It's teacher contract negotiation time again in Denver, and negotiators have reached an impasse. It's not looking good for the teachers. Yesterday 1,000 teachers went down to DPS HQ at 900 Grant to express their frustration with a chintzy .1% raise with small step increases; disappearing planning time; large class size; and what is widely perceived as a lack of respect. While it might look like a raise to outsiders, being married to a teacher, I happen to know otherwise. To provide health care coverage for our healthy family of four, every month $910 is taken out of his paycheck to go to Pacificare. And since Pacificare is raising its rates by 10% for next year, we'll be paying over $1000 a month for health care--almost 40% of his take-home pay! We can kiss that "raise" goodbye; it seems like a salary reduction in that context. While that would seem like purely a labor relations issue, it's not. We keep saying that recruiting and retaining teachers is the key to quality education, and virtually all the research supports it. But when salary and benefits are not competitive with other industries, we end up with two types of teachers: unremarkable employees who put in their time because they don't have other options, and the gotta-save-the-world-types who are willing to put up with substandard compensation because the vow of poverty thing works for them. So if we want kids to have the best teachers in every classroom instead in just a few, we must attract good teachers. If we're going to attract numbers of good teachers, we must pay them well. Period. Why is planning time a big deal? Charlie's official workday is 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM, but he's usually there by 6:30 AM and stays later than 3:30 PM. Why? Because you can't possibly grade papers, gather activity materials, supervise kids to and from the bus, prepare lessons for kids from pre-reading to a 6th grade reading level, call parents, conference privately with students, meet with the special ed team and everything else a teacher has to do during the day. It's not humanly possible. Having student-taught in DPS myself, I can confirm this. When I wasn't getting away from school before 6 PM to be with my 2-year old, I knew teaching was an almost-impossible profession for a mother of small children. Planning time is what separates great teaching from just-getting-through-the-day. Planning time determines whether there are interesting, engaging activities that stimulate curiosity and learning in a classroom, or filling out worksheets dominates the day. Planning time is when teachers grade papers and assess performance so they can figure out what each kid needs to get to the next level. Let's be honest--it makes the difference in whether or not students are receiving a good education or a mediocre to poor one. The class size issue is also one that gets to good teaching and good learning. It's not rocket science...when your kid is competing for teacher attention with 35 other kids, it's pretty much a "take a number" situation. When class size is smaller, there are more opportunities for student-teacher interaction, helping to identify areas of need and allowing a little extra attention to address that need. The various reform committees and task forces have recommended smaller classes: As West High School English teacher Gabe DeMola made a good point, saying DPS' "...attitude hurts me. Increasing class sizes and increasing workloads, it's all contrary to the reform." Respect encompasses all of these issues--pay, planning time and class size, because these form the foundation on whether or not teachers have the kind of environment conducive to optimally practicing their profession. But it also means having a seat at the table when curriculum decisions are made and budget decisions are weighed. And most teachers agree that the what and how to teach changes of late have been shoved down their throats, not approached in a professionally collaborative manner. Superintendent Jerry Wartgow was quoted as saying, "There is a way to negotiate these issues." Okay, great. I'm not hearing any details, so run it all up the flagpole and we'll see if teachers salute. FYI, as a parent with two DPS students, my priorities include good teachers who are paid well and have adequate planning time and smaller class sizes. School board member Theresa Pena is looking ahead to next year, pledging to create a more transparent budget process in the future, "We need to balance the budget of 2005-06 and then start immediately again for next year and get everyone at the table." I really like the spirit of problem-solving and it's a great way to set up how to make it better in the future. At some point, I think the taxpayers are going to have to come to grips with the fact that public schools need more money to deal with all of these matters. But what's going to happen for the upcoming school year?