Friday, July 3, 2015

Philadelphia Flunks Economics 101

I continue to be amazed by the selective understanding of many reformy folks.

Philadelphia schools have handed over management of their substitute teacher workforce to Source4Teachers, a business that specializes in staffing solutions "for public and charter schools":

Filling part-time positions can be a full-time task—especially in today's demanding educational environment. At Source4Teachers, our only job is helping you do yours as effectively and efficiently as possible.

S4T has run into trouble in some of the markets it has moved into. With typical complaints about the service including unqualified subs and ballooning costs (but stagnant sub wages). In at least one case, S4T's contract was terminated after allegations of hitting a student.

A look at glassdoor.com shows middling employee satisfaction, though at least one former internal employee (a recruiter) was not a happy camper.

CEO is socially awkward and the President of the organization has a God complex and depending on the day of the week or which way the wind is blowing your guess is as good as anyone's as to how you might be treated on a given day. Benefits are non-existent, leadership is void. The COO is a former administrator that couldn't manage his way out of a paper bag.

The most common complaint was the level of pay. Looks like that's going to be the complaint in Philadelphia as well. The new pay scale (certified teachers, any grade, will be paid $90 per day; non-certified teachers, any grade, will be paid $75. And special-education positions pay the highest rate at $110 per day) represents a pay cut of well over 50% in some cases.

Philly, like many districts, has a sub shortage. My own neck of the woods has a pretty regular problem getting substitutes in. Once upon a time, substitutes were either young teachers trying to get a foot in the door, homemakers looking for some extra money, or retired teachers. All three of those streams have dried up, primarily because substituting pays really, really badly.

While nobody was watching, sub pay has fallen far, far behind. When I returned to the area in 1980, a day of subbing paid $50. Adjusted for inflation, that would be $144 today. But the going rate locally is about $85.

Administrators continue to scratch their heads over the sub shortage. This is not a mystery. Hiring personnel is like paying for any good or service-- if the seller will not give you what you want for the price you've named, you have to offer more.

It will be interesting to see how Sourc4Teachers makes out in Philly. Their big trick seems to be scooping up lots of warm bodies that don't necessarily have teaching qualifications, which may be helpful if Philly's current pool of 400 teachers suddenly gets smaller. But if they have trouble getting enough qualified subs, I believe they can find the solution in any Economics 101 textbook.



8 comments:

  1. Another hidden factor. Subs no longer directly work for the district. This means they don't get the next open job (for 2 months of subbing in a year), they don't get credit in the retirement system, AND they don't get benefits.

    Amazing that young teachers don't want to work within this system!

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  2. Another hidden factor. Subs no longer directly work for the district. This means they don't get the next open job (for 2 months of subbing in a year), they don't get credit in the retirement system, AND they don't get benefits.

    Amazing that young teachers don't want to work within this system!

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  3. It is not just the absolute level of pay that is the problem, it is the pay relative to alternative jobs. I think many public school hiring practices date back to the days when women had few options. Now that they have many more, schools will have to think more carefully about how the pay teachers.

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  4. $85 a day for a professional teacher?! That is babysitting pay.

    I thought the pay rates in the UK for supply teachers was pathetic at about £100 a day ($155).

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  5. $85 a day for a professional teacher?! That is babysitting pay.

    I thought the pay rates in the UK for supply teachers was pathetic at about £100 a day ($155).

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. There is another disaster happening with substitute teaching, lack of enough highly skilled subs, and low pay, and it has to do with the intersection of the Internet, SmartPhones, teenagers, and subs driven to their last nerve. Here's an Life Lesson for you - go to YouTube and search for "substitute teacher". There you will find hundreds of sneaky or not-so-sneaky surveillance videos made on kids' phones of subs at their worst.

    The kids will always tell you it's all the sub's fault. If you watch enough of these videos you'll see that yes, sometimes the district has hired someone not properly equipped for today's schools and today's kids. On the other hand, you will see some kids pulling outrageous stunts or in teachers' faces saying all manner of things no one expects to have to put up with in a civil workplace, and chances are the sub has not been taught who to call for help. You'll also notice how the kid just happens to be recording when his peer is up in the teacher's face. What a coincidence.

    How many districts train subs anymore? And when they do train the new subs, who is doing the training? Is it coming from HR personnel, retired teachers, or from real live substitute teachers? Because only a sub can tell you what subbing is really like. The kids behave completely differently for their full-time teachers who have had time to develop relationships with them.

    By the way, it is illegal for anyone to video record in any classroom in California without permission from the teacher or principal. If I were a principal of a school I would post this law in every classroom because they are KIDS. They have this tool, the cellphone, with which to destroy working people's reputations illegally online and they don't care because they are kids. It's all just high drama to them; something fun to put on Facebook and laugh about.


    CA Educational Code 51512: The Legislature finds that the use by any person, including
    a pupil, of any electronic listening or recording device in any classroom of the elementary and secondary schools without the prior consent of the teacher and the principal of the school given to
    promote an educational purpose disrupts and impairs the teaching process and discipline in the elementary and secondary schools, and such use is prohibited. Any person, other than a pupil, who willfully
    violates this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Any pupil violating this section shall be subject to appropriate disciplinary action.
    This section shall not be construed as affecting the powers, rights, and liabilities arising from the use of electronic listening or recording devices as provided for by any other provision of law.

    I have nothing against anyone discovering legitimate harm being done in a classroom by surveillance. As long as its legal and done by adults employed by the school district, that's fine. But to let the CHILDREN somehow think they are private investigators is insane. They can't even legally drive, get married, smoke or drink alcohol until they're between the ages of 16 and 21 in most states, but but schools are LETTING THEM record subs and post them on YouTube.

    Some smart lawyer should make a class action suit out of this issue in every state. But you know why they don't? Because no one cares about subs - not even their employers.

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  8. In my neck of the woods, there is an ongoing sub shortage. The most highly-regarded district in the area just raised the pay from $65 to $70 per day. In my town some subs are paid $$59 per day. The local newspaper ran a story headlined "Substitute teacher staff shortfalls have Michiana districts looking at pay". Genius! Why didn't I think of that?

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