The Imperial Dominion of the South's Legislature

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I've found that learning foreign languages in schools does little to teach that language anyway. I took four years of French and I can perform all functions of the language, with varying levels of difficulty. I don't really consider myself fluent, though I find that it has contributed greatly to my understanding of the English language. Almost everyone I know who speaks another language well has spent a nontrivial amount of time living in a country or a household where it was spoken.

     With that said, I think the more important role for language schooling is exposure to other cultures and to linguistics in action, giving children a more informed outlook on the world and a stronger grounding in the English language. With that in mind, I don't really see the point in emphasizing one language over another.

[CatoMinor]

Will be a tad busy, until Monday Sjoyce is speaker pro-tempore 

[Donerail]

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Current form of the bill.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     So what are the biggest stumbling blocks at this point? Obviously #1 counts, since it is too nonspecific to be of worth in its current form.

[Adam Griffin]

     So what are the biggest stumbling blocks at this point? Obviously #1 counts, since it is too nonspecific to be of worth in its current form.

For me, #5 will need to be funded with new education dollars. Otherwise, I'm on board.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Still skeptical about the tax credit for certainty purposes, as we don't really know how many people will opt into it, and #1 just because it's so vague, but otherwise I'm on board with the rest of it.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I don't think we should be centralizing education too much. Maybe devote a certain amount to distribute among municipalities for the sake of running after-school programs and creating magnet schools?

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I'd favor that. I just feel for comfortable knowing how much money we would have coming in, and these tax credit donations provide no certainty for that. We should give grants to each school district for these after school things. I've never believed we should centralize education. Communities should care about their schools - not government panels.

[Adam Griffin]

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I usually expect some inactivity at election time, but more debate is good too.

[Zanas]

I'm willing to vote nearly all this bill. I still have a bit of a reluctance for article 5 on Magnet schools. You'll have to answer a simple question : are these schools only open to certain students that are chosen for their abilities, or are they just normal schools that happen to have a strong reputation of teaching in one particular domain of knowledge that could attract students that want to specialize in this domain ? If the former, it will be ixnay on the illbay for me, I cannot create a two-tiered education system. If the latter or some kind of mix, I could pass this and vote the bill entirely.

[Donerail]

The latter.

[Donerail]

Okay, all that's left is to quantify "higher pay". I don't think we can work merit pay, because there's no way we can base it off of any kind of merit. If we base it off of test scores, it favors teachers in wealthier neighborhoods where the children come well-prepared to school. If we base it off of improvement, it penalizes teachers who teach high-performing students who can't post large gains. Plus, if we've got teachers currently erasing wrong answers on exams to avoid having their school labeled as needing improvement and the region coming in and scripting their education, imagine what'd happen when they'd also get a raise out of it. If we have, say, admin staff rank them, they could rank them as all excellent, making the program vastly too expensive, or they hand out rewards to their favorite teachers and not the best teachers. It doesn't work.

[Zanas]

Exactly this.

I don't know exactly how much teachers are presently paid in Atlasia, I'd have to look into it, but I think we could align their payroll on that of a certain level in government employees, ones that do have a certain qualification to their job, some kind of responsibility over a small team, like low ranking executives. I just read that average teacher salaries have improved rapidly in the recent years : is that true ?

Payroll should also be higher the higher the education taught is. But I think it already is.

Also, we must be careful as there seems to be a discrepancy between the salaries of teachers in poor school sectors and wealthy ones. The job is certainly not easier, to say the least, in a poorer school sector, so the payroll should not be different.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     There is a post somewhere in this thread detailing how much teachers are paid in each state of the region. I think it was probably in the previous debate though, which will be some pages back.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Yeah, most teachers in the IDS made between $45,000 and $50,000 I think. Don't quote me on that figure though.

[Donerail]

It might be in the GM thread.

