FARMINGTON – Nearly a dozen students, who are education majors at the University of Maine at Farmington, are organizing a public rally in support of teachers to be held from 5 to 6 p.m. on Thursday on South Street. The rally coincides with a visit by Gov. Paul LePage to the UMF campus to talk at a political science class.
The Farmington Police Department said today that South Street will be closed to traffic while the rally is taking place. One of the rally’s organizers said that the visit by LePage provided the impetus for staging a rally, but the major focus of the event is to show positive support for teachers.
Student organizer Grace Kendall of Mt. Vernon, said she and other students have become concerned with recent national events surrounding public education and America’s teachers and want to show their support for Maine educators. In Maine and across the country, states are proposing controversial changes to teacher retirement plans that includes increases in the contribution rate as a way to help balance tight budgets.
It was about two weeks ago, when students found out that LePage is expected to attend an evening class at UMF on March 24 taught by Political Science lecturer Tom Saviello, a Republican state senator from Wilton.
“A handful of us had a meeting and decided to hold a rally then,” Kendall said. Although the event is not officially sanctioned by UMF, Kendall said her professors and members of the UMF administration “have given their blessings” and offered the area, known as “The Green” in front of Mantor Library, for use by rally attendees, if need be.
“A lot of us (UMF education majors) are working in local schools right now and are seeing firsthand the dedication that Maine teachers have to their schools and their students. We want to show our support for them and for the work they’re doing every day in Maine schools, particularly as we are working hard preparing to enter this field ourselves,” she said.
Organizers said they hope the rally will serve as a counter voice to much of the current popular rhetoric against teachers and public schools. “While organizers and attendees have many specific concerns regarding public education today, the rally will focus on showing support for the work that Maine teachers are committed to,” according to the rally’s organizers.
Guest speakers from local communities will be present to speak to the crowd about education and teachers and some of the issues facing them today, such as proposed pension changes, and the necessity of attracting and holding on to new educators in a field where an alarming number leave the profession within a few years.
For more information about the rally, or if you are interested in speaking at it, please email rallyaroundeducators@gmail.com.
“A lot of students who are education majors are disheartened by what’s been going on across the country,” Kendall said.
I hope people will get out to this event not to oppose LePage, but to show support for our public schools.
Good luck with your rally and,” THANK YOU for your support of Maine Educators!!!
What better time to show your support than when Governor LePage is on campus.
As a retired teacher, I too will be in attendance.
Oh Boy! Now what do the townspeople have to look forward to? More topless “freaks”? Stomping on the American flag!?!?
Maybe NativeMainer should meet some of the HARD WORKING DEDICATED education majors at UMF who spend hours in our public schools working with our youth, and then he would not refer to them as,” More topless freaks”.
Future teachers, this is how i suggest you make up the difference in the retirement system; instead of paying the union dues to the MEA you put the money in a Roth ira
Marion thank you…us education majors work hard indeed and someone who claims to be a native mainer clearly doesn’t know what the consequences of everything that’s going on will have on public schools
Please come out and support the UM@F education majors. We need them and others to sustain our country.
In today’s economy there is little reason to become a teacher. No Child Left Behind has taken a lot of the joy out of being in the classroom. When times were tight in the past, teachers were often granted improved health care, rather than raises. Now teachers are the scapegoat in this poor economy. Some want to take away educators’ health care and pensions. Teachers didn’t cause this mess. Look to Wall Street and the big [not local] banks.
Any one going into teaching in this day and age needs all the encouragement we can give them! See you Thursday?
Dear Selkie,
I hope you are not a future English teacher , or you would not say, “Us education majors work hard…” Sheesh, I hope you do better in the classroom as you educate the youth of America. What do you know about consequences?
The occasion for the rally stems from an invite from our elected official Tom Saviello to Gov. Lepage. It would be timely for Mr. Saviello to share HIS views of the governor’s proposal regarding teacher retirement. I’d asked last week, in a similar ‘Opinion’ topic, to hear the views of Mr. Black, Mr. Saviello and Mr. Harvell – but haven’t heard a peep. I believe they all are faithful readers of the Bulldog, having written their own ‘Opinion’ columns or responses in the past. So, gentlemen – many of us out here in ‘the electorate’ would like to hear your thoughts. What will you do when it’s time to take action on this proposal. Where do you stand? Do you think the shuffling of retirement funds is a budget solution? Do you have alternatives to offer? I hope you will take the time to respond.Thank you.
