Full disclosure. I am a proud RTA/MTA member, which the STA affiliates with
A wealthy and rapidly gentrifying city like Somerville, which loudly proclaims to be a bastion of progressive values, can easily afford to pay its paras and ESPs a living wage. Like CNAs in hospitals, these are the low wage/high stress grunts that underpin public schools. They deserve living wages and dignity.
I know I would not have been able to get through kindergarten without Ms. Silva who did a much better job than the lead teacher in forming nurturing relationships with students. Twenty five years later, as a teacher who has had paras in his classroom, I can still attest to their value today. I Stand with the STA in its fight for 25k/yr base pay and better job security.
I would appreciate a bit more information about this, including whether or not it is even an issue. If it is, I’d like to see more than just the STA’s side.
For example, a Concord-MA paper published a piece that includes comments from the Somerville School Committee (emphasis mine):
I’m struck by the reported decision of the STA to begin publicizing its fight BEFORE it was even willing to resume contract discussions in December. Since Somerville does indeed ” loudly [proclaim] to be a bastion of progressive values”, my immediate reaction is to wonder why the STA doesn’t give the city a chance to respond before starting any fight.
It is occasionally true that honey does indeed draw more flies than vinegar.
On a quick search, it looks like the cheapest apartment one can find in Sommerville is $1,000 a month. At $25,000 a year before taxes, transportation, healthcare, food, that leaves one in the red, I would assume, quite quickly.
Where do we expect these people to live? If your answer is “they need to improve their education and job skills”…..then what you are saying is that someone else will have to do this vital job once this person advances and that person deserves to live in poverty.
I expect them to live with a partner or roommate if they want to live in Somerville.
And that’s a problem. If Sommerville needs these unique citizens to live in this matter for the rest of Sommerville’s citizens to live a comfortable and secure life without having to have a partner or roommate, something is very unjust with our economic model.
Agreed. I’ve said elsewhere here many times that I think we should pay ALL educators much more than we do. Two of my wife’s three siblings are retired public school teachers in Germany. They live very comfortable middle-class lives on their very comfortable respective pensions, just as they were able to live very comfortable middle-class lives during while they were teaching.
Nevertheless, this isn’t a new problem. I strongly suspect that, if anything, the situation for education workers in the Somerville of 1974 was even worse.
We should also pay the people who work the drive up window at coffee shops more than we do and the same for those who clean hotel rooms, wash dishes in restaurants, stock the shelves at grocery stores, take care of the elderly in rest homes…….all these are vital to our collective economy and all I hear from people is that since these are not jobs that require a unique set of skills acquired at an institute of higher learning, they do not merit a better wage.
Our party needs to alter its tune regarding such citizens and how much they should be paid.
@drive-up windows:
That’s a different topic for a different thread. This diary is about education workers in Somerville.
What are education support professionals?
They are the teachers’ aides and paraeducators. They are your clerical and administrative, food service, transportation, custodial and maintenance, health and student service, trades, security services, ……so, looks like it’s more about levels of workers, not a specific trade.
http://www.wholechildeducation.org/blog/education-support-professionals-meeting-the-needs-of-the-whole-student
This diary is about contract negotiations between the Somerville Teachers Assocciation and the City of Somerville.
Your topic is better suited as its own diary.
In the context of this thread they are the classroom aides either for general assistance or 1-on-1 with a student whose IEP requires it. In my town they are also unionized so it would seem they could and should get a better deal. I don’t know why they get paid less than subs.
I don’t think roommates should be an expectation. I for one am much more comfortable on my own.
Indeed, I think it’s hard to find a livable home for even $1,000/month, especially for a family with kids.
The traditional rule of thumb for mortgage qualification in the 1970s was a first ratio of 25% of net income. I think that means that a monthly rent of $1,000 requires that the household have a net income of $48,000. I think that’s probably an annual gross household income of $70K-$75K.
When I graduated college in 1974 with BSEE, my annual salary was $12,272. At that time, my father — who did not have a college degree — was earning $6,000. My mother, with a masters degree in Library Science, was earning $25,000. The rent of my first Boston apartment (at 270 Babcock Street, across from Nickerson Field on the BU west campus) — a 9th floor one-bedroom in a then-brand-new high-rise — was $290/month, or $3,480/year.
According to various inflation calculators like this, my 1974 rent of $290 corresponds to $1,503 2019 dollars. That’s comfortably in the middle of the current price of a one-bedroom in Somerville.
My father could not have afforded my first apartment even after working at his job (he was an optician) for decades. My mother could have comfortably afforded twice the rent of my first apartment.
It appears to me that, at least within the error bars of the approximations like we’re using, Somerville is no less affordable in 2020 than Boston was in 1974. Similarly, a masters degree in 1974 was worth about twice a 1974 bachelors degree (in engineering), and a 1974 bachelors degree in engineering was worth about twice a high school diploma from 1942.
The difference in market value of various education levels was just as pronounced in 1974 as it is today.
Most of us who live in Somerville recognize the importance of education workers in our city. Most of us support paying them a reasonable salary. I’m confident that a new contract will be negotiated, and that that contract will be acceptable to all parties.
Call your school committee and tell them to do better. Friends on FB are shocked their current pay is so low and the proposed pay increase is so controversial. They are only asking for $5k more a year, property assessments are going up 9% this year (I linked to that as well) on $15 billion worth of property. A city where the average home price is now over 800k that is still getting a boost from the new education bill (due to a high EL population) can afford another $5k a year. It’s a question of dignity and justice, and it sounds like your School Committee is trying to nickel and dime some of the hardest working people in our school buildings.
How many members of the Somerville school committee have you spoken with? The fact that assessments and taxes go up does not mean that income goes up — this is always the downside of tying school funding to regressive property taxes.
It needs to be said that the loudest voices in town right now are newly-arrived renters and students claiming — with some justification — that rents are too high. The average tax bill also climbed this year, and that climb is reflected in increased rents.
I’m not sure negotiations have even resumed after the STA said in October that it would take until December to return to the bargaining table.
I think it’s inappropriate to imply bad faith or intent to school committee members that you don’t know for a city that you don’t live in.
I am simply saying the a 5k a year raise is not an impossibility for a community with the stated values and wealth of Somerville. I may not be a Somerville voter, but I proudly support my union brothers and sisters. So should any politician with a D next to their name, especially one in a community as progressive as Somerville. Pat Jehlen and Denise Provost always had our backs, why can’t the school committee?
I think this exchange is premature. Nobody has said that anything is impossible.
By comparison the demographically similar Cambridge next door lays its paras a base of 25/year in its last contract and pays paras with BA’s 35/year. Important to note as well, a lot of teachers get their start as paras so if Somerville wants to develop its pipeline of qualified teachers it should invest in its paras. Paras are also typically the lead or co-teachers for universal pre-K and early childhood programs. This isn’t just about investing in unionized workers, it’s about invest in those kids futures and the future of the schools.
In my town if the para ends up covering for the teacher the way a substitute would the para fills out a substitute time sheet because s/he would get paid more for that day as a sub than as a para. Something seems wrong with that picture.
Absolutely. I know your regional MTA field rep pretty well if you want me to bring that up to him.