[Adam Griffin]

Gentlemen,

I have compiled a state-by-state record of the average salary for a teacher of elementary, middle and high schools:

Average Salaries Of IDS Teachers

Texas

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Texas earns a base salary of about $48,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Texas earns a base salary of about $50,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Texas earns a base salary of about $49,000 per year.

Arkansas

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Arkansas earns a base salary of about $45,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Arkansas earns a base salary of about $45,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Arkansas earns a base salary of about $47,000 per year.

Louisiana

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Louisiana earns a base salary of about $48,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Louisiana earns a base salary of about $49,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Louisiana earns a base salary of about $51,000 per year.

Tennessee

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Tennessee earns a base salary of about $48,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Tennessee earns a base salary of about $45,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Tennesse earns a base salary of about $47,000 per year.

Mississippi

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Mississippi earns a base salary of about $44,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Mississippi earns a base salary of about $44,500 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Mississippi earns a base salary of about $45,500 per year.

Alabama

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Alabama earns a base salary of about $46,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Alabama earns a base salary of about $43,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Alabama earns a base salary of about $47,500 per year.

Florida

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Florida earns a base salary of about $49,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Florida earns a base salary of about $50,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Florida earns a base salary of about $51,000 per year.

Georgia

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Georgia earns a base salary of about $47,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Georgia earns a base salary of about $50,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Georgia earns a base salary of about $52,000 per year.

South Carolina

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in South Carolina earns a base salary of about $42,500 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in South Carolina earns a base salary of about $47,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in South Carolina earns a base salary of about $42,500 per year.

North Carolina

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in North Carolina earns a base salary of about $40,500 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in North Carolina earns a base salary of about $41,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in North Carolina earns a base salary of about $41,500 per year.

Sources:

http://www.salary.com/ (for various states)
http://www.rileyguide.com/ (for various states)


Thank you.

[CatoMinor]

Sorry for the lack of activity lately, I've been pretty busy. I'll try and be on while I can but this weekend is going to be really busy and if I can't make it on Sjoyce shall be speaker pro-temp. I'll try and be here though

[Associate Justice PiT]

     So, what should we do for section one? I'd suggest a base salary of ~$50,000, with teachers being able to earn more by teaching classes that are determined by an independent commission to be exceptionally challenging, in whatever fashion.

[Donerail]

     So, what should we do for section one? I'd suggest a base salary of ~$50,000, with teachers being able to earn more by teaching classes that are determined by an independent commission to be exceptionally challenging, in whatever fashion.

Maybe add in degree bonuses as well? But I'd support bonuses for people like AP/IB teachers.

[Donerail]

If I'm technically speaker pro-tem right now, I move that we place this bill on the table in order to begin consideration of the National University deal that recently passed the Senate, since it could impact provisions of this bill and thus needs to be dealt with first.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I'm sorry this university bill passed, folks. In the end, you will probably be cornered into accepting the federal funds. If the IDS declines funding, it will go to another region.

So. I don't want to say "accept the funds"... but it's tough to see how rejecting them will be of any benefit. Regional rights really lost out on this one. Best of luck; I don't envy the decision you'll have to make.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     For section one, we pretty much just have to submit the name of a location that we think would benefit from the university presence, no? I'm skeptical of the notion that this would help since I'm currently attending the best public university in the nation and the surrounding area is pretty shady overall. Still, given that the money would just be sunk somewhere else, I don't see what we have to lose by playing along.

     We could use the money from section four to fund some of the provisions of this bill. Wouldn't be hard to extend it to also cover the community college funds outlined in section three.

[Donerail]

I'm sorry this university bill passed, folks. In the end, you will probably be cornered into accepting the federal funds. If the IDS declines funding, it will go to another region.

So. I don't want to say "accept the funds"... but it's tough to see how rejecting them will be of any benefit. Regional rights really lost out on this one. Best of luck; I don't envy the decision you'll have to make.

There's always the Zaporozhian option (in which we tell the President precisely where he can put his university)...