I agree with Hutch. It would be much better use of their money!
I also agree with “Retired Teacher”, future english teacher or not. A grade school student would be expected to use better grammar than that. Maybe he/she should spend more time in the class room than on the streets protesting.
Teachers
We are given weight
separate from the earth
as the first miracle,
a certain leave
to rise like the stones
in the thawing ground.
There are directions
pointed to by growing
in the flowering branch
and the equal root for those
who have tried and tired.
Because it is lonely,
teachers wait at the mouths of caves
for our coming home.
With the anticipated crowd turnout expected and UMF administration saying that they did not sanction this event, I would assume that they will need some sort of crowd control and security. Does this mean that taxpayers will have to pickup the bill for that if the police department is needed? Or is UMF paying it’s own police force and it’s support staff to set up barracades to block the street and man the event for something that they did not sanction? Or are the students responsible for all it takes to stage this rally? Just wondering.
I think that what Hutch says is true. Teachers should be having meetings with financial brokers rather then listening to their rabble rousing union leaders.
Ah, but what does it matter when the unions take over everything, the teachers will be left out. Remember the unions want to redistribute the wealth. Teachers will be low on the list.
I thought teachers thought for themselves and not be lead by false hope.
Bunch of trolls here. GO TEACHERS!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is clearly a topic that many people are very passionate about. I for one will be at that really to hear what Maine’s future educators have to say.
As a local teacher, 26 years in, I am proud of each young person who has the guts to stand by his or her convictions (which, in this case, is to support education). Although I also noticed the grammar errors within “Selkie’s” post, let’s put aside the negativity and recognize that he/she is at least standing for something and acting on it, rather than sheepishly sitting back letting everyone else speak on his/her behalf. Finally, the young are saying ENOUGH and making us listen to them, and they are going about it in an appropriate, civic-minded way. “A Vet”, on the other hand, has simply made me question the integrity and common sense of ALL vets (how do YOU like being lumped all together?) with his ridiculous comments of late, including yesterday’s, when he accused the teachers of being the ones who called RSU’s early release due to poor weather. If we only had that power! You keep your heads up, UMF students and future educators. Carry that torch – we need you.
Education Majors: One of the best decisions I ever made was to be a teacher. Rally with pride!
What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation.
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
Education is the guardian genius of democracy. It is the only dictator that free men recognize, and the only ruler that free men require.
– Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar
i bet if we paid our teachers $500,000 a year all the students would get straight A’s, right!
you teachers are being greedy, 2%!! that’s it. 600 bucks of a starting teachers salary at 30K, the same amount you will give to your union boss when he/she comes around and shakes you down.
$600.00 in the bank grows interest. $600.00 in union dues, goes to the democrats. Someone said teachers are smart. Must have been another teacher.
What teacher has a starting salary of 30k? Clearly those teachers aren’t from Maine.
Have you heard that Gov. LePage, who has come to love and write poetry since his inauguration, may recite his most recent poem at UMF tomorrow? Here’s an early copy
Maine has a public wallet
whose size is rather small.
I clutch it close in school today
lest teachers take it all.
Outrageous! As a graduate of UMF I am embarrassed! UMF has made national news over your “topless Freaks” and “stomping on our beloved US Flag) and now a bunch of “greedy” future union workers disrupting a professors class by staging this rally. And Mercedes needs to be reminded that it is the countless VETs who have lost their lives so she can have the freedom of speech! But the Freedom of Speech doesn’t give us the right to be done right rude and disruptive to those who want to learn. And…whether you agree with Gov LaPage or not his position deserves respect. What kind of example are these future teachers setting? I wouldn’t want any of them teaching my children…especially Selkie!
Teachers need to get a gripe on reality. I suggest we take every teacher out of the classroom and put them in the “real world” for two years! Let them work for $8 or $10 like many of our folks are doing in this area. They will be begging to come back to teaching! Where do they get their sense of entitlement??? Most of our teachers grew up here, were educated here and taught here. Their sense of the world is extremely limited.
