>> Parents in San Francisco are upset after the story of a teacher diagnosed with breast
cancer has highlighted a major issue with California is education code.
So check this out a Glen Park Elementary School teacher who didn't want to be identified will
likely be only for the rest of the year as I said she is battling breast cancer.
And the San Francisco Chronicle were actually reported she could have as much as 240 $40
per day deducted from our salary to pay for a substitute thanks to a 1976 change to the
California Education Code and here is why I'm going to try to break it down for you.
So teachers in California actually do not benefit from the state's disability program
and it's because they don't pay into it.
They are a lot of ten sick days per year, which rollover if they're not used, and then
an additional 100 days of the extended sick leave, during which their pay is docked to
pay for a substitute.
And this is all according to a spokesperson from the San Francisco Unified School District.
And now, this is not specific to California, I mean, to San Francisco, excuse me it's California,
it's statewide.
So after those 110 days, of which you had to pay for 100 of them teachers can then dip
into the catastrophic sick leave bank and that's run jointly by the teachers' union
and the school district.
And those are sick days that are donated by teachers around the district for their peers.
There are currently 511 days in the bank.
And this is according to the Susan Solomon, president of the teachers union.
But that's not all because teachers actually are able to use up to 85 days from the sick
leave bank.
And this is according to the collective bargaining agreement between the district and the teachers
union.
Unfortunate that, other parents have to step in.
But they have they've been rallying behind this teacher in so far more than $13,000 has
been raised through a GoFundMe to help her with the costs of her medical leave and the
campaigns organizers they describe her as an impeccable teacher.
She's taught at the school for 17 years.
>> So there's a couple more heartbreaking parts of the story and I'll get into more
specifics in a sec, but I just wanna make a general point first.
What kind of a country do we have, when we have things like a catastrophic sick leave
bank?
>> Right.
>> That that folks have to use when they get cancer and setting up GoFundMe pages, so that
they can survive?
And the answer is it's a pretty barbaric country.
So if you're from Europe or Japan or Canada any other developed nation you probably shocked
when you found out about the American system, that we just don't care about our citizens.
We care about our corporations, we invade countries for them over and over and over
again.
And if you're a corporate donor, you're gonna get anything you want.
But you're a teacher, we're gonna bulldoze you.
So this isn't about whether, hey, should they have paid into the state's disability program?
It's about who are we as a society?
And the answer to that, unfortunately isn't is not a very good one right now.
>> Yeah.
So I come from a family of teachers.
I'm a teacher myself in a public university.
I know that's not exactly the same as being a public school teacher.
I attended and was part of and in solidarity with the major UTLA strike that we had recently,
that was successful.
And it's time for those kinds of actions in my mind as a teacher we sort of think when
we come this country, my family came to this country that when we come here we sign up
for a social contract which is, put your work in add value to the society and you get the
basics, the basics are taken care of.
But what we see happening and we can see this in terms of our health expenses is a very
troubling and sobering trend which is the declining life expectancy that we see in this
country.
And it's unconscionable because teachers are the fuel of the economy in many ways, starting
from the very basics of our childhood.
>> So it's not like we don't have any examples of systems that work.
And if we were rational government, what we would do is we would look around it.
Well, who's figured this out right?
And in the case of healthcare, you might look at Canada, you might look at Japan, and those
are interesting examples.
They spend half the money we do, they have universal healthcare, they cover everyone,
they spend less.
If you're not curious as to how they do that, well, you've got an issue.
It's weird if you're not curious about how they do that, and whether we could save a
lot of money for taxpayers and actually literally live longer.
That's something we should care about.
In the case of education like this one.
Finland has had outstanding results.
But not just the fact that they do so well but the fact that they changed and then did
so well.
So their education system was not at the top and they changed a number of things.
And now they're in the top three very very consistently.
So, do they use the same model as some of the successful countries like South Korea?
No, they don’t, South Korea works their students to death if you ask me and okay well
that’s one model, and they are near the top and so you can take it or leave it but
it’s interesting and you can learn from it.
In Finland, you know what they do with their teachers?
Exult them.
And they pay them much higher wages.
It's one of the best jobs you can get in Finland.
I know in America that sounds unbelievable.
Teacher, why would we value a teacher?
