Florida Teachers Put on “Grade-In” to Show Rigors of the Job (FL)

May 3, 2011

Teachers, one of whom “often” wakes at 3 a.m. to grade papers, puts on a public display of their work to protest cuts to their benefits.

Palm Beach County school teachers opted for an unusual tactic to protest a new budget deal that would require them to contribute 3% of their salary towards their retirement, The Palm Beach Post reports. Dressed in red shirts, they brought their papers to a food court at the Mall at Wellington Green in Boynton Beach and staged a “Grade-In Marathon.” The aim was to let people know that teaching is more than just a “ten-month, seven-hour-a-day job.”

Sophia Youngberg, a Citrus Cove Elementary teacher and one of the Grade-In organizers, said she got the idea from Michigan and Wisconsin school teachers who put together similar events to protest pay and benefit cuts in their states.

The new state budget approved on Friday is projected to reduce Florida’s budget deficit by over $1 billion. It includes retirement changes as well as some additional benefit cuts. The budget bill comes on the heels of a recent merit pay law that also eliminated teacher tenure. Youngberg said that the effective 3% cut in teacher take-home pay will have a “ripple effect” o n the state’s economy.

    …[B]right young people who might have considered teaching careers look to other professions, and businesses looking for communities with good schools go elsewhere, she worried.

Sandra Vey, a second grade teacher at Wellington Elementary, attended the Grade-In because she wanted to show everyone that teaching wasn’t easy:

    “I often get up at 3 a.m. to grade papers. Parents, they don’t realize it. They don’t even know.”