What job can you work for 9 months out of the year and have summers off? Have their graduate studies paid by the “tax payers”? What job offers THREE weeks off “in addition” to their summers off? All federal holidays off too! Let’s add in their personal days! And medical and dental benefits! And a good salary? Where is there a job that you can be totally incompetent and can’t be fired, where you are protected by tenure? Who suffers? Our children! What do any of you have to complain about???? Most taxpayers pay 75 cents out of every tax dollar for you to enjoy these benefits. Don’t cry to the hard working tax payers that are making $8-$10 an hour and don’t have health benefits.
They need to look at the private sector and their benefits and then see what they really have to complain about!
I know there are EXCELLENT teachers out there, however, there are MANY that are not and they have been protected by the system for way to long. There are some teachers who “give” and “give” for their students and there are those who will not do anything above and beyond their “contract” unless they get “additional stipends”. They are becoming more the norm.
Teachers have the view that the rest of us are beneath them. They are wrong. Finally, people have realized they have been given WAY to much! It is time things change! It is time the tax payers wake up! It is time the school board wakes up! Teachers need to realize it is the tax payer that pays their salaries.
They cry “we were promised” this and that! BS…nothing is promised. Ask the VETs that Mercedes condemned what they were “promised”. They were “promised” free medical for the rest of their lives!!!! That changed and the teacher benefits needs to change.
I applaud the Governor of Wisconsin for his stand and I applaud Governor LaPage for his recommended changes…he needs to make more!!!!
My final question to all teachers…if it SO BAD…why do you stay in teaching? Why not change careers?
Why? Where else can you get benefits like the ones you have?
The one valid point that Hutch makes is that teacher salaries alone will not solve the problems in education today; that is because teachers alone cannot solve the problems in society. I have taught for 25 years and in the last 6 or so students have changed dramatically. We now have many students (rather than an occasional few) who come to school without having had breakfast, without having had any contact with a parent or guardian within the last few days, and without having gotten proper sleep, not to mention the things they may have gotten which interfere with their ability to learn. These students have rarely been read to, played with, or received appropriate family guidance about values and work ethic. They come to school without the basic skills and attitudes to be able to take advantage of the education they are receiving. Then they enter classrooms that are overcrowded with teachers who are not able to give them the one-on-one attention that they need.
As I look around me, the majority of teachers are working harder than ever before, and are tremendously dedicated to doing the best job they can. Sure, there may be a few who are burned out (and having to work longer before retiring certainly won’t help with that situation, along with costing taxpayers more money due to the higher salaries), but that is a minority.
Now this small group of citizens is being asked to bear the brunt of the poor economy by paying a higher tax. The legislators won’t admit that it is a tax (since they were voted in on a promise of no new taxes); they claim that the 2% extra taken out of teacher and state worker salaries is being paid into the state retirement system. That is all just smoke and mirrors, because at the same time they are taking back 2% of the state’s obligation to pay into that system, and the money stolen is going into state coffers; they might as well just take it out of our paychecks directly.
I have no problem with paying my fair share of a tax increase; I have a decent salary (that I put 9+ years of higher education and many years of experience into earning) and if times are tight, I am willing to pay more than someone who is not as fortunate. I am not willing, however, to be singled out for a higher tax. I chose to teach because I know how important that job is to our children and all of our futures; it is a profession that does not pay as much as many others that I could have chosen. But when I entered the profession, at least I could count on some job security and a meager but secure retirement. That retirement has already been raided once (by the Republicans in 1993), and now they want to do it again. Why would any talented young student choose to enter the profession? Maine ranks 46th in the nation in teacher salaries, while we are in the top third in student achievement. If you continue to erode teacher salaries and benefits, you may get what you pay for; then where will we be?
If Hutch thinks teachers are being greedy, then he certainly should support that all people who pay income tax could pay a much smaller increase (say .5%) which would provide far more to help close the budget gap. If he is not willing to pay that himself, then he shouldn’t be calling others greedy.
I love being lumped in will all vets. Great bunch of people.
I am just so happy that all of my family was schooled by teachers of the old school.
I have a teacher in my family. Like I said, I am glad my blood family was schooled by oldtime teachers.
Uncle Sam promised vets this and that and then took it away.
