I am not one to voice my opinion in a newspaper, but I feel teachers can be silent no longer. I could address many issues, but in the interest of space I will comment on the references made to teacher pay. Many people see teaching as this glamorous job where you work 8-4, nine months out of the year and have all your weekends and holidays off. These same people see the statistics that say the mean salary for teachers is around $40,000. These same people hear the stories about bad teachers, failing schools and illiterate graduates and then assume that all teachers are overpaid. I have taught for two years in a rural Iowa school and will share with you the reality of being a teacher in Iowa. I usually started doing “school stuff” as I called it, at 7 a.m. This could consist of doing lesson plans, grading papers, setting up labs or activities, researching for a new idea or making copies. Around 8 a.m. students started getting to school and I usually had meetings or one of the “duties as assigned” jobs to fulfill. School started at 8:20 a.m. and went until 3:27 p.m. My breaks during the day (when I was not responsible for students) were one 47-minute planning period and one half-hour lunch. Most days, I did not get home until 5 or 6 p.m. The nights I worked the concession stand at home games were even later! Some nights I did work at home and I almost always went in on the weekend to work for a few hours. It takes time to plan, organize and to become an effective teacher. The time given to teachers during the school day is just not enough to get everything done. Good teachers put in many more hours than the general public will ever know. I would guess I put in 60 hours a week, on average.Now, Mr. Williams would you be interested in knowing what my compensation was for all these hours I was putting in to help these high school students learn science? Well, it would have been $20,840 my first year, but the grand Iowa legislature decided all Iowa teachers should be paid at least $23,000 so I was paid the state minimum for two years. So if you include all the hours I put in, and do the math I was making around ten dollars an hour. Not bad, when you consider I have a B.S. in biology. June and July are not months of vacation for teachers. Many teachers go back to school to work towards advanced degrees, get credits for their license or simply to become better educators. The summer months are used to rewrite curriculum and investigate new teaching methods. Many teachers get a second job during this time period. I admit I loved my Christmas vacation and my summer vacation. But I worked hard enough during the school year, I needed some days off for my sanity. The entire nation is facing a teacher shortage and in the state of Iowa, this shortage is already occurring in areas such as special education, music, math and science. School districts are full of older teachers who are at the top of their salary schedules and are ready to retire. These teachers may be paid well, but it took them many years and advanced degrees to get there. Many talented young people shy away from education and many beginning teachers leave the profession because of low parental involvement, poor student behaviors, lack of administrational support and low salaries. In order to fulfill the looming teacher vacancies, something must be done. Too many good teachers leave the profession or leave Iowa in search of better salaries or working conditions. Rural Iowa schools are getting one or two (if their lucky) applications for high school job vacancies in some areas. The Iowa Legislature recognizes this severe problem in our state and is trying valiantly to find a solution. After a few years of teaching, leaving the profession to find a more lucrative career is very tempting. I admit, I considered it. But I love science and I love to teach. It can be fun, exciting and rewarding. What makes teaching worth it is working with kids and knowing that hopefully you can make a difference in this ever bizarre world we live in. Teachers are asking for better salaries not because we are greedy or selfish, but because we deserve it. Teaching is the second most important job a person could have. If you’re wondering what’s first, it’s being a parent. Andrea Madsen

Graduate student

Science education