Kyle Littman: Substitute teachers: Calling for fair wages
On any given school day, dozens of teachers’ desks remain empty as a result of the dire shortage of substitute teachers in our districts. The majority of these open positions would serve our most needy students… literacy classes, special education, ESL, etc. As a result, tenured teachers and administrators have to give up their planning periods to cover additional classes, which inevitably leads to greater fatigue, stress, and burnout at every level of a school community.
In spite of this severe labor shortage that directly affects our children and educators: BVSD removed the enhanced COVID-19 pay that it enacted last year, even though masks are required and cases of COVID-19 are higher than they were at this time last year.
The current sub pay rate is $100 per full day ($12.50/hour). Besides the 2020-21 school year these abysmal rates have gone unchanged for many years. For perspective: Minimum wage in Colorado is $12/hour. Living wage in Boulder County for a single adult, (no dependents) is $18.53 and with a child is calculated at $38.32. In this community, any retail or fast food establishment wages begin at $15 an hour.
Substitutes are required annually to do a plethora of online training that requires several hours of time. In spite of this being a requirement, training time is not compensated.
Sadly, substitute teachers do not have a union to rely on and are unable to unite with a community of colleagues to try to effect change. And even more depressing, hard-working subs who love to teach our children are giving up their roles because nearly every other industry has recognized the societal need to take care of their employees and pay them fair wages.
Kyle Littman
Boulder
Stuart Walker: Bedrooms Are for People: Hard to follow the logic
It’s hard to follow the Bedrooms are for People (BAFP) logic. On one hand, it’s about saving tenants from the awful Cinderella-like conditions in which they live. And if that doesn’t resonate with you, it’s about affordable housing, something I think we can all support, particularly for families. And if you’re still in doubt, it’s about reducing the number of people commuting into Boulder. Or how about reducing rents. And if you’re still not convinced, it’s about taking on the government-imposed oppressive and antiquated regulations; darn them and their rules. It’s like a buffet — something for everyone. Only in this case the reason for the buffet is that there’s little reason to support the proposal on face-value so it’s necessary to wrap some feel-good around it in order to garner votes.
We’re at a crossroads: do we accelerate the destruction of our single-family neighborhoods by passing BAFP? I am not against increases in density when done properly. The BAFP proposal is narrowly written to increase density without addressing the concomitant issues. This won’t end well. With the ability to increase the number of tenants, these properties become tantalizing investment opportunities. Few single families can compete with the deep pockets and cash flow of investors.
This measure has a sweet smell — how could you be against helping mistreated tenants or people simply seeking a pillow for their head — but the devil is in the details, of which BAFP offers none, nor do they seem to care. This issue is complex and too important to our community to let the simple-minded BAFP proposal define the future of our neighborhoods. Let’s take the time and do it right so that all interests are served.
Stuart Walker
Boulder
CC Lagator: Vaccine protests: We don’t need both sides
I concede that 75 protesters outside of the county’s Public Health offices during a pandemic is arguably newsworthy and I’m sympathetic that it is a tricky subject to cover, but I was dismayed to read amplification of so much vaccine misinformation in a Daily Camera / Longmont Times-Call article.
There is a way to cover these types of stories, but quoting easily debunked views on vaccines by people not qualified to speak on the subject, then giving the latest information from the CDC is not the way to “balance” a story. It creates a false equivalence between personal feelings of a man/woman on the street and actual science. For example, no one would think an article about seatbelts, airbags and drunk driving laws would need a balancing quote by someone who doesn’t believe those things save lives.
There are some interesting angles that coverage of a protest like this could take. Ostensibly the protest is about “freedom” but it’s clear from the quotes that most of the crowd was anti-vaxxer with fringe views. That’s an interesting subject to explore. The fact that there were pre-prepared signs knowing that there has been national coordination around protests at school boards, public health departments and hospitals is an interesting angle to cover. The fact that this protest was peaceful outside of BCPH, yet Jefferson County Public Health workers have been physically threatened and have had to shut down mobile vaccination operations would be helpful context to add.
Perhaps even, the writer intended to convey some of the subtleties. But the fact is these are fringe views that don’t really deserve to see the light of day in a newspaper. The larger context (besides most of what is quoted being wrong) is that Boulder County has seen very high levels of vaccination amongst eligible residents, an overwhemingly silent majority that should be celebrated . And BCPH and our local hospitals should be commended for one of the lower deaths per capita in the country (and among comparable states and countries). They are doing God’s work.
Sadly, the end result of this format of coverage is amplification of vaccine misinformation. Misinformation that thrives on the cognitive biases of anti-vaxxers via social media, and then triggers our own cognitive biases of wanting “balance” in local media. We don’t need to “hear both sides” amplified when one of the sides is misinformation, that’s what Facebook and Youtube algorithms are for, and they do plenty enough damage on their own.
CC Lagator
Boulder