I signed that check to America. For any amount, to include my life. I was paid for a 24 hour, seven day, 52 week
period. The only way I could get tenure in the Military was to be killed while in service of this Country.
We could not strike, complain, or shirk our duty.
It looks to me that teachers attending the rally are doing so to protect themselves and not their students.
The word shameful comes to mind.
you are not lumped in with all vets. My father was a vet and gave his life while in the Navy. His views would surely be unlike yours as my mother was a graduate of Farmington Teachers College and supported her family with her teaching salary in his absence.
The VA did a lot to help, but it was a heck oif a lot less than Mom did!
Support your teachers!!
Wow, Republicans have sure done a good job turning middle class working folks against each other. Meanwhile the superich are laughing all the way to the bank.
Instead of ranting and raving about the retirement pittance of teachers, maybe people should focus on the vast amounts of wealth being hoarded by fewer and fewer.
Thank you Sally. Well said and I agree with every word you wrote.
I graduated at the top of my class in northern Maine and I too could have gone into many occupations after college, most of which would have paid substantially more than my current teaching salary. The fact is that I love to share my knowledge with others and I find personal joy in preparing the next group of young people to lead our country.
If we keep using “the teachers” as a collective scapegoat and adding additional taxes to this small group, who would want to join this profession, even if they have every intention of being a strong mentor for today’s youth? I have only taught for five years, but I already know that education, and thereby our country, is in trouble if we only keep pointing fingers at the teachers.
Personally, I teach my children that pointing is rude.
GRxKnight,
in case you missed it Baldy and the Dems bought the teacher vote a few years ago by passing a bill making it mandatory that starting teachers salary would be 30K a year!!!!
§13406. Minimum salaries beginning in 2007-2008
Each school administrative unit shall establish a minimum salary of $30,000 for certified teachers for the school year starting after June 30, 2007 and in each subsequent school year.
You hit the nail on the head there. They are banking (literally) on the ignorance of the masses. They believe many will forget that Republicans were in office and promoting a top-down economic policy when this country fell into the worst economic downturn since the depression. Even now as we are just starting to climb out of the hole, they held unemployed American workers hostage by not extending unemployment benefits until the Democrats gave in and allowed them to extend tax breaks for the wealthy. They keep saying that if we let the wealthy keep more of their money and not pay their share (re the proposed changes in inheritance tax and decrease of tax rates for higher income tax brackets), that somehow we will all benefit. It didn’t work for the eight years of the Bush administration and it will not work now with LePage. Just like Hitler, Republicans are using people’s frustration to turn them against a scapegoat (in this case teachers), and then using them to promote their agenda. More and more of the wealth in this country is being concentrated for those at the top; it is like Robin Hood in reverse.
Show them they are wrong; prove that you can think for yourself and that you don’t blindly believe the lies that you hear on talk radio. Support fairness for all working people.
Go ahead folks and let the unions destroy the Stock Market and banks…..and guess what…your pensions will be zero. Yupp, ZERO. That is because all your pension funds are in stock and bonds. So keep the faith with your union friends and I will buy one of your pencils out of your tin cups. Don’t forget! You will have NO PENSIONS! Any monies left will be sucked up by your union leaders.
Many years ago I taught in high school for one year. I used to joke that teaching is a profession where you have to often face and deal with your failures (people whom the education system failed)–usually most frequently around budget time. I was joking then It seems now that every day, usually more than once, in my soul I thank a teacher. Just now I thanked teachers when I used “whom” instead of “who” and “every day” instead of “everyday”. Earlier this evening I thanked Mr Muise, Mrs Beacham and all the other music teachers for the joy and I saw and heard at a wonderful music concert of SAD #9 music students from grades 4 through 12. As beautififul as anything was the happiness of relatives of the children. I started to write that I could never thank teachers enough, but I try each day in all ways. But they are a perceptive group. I hope they know.
. If a carpenter does not know how to build he will not have a job for long. The same is true for most jobs but not teachers. I had teachers that drank in the back room, teachers that belittled students that could not do the work and teachers that just spent half of the time talking about themselves. If teachers all want to be lumped together instead of being promoted or fired based on their own work so be it. Every teacher out there knows of people teaching that should not be there. If they want some respect maybe they need to clean up their own house. If they are not willing to do that then they should be all lumped together.