>> The backbone of all of humanity.
>> One of the best paying jobs, teacher?
They are not even a banker.
I mean look at how insane our incentives is in the meagres.
So now we got to stories like this, where you get cancer as a teacher, you gotta pay
for your own substitute teacher.
Are there no bounds of reason?
And in America unfortunately, there aren't.
>> We're increasingly working harder, earning less and living shorter lifespans.
And there are couple studies that are out there that really show the value that teachers
provide to a society and they're two-fold.
One is they provide great economic value because they allow a workforce to grow, but they allow
people more importantly to just be intelligent, sentient, conscious, loving human being.
So the psychological impact of being a teacher are profound on us because the early stages
of our lives are so important to who we become.
>> Yeah, sorry, Ruth, go ahead.
>> No, no, you're fine.
It just always makes me think that we are in this place.
And we've been for a while, though, that people who could be really passionate and students
thinking about their future careers, really passionate about being educators won't, because
why would you?
>> Yeah, no incentive.
>> Yeah, Jimmy Dore jokes learn about how blaming a teacher is probably the right way
to go for all the ills of the country.
>> They're putting all their money, packing it all in the trunk of their Toyota Tercel,
says, right?
To quote Jimmy badly, but we have this system now where, yeah, a lot of people in power,
when we had the housing crash, didn't blame the bankers, who created that crisis through
their greed they blamed the homeowners, and they blamed the middle class.
And when we have completely fallen apart schools and why are they falling apart, because we're
not funding them in places like California in Alabama and that's a funny sentence right?
And California should do much better in their public schools but they have done disastrously.
Why?
Because the tax is for the rich.
And so that is a choice that was made.
That is why our education system has deteriorated not because of the teachers that is a preposterous
statement.
Not only on its' face but if you look at the evidence, well it turns out if you treat teachers
well you have a great education system so those are facts.
And so, back to this for a second.
She, right after her surgery, couple days after her surgery, she wrote personalized
notes to all 22 of our students, thanking them for working hard, telling them she missed
them and thanking them for their support.
And now these parents are raising money through GoFundMe, and they've raised $13,000.
But for every GoFundMe story you hear, there's 1,000 you don't hear.
So if you look at this, you might think, look at that, hey, people stepped up and they're
helping her, and problem solved.
No the problem is not solved for other thousand teachers you don't see who have cancer all
across the country.
And and because they didn't get a story like this they didn't get lucky that it we went
into a newspaper, or went on a show like ours.
They're going to suffer quietly and and our government who's supposed to represent the
citizens is never going to come to the rescue.
Because unfortunately, right now, we don't have real representatives we have people who
work for their donors.
And as long as they keep doing that, as long as we have the wrong incentive structure and
the wrong system, we are going to continue to do barbaric things like this.
Where you say if you have cancer you're gonna have to pay for the person filling in for
you.
It's, for the rest of the developed world it's unconscionable, it's unthinkable they,
and in fact probably can't quit believe it, they can't believe that the richest nation
on earth would do this to it's own citizens, but yes we do we do it every day.
>> When you apply the same logic by which a full profit company make money to the school
system, you have the system that we have here right now, which is the increased privatization
of schools, public schools that are getting less funds and resources.
And you also see the need for actions that we're seeing.
Series of strikes all around the country, Colorado, West Virginia, here in Los Angeles,
Oakland where teachers are striking.
And that's the only time when people step up because parents are realizing our kids
are gonna have no education.
These teachers are so important and that's the only way in which I think we're seeing
a lot of change happening right now, and that's heartwarming for me.
>> Yeah, and, look, I'm not in favor of every strike it depends, it depends on the industry,
depends on the consequences and the context, right?
>> Yeah.
But for teachers all across the country, yes.
If you think you're being screwed, you are right, you are being screwed.
They have decided to deprioritize you.
They have reduced your salaries or it certainly has not kept up with inflation all across
the country that is not an accident it is because you're not a corporate donor.
These donors buy all the politicians, they legally bribe them.
And that is why your education system is being privatized, your job is being eliminated,
and your wages are stagnant.
Your only choice in a scenario like that, in a context like that, is to strike.
It's to get together, fight together, so that you at least have a chance of winning together.