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Pay Teachers More
It was interesting to read about ACPS plans to begin a virtual school for next year as well as offer a remedial program for 3 weeks this summer. As a former teacher I recognize some children do not learn well in a classroom setting, so a virtual school will be a relief to many who have had to consider home schooling for a variety of reasons. The summer program sounds good, too, but my shock and prompt to write this letter is concerning how little you will be paying teachers to teach in the 3-week program! Teaching 4 hours a day, 5 days a week for 3 weeks is 60 hours of teaching. And that doesn’t include prep time! Your $600 stipend means you are paying teachers $10 per hour!! Unskilled labor at Walmart or other retail stores earn more than that per hour!!!!! The Superintent of ACPS is quoted referencing the large sums of one-time money coming from the federal government due to the pandemic. So why not pay the summer school teachers a decent per diem!!! This doesn’t seem fair to me. Some will say that they don’t have to teach summer school for such a paltry wage. It’s their choice. We take the dedication teachers have for granted. They will sign up to do this because they care about their students. When will we start caring about our teachers?
Molly Marsh
Crozet
