3 different schools every week. Almost every kid was on free lunch. My budget was $1.50 per child per year. This is *actually* possible. My classes applauded when I entered the room every single time! I took up Spanish lessons again at my own expense, so that I could say "Quieres papel amarillo, o azul? Doblalo, y desdoblalo. Ok, cortalo. Bueno!" So that the new kid off the boat (so to speak) wasn't terrified that they had to talk to the gringa teacher. We made puppets, paper mache, tissue snowflakes, and lots of chalk and tempera paintings. I loved going to work every day. I loved festooning each little school with the happy art. I enjoyed telling wide-eyed kids I actually lived in the dark, mouse-poopy art closet down the hall. I worked in the lowest paying district in a 300 mile radius, but I didn't care. I felt needed, and I knew I was making some little soul's morning, every time I went to work.
Sep 14, 2012 at 9:22 a.m.
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Not surprising at all...it's the same ignorant fools posting the same absurd comments. I really think you all salivate at the thought of being able to teacher bash.
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Nemesis...our parenting culture isn't ready for how they do things in Japan. This country is too politically correct therefor cannot expect the same results. We have parents that have lost the right to parent like they did in the "good ol days" and others just don't give a crap to parent. All of you need to quit living in the past, get some facts and quit spewing forth the same nonsense that you always do.
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Anyone can sit back and criticize but not very many can or will present alternatives or solutions. It's been proven that larger class sizes are harder to manage and therefor produce less than stellar results...I'm sure those studies were done in the U.S. so leave Japan out of it.
http://californiawatch.org/k-12/interact...
Sep 14, 2012 at 8:50 a.m.
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In elementary school, we had 2 grades in one room, with one teacher. She would teach one class for a time, and then the other. We didn't suffer. However, we had no special needs kids, no ESL kids, no requirements for individual attention, and I'll bet our teacher was unencumbered by reams of federal and state mandates that are in force today. Plus, if we misbehaved, the teacher could give us a crack upside the head, and that was nothing compared to what we'd get when we got home. We respected our teachers and so did our parents.
Sep 14, 2012 at 8:42 a.m.
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"Everything looks easy when you're too ignorant to know it's not."
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This is my favorite comment of the week! LOVE it!
Sep 14, 2012 at 8:39 a.m.
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The average class size in Japan and several other Asian countries is around 40 students -- and those students often surpass those in the U.S. on international achievement tests.
Why can't school officials here find out what the schools over there are doing to get those results instead of complaining about it and asking the tax payers to throw more money at the problem here?
Sep 14, 2012 at 8:30 a.m.
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The fact that some of you keep referring to the 'good old days' reveals that you are under-educated as to the state and federal testing regulations that have been imposed on today's educational system. Teachers are required to prove that the students are learning via test results which often inhibits their ability to meet students' specific needs. By saying that some students should just be put in special classes is the definition of stupidity.
Sep 14, 2012 at 8:04 a.m.
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We had 30 in our classes in grade school and we still managed to learn and get a very good education. If there are problem students, maybe they need to be removed to a special class.
Sep 14, 2012 at 7:30 a.m.
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Sigma - I volunteer between 2-5 hrs every day at a Janesville school. I can pretty much tell by your remarks on this subject that you are clueless on the effect of class size on students. This isn't about the teachers. I think that you should spend some time in the schools, not just a few minutes, but a few days. Maybe, just maybe, you might have a different attitude.
Sep 14, 2012 at 7:07 a.m.
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I think the issue here is the Board of Ed is not doing their job. They have routinely ignored the staff concerns at all levels about class sizes, the superintendent they hired, communication and the ever-present surplus of funds they seem to find each year. Isn't their job to do the best they can for the students? Time for change is evident to me.
Sep 14, 2012 at 7:02 a.m.
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Wow. Some of you should consider an anger management class. I wonder if those have a maximum enrollment of 25.
Sep 14, 2012 at 6:31 a.m.
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28 students instead of 25... is this what we are going to blame the national debt and world hunger on in 20 years? I bet it will contribute to the next plague... possibly even add to the gloBULL warming anomaly. These poor teachers.... We should give them more money at once... maybe even a company car, and of course more time off.
Sep 14, 2012 at 5:08 a.m.
