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Oh, of course I got that, jesusfuckingchrist, lots of us curse a lot. I was trying to make an additional, more general and pertinent point. We'll just leave it at that.

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“There’s not even anybody applying because you can make more money starting at Burger King,” she said. “A lot of people really want to help kids, and they shouldn’t be penalized for wanting that to be their life’s work.”

The conservative solution: Burger King should pay less.

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When I was a figure skating coach, I worked for the local special recreation district (these are independent nonprofits that run and staff sr programs for local park districts, on contract). The one full-on class I did paid the going rate for highly trained coaches ($25/hour itself a crime). When I looked into being one of the ad hoc coaches, assigned by need wherever a child needed an aide, it turned out they paid $10/hour. So I refused, was fired over it, and instead of getting a highly skilled, sr trained, actual figure skating coach, these kids were getting people who'd never skated, who left after a few weeks (the turnover at that place was INSANE) let alone coached, wearing rental skates. (If you've ever worn rental skates, you'll know why this is a problem)

Special needs teachers are inexcusably undervalued.

Those same park district also engaged in clearly illegal interference when there was an attempt to unionize.

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the first two paragraphs alone give me life. a rightful strike, and a city government not freaking out over it is, while obviously not ideal because strike, something rather unusual to see these days.

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"The kind of sickness I wish Time had written about, is that school teachers in Oklahoma get a top annual salary of $4000, while Sammy Davis, Jr. gets $10,000 a week in Vegas." - Lenny Bruce

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I was a teachers aide with special ed children in SoCal in the mid 1990's. My pay - $8 an hour - no benefits, and I worked with some DIFFICULT kids (middle school). It was a side gig for me, so I didn't mind so much - I just liked the kids - but the pay and the treatment by the school district was absolute shit. I quit after a year and a half.

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The prices for the dirt; especially in Los Angeles; is so high even the district; or local government agencies can't afford it. Although there are literally thousands of empty buildings that could serve some of these needs for workers. There has to be a better solution than none!

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$4000 per year? That is unbelievable! I know teachers who make more than that in a month; and not at the top of the pay scale either.

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I saw a Quonset hut in Westmont going for $1.5 million on Zillow last week.

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Did you get that leaking roof fixed?

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SEIU, one of my former unions, back when I was workin', that is. A great union, as a group we forgo bigger raises to get med benefits for part time librarians and janitors!!

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in the 90's, I interviewed for a job in Santa Barbara, it would have doubled my Seattle wages, but the guy said I would have to live over a hundred miles away to afford a place to live.

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Special Ed is a really tough job, too, my Ma taught it in Cheney, Wa. for 30 years

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youth coaches, too

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My SIL is an elementary special-ed teacher in NYC public schools. She loves her paras.

(I hadn't even heard of paras until I met her, and that was after having gone through K-12 in a good public school system!)

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Note who was saying it, who it references, and think about when it might have been said. $4000 then is not $4000 now. :-)

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