It is wonderful that UMF students can exercise their free speech rights and rally in support of the teachers. I trust they will respect the same free speech rights
of Senator Saviello’s guest and their fellow students who actually might want to hear what the governor has to say.
Additionally, I hope that before the rally, UMF students and the teachers will take the time to educate themselves about compensation and benefits in the private sector
before complaining too loudly. What is being asked of you is very little.
Finally, I hope Farmington will not be like Madison WI where teachers committed fraud against the taxpayers with their “doctors notes'” did hundreds of thousands of dollars of
damage to the state house, abused students by using them as props, and generally disgraced themselves.
In response to A VET….I agree…. the teachers and other union members JUST DON’T GET IT! I too, will be buying one of their pencils in their tin cups!
As teachers, they just don’t seem that “well educated” on the issues!
Thanks Claire!
My advice to teachers and wannabe teachers would be that they know their enemies.
Taxpayers and the Gov are not the enemy.
Ask your union reps where all your dues money goes and demand to see the union finacial records.
First they will lie to you and then, NOT let you see the union finacial records.
Why you will not see the records? The union fears publication of the wrong doing.
Street education contains real facts and will open your eyes.
Thanks, A Vet!
Know thine enemies – what great advice!
Of course, the enemies of teachers (and of education in general) aren’t to be found among the new crop of corporate-owned, pseudo-populist gubners, like our very own Paul LePage, since they’re only following orders – you know, from those corporate and millionaire donors whose well-deserved tax cuts will be so generously financed by teachers. (And a special shout-out goes to programs like Children’s Task Force, which are selflessly allowing their funding to be slashed so that those least in need can get that new yacht they’ve been dreaming of.)
And Fox “News” and the like also aren’t teachers’ enemies, since all they did was manipulate the usual automatons (like A Vet) in the usual way (with kindergarten-level reasoning and appeals to baser instincts) into suddenly hating teachers.
No! Teachers are their own worst enemies, because they had the temerity to demand some respect for doing a job that A Vet – and all the other geniuses who’ve so nobly spoken out here against teachers – could do blindfolded!
In conclusion, I’d like to thank A Vet for pointing out the virtues of street education and its “real” facts. Next time I need surgery, forget all those stuck-up, school-edumacated doctors with their degrees and their fake facts – I’m going for a surgeon with street cred!
I know that I should not be surprised by the ever present ignorance associated with this publication, but I am. Teachers are working people, and yet they are being discussed here as though they are lazy beggars. They have families too. In fact, they have family members that work in the communities and children that go to the local schools. This is not an “us versus them” situation. They are taxpayers, home owners, and often business owners. The slander that is posted here disgusts me. Many of you don’t even consider the human beings that you are insulting. Before you post your frustrations in a PUBLIC arena, consider your audience and your purpose. You aren’t going to persuade any teacher to consider your views in this manner. So what is your intent? Simply to insult? This isn’t the forum. Teachers are not asking for more money; they are asking for the money they have earned. They are trying to get by in these difficult economic times just like the next American. I would also like to note that at this very peaceful and POSITIVE rally it was brought to our attention by NEA President Chris Galgay that Maine would drop to 49th in the country for educator wages. Still, it is not a pay increase that is sought; teachers just don’t want to be singled out for this 2% retirement tax. I hope that if you haven’t already made up your mind that your will speak with your local teachers and representatives and at least make an INFORMED decision.
I quit the NEA when I found out it was giving money to Clinton. Guess what. The smiley, huggy, kissy face union reps, treated me like dirt. Wonder why. Oh yeah my money was not to be used for their liberal funding.
Even though I was not in a union, my employer treated me well. I used what was once wasted money, to pay off my house and all other bills.
How many teachers can say that? I will be kind and buy two pencils from their tin cups.
It is not fair for students to be taught a liberal agenda.
I never thought I’d see the day when a rally to support education would see such venomous comments. The rally, which I attended personally, simply sent the message that people should support education. It’s not a referendum on government, it’s not a power grab for unions, it’s not a charity drive. The message is simple:
Support education. Stop the negative attacks on teachers. Give our children’s future the respect that it deserves.