Should Teachers Get Bonuses Just For Showing Up?
By LooeyVille
@LooeyVille (39)
United States
February 26, 2025 6:10am CST
Teachers Unions are one the most powerful unions in the United States. They lobby relentlessly and carry a lot of political influence with their "Oh, we do it for the children" lies.
My county in Kentucky has one of the largest school districts in the country. It's too big. It's a behemoth. They are political. They try to do things outside their scope of education, like free haircuts and laundry services for the students, using my taxpayer money to do it.
They had a School Board Meeting last night and announced the following:
Those who work for the full school year will get an additional $7,000 on their last paycheck in June. For the next two years, teachers assigned after the first student day and in active status by the first pay date in October will receive $5,250. Teachers assigned after the first student day and in active status by the first student day after Dec. 31 will receive $3,500. Teachers assigned after the first student day and in active status by the first pay date in March will receive $1,750. These bonuses come in addition to those teachers already receive $8,000 for working in the choice zone, so that's up to $15,000 more for those teachers.
Okay, so they showed up for work. You're already paying them for that. Why the bonuses? What about test results? What about meeting education outcomes? What about making a difference in the students' lives? What about actually teaching the children something other than drag queen reading hour and rewritten history lessons?
Most of our public school teachers here, with tenure, make over $100,000 already.
And we have one of the worst, most underperforming school districts in the nation. Kids are graduating high school without knowing basic reading, writing, or math skills.
In all of my 40+ years in the corporate workforce, you had to show value in order to earn a bonus. Why are these teachers just getting handed bonuses for showing up?
6 people like this
5 responses
@snowy22315 (185729)
• United States
26 Feb
Teachers these days especially have tough jobs. They are supposed to do all, and be all, and often are. It is tough to recruit and retain qualified teachers, so if paying them a bonus is what it takes, I don't begrudge them that.
2 people like this
@Ronrybs (19977)
• London, England
27 Feb
No bonus for just staggering into work. Are they following the lead of other groups out there? Over here the CEOs and similar expect huge bonuses for making it to the golf course! There is a rumpus over water company executives getting massive payouts while the system is leaking
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (96246)
• United States
26 Feb
They’re desperate, I guess. Things must be so bad that they have too many no shows or people quitting. Quite honestly, it doesn’t bother me. Children are awful these days. I mean, teachers get beaten by students, and parents verbally assault them. Teachers here just need a pay raise period. They make around $50,000 a year, and because of being the 47th state in teacher salary, we get the worst. If test scores are low, perhaps they are trying to attract a better quality of teacher. If that would get better results from students, then I think it would be worth it. I think it is worth a shot.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (71693)
• United States
26 Feb
Well, consider that the kids get passed to the next grade just for showing up….
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1 person likes this
@porwest (96697)
• United States
26 Feb
Because it's taxpayer money and you can just steal it. It's nonsense of course. And you are asking the RIGHT questions. Hopefully many others are asking the same questions and go the next board meeting to ask them.
As for WHY they can do it? It's because they win elections...so it's also something to consider at the polls.
1 person likes this
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