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I am amazed at how easily we are led on our race to the bottom. I wonder how we will ever MEAT our needs in the schools. Possibly vouchers so we can educate the wealthy.
Sep 14, 2012 at 1:28 a.m.
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Wow, the more Sigma talks the more he sounds like a moron. Must have been in a large class and pissed off that he's making minimum wage. I guess he thinks everyone should suffer like him. Poor baby.
Sep 14, 2012 at 12:07 a.m.
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So whats the solution to this. 1 Do you raise fees and make the parents pay more for their kids to be in school. 2 do you raise property taxes on the middle class to offset the cost for More teachers and staff? What is the lessor of two evils, You can't expect people to keep paying more all the time there is a limit to what families and individuals can pay based on their income there is a limit. The only other option I can think of is the schools will either have to make serious cuts to after school activities or find other ways to bring money in to offset the cost for education. So I am asking what the solution is going to be? See I work for the University of Wisconsin in the athletic department and we raise tuition 5.5% to meat the cost of education. But i recognize that we cant keep doing that very year there needs to be a solution to this.
Sep 13, 2012 at 10:57 p.m.
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Keep talking, Sigma. The more you blather on, the stronger you make my case.
Sep 13, 2012 at 9:07 p.m.
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Stubby - Teachers are not the ones learning so unless the students are complaining they can not get the attention they need.... the teachers job shouldn't change at all with only 3-4 more students. Like others said... if the teacher cant handle that they need to re-evaluate their career choice, and the board needs to re-evaluate the competency of that teacher.
Sep 13, 2012 at 8:22 p.m.
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...at least some boomers have found a purpose late in life - Patriotism and wearing tri-cornered hats...commenting on the Jazette.
Sep 13, 2012 at 8:18 p.m.
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jonkon - so the baby boomers had large class sizes eh? ....
Wonder if that has any correlation with how screwed up that generation is?
Sep 13, 2012 at 8:12 p.m.
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As a parent, large class sizes "scare" me. The "smart" students will get pushed to do more, the students with learning disabilities or languages issues will also get attention, but the "average" student is "forgotten" about and can fall through the cracks.
Sep 13, 2012 at 8:02 p.m.
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Everything looks easy when you're too ignorant to know it's not.
Sep 13, 2012 at 7:59 p.m.
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Some facts.
http://www.classsizematters.org/wp-conte...
http://www.classsizematters.org/wp-conte...
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The Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the US Department of Education,
concludes that class size reduction is one of only four, evidence-based reforms that have been
proven to increase student achievement through rigorous, randomized experiments -- the
"gold standard" of research.
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EVERY additional child matters in a classroom. Each child is unique and has needs to be met.
Sep 13, 2012 at 7:42 p.m.
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Ignorance is running rampant tonight!
Sep 13, 2012 at 7:12 p.m.
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"With more students, it becomes a difficult balancing act for teachers." 2 or 3 extra kids in the class is NOT a big deal if the teacher knows how to do their job properly. Those who think it's "difficult" need to step up their game and EARN those big bucks!
Sep 13, 2012 at 7:08 p.m.
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It's so sad to see the union struggling to remain relevant.
Sep 13, 2012 at 6:24 p.m.
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Aw, poor babies! During the baby boom, public school classrooms typically had at least 30-35 students. Our local parochial school had 100 students per class. Not only did they have to share desks, they had to share the same chair! These conditions certainly did not hurt their educational experience, since two of their graduates were the top students in my HS graduating class.
Sep 13, 2012 at 6:22 p.m.
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Right on, Sigma. Darn teachers, trying to provide the best education for students. Don't ask them what works best in the classroom. I'm sure an armchair quarterback such as yourself knows much better how classrooms function well and what is best for kids. Teachers need to be looking out for us - Joe and Jane Taxpayer - not those snot nosed kids. We wouldn't want to employ any more people than the bare minimum, anyway. [end sarcasm]
Sep 13, 2012 at 5:59 p.m.
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More students = More $$$ in the unions eyes. I doubt the education aspect has anything to do with this. "3-4 extra students is a big difference"... Why? I think teachers are setting a total wrong example for this country. They want less work and more money.. failure.
Sep 13, 2012 at 4:57 p.m.
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Yet another reason why only the people using the schools should pay for it. If the population of the school swells, they'd have extra funding.
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