Getting closer to the minimum

Flo Martin

Recently, my family visited an old one-room schoolhouse, now a

museum, in Nevada. I photographed a framed poster titled “Rules for

Teachers, 1872.” It listed the following:

* Teachers each day will fill lamps, clean chimneys.

* Each teacher will bring a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal

for the day’s session.

* Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual

tastes of the students.

* Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting

purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.

* After 10 hours of school, the teachers may spend the remaining

time reading the Bible or other good books.

* Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be

dismissed.

* Every teacher should set aside a goodly sum of his earnings for

his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a

burden on society.

* Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool

or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good

reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.

* The teacher who performs his labor faithfully and without fault

for five years will be given an increase of 25 cents in his pay,

providing the Board of Education approves.

That was then.

This is now: I help prepare California’s teachers who come through

the California State University, now the largest university system in

the United States. According to the California Faculty Association

website, during 2003:

“* Campuses across the system reported widespread class

reductions.

* Hundreds of temporary faculty positions were eliminated.

* Class sizes increased.

* Many student services, including athletics, were reduced or

eliminated.

* Hundreds of vacant faculty positions remained unfilled.

* Many campuses reduced or eliminated ‘release time’ for faculty.

* Travel and instructional equipment budgets were reduced.

* Library acquisition budgets were sharply reduced. Many libraries

canceled subscriptions and eliminated online databases.

* On-campus student employment was more difficult to find.

* Several campuses laid off non-academic staff. Those that

remained experienced increasing workloads.

* The workload of both faculty and non-academic staff increased.”

As a novice Cal State University faculty member on a 40% contract,

I earn $1,268 monthly. (The full-time rate would be $3,170.) My

investment -- including lectures, preparation, office hours, meetings

and student observation -- totals about 80 hours monthly. Do the

math. My hourly wage is $15.85. Now you understand why my colleague

and I call this our “volunteer” job.

How do I survive on that pittance, you ask? Well, having retired

this past June with 26 years of service (and I emphasize service) at

age 61, my benefit is $3,742 monthly before taxes. I am currently

paying $250 a month for medical coverage through my former school

district and in three years will have no coverage at all. This is not

a pretty picture.

And it might get worse if California voters say “thumbs down” to

some of the propositions being considered Tuesday. Enrollment in the

Cal State University system would drop and budget cuts would

continue. If state budget negotiations extend past the June 15th

deadline, all CSU professors receive $6.75 an hour. That, dear

voters, is minimum wage. Do you think that maybe in five years, I’ll

qualify for a 25 cents a day more?

* FLO MARTIN is a retired high school teacher, lectures part-time

at Cal State Fullerton in the Foreign Language Education program and

supervises student teachers in their classrooms.