In news wholly unrelated to anything else in today's blog cycle, my friend, Flandreau native, now Fairbanks teacher, comedian, and playwright Michael Schaeffer takes a swing at salm poetry, discussing love over a math book:
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The poem takes a bit to build steam, but it finishes strong. The trains do meet.
Schaeffer submits this poem in hopes of bringing Alaska heat to the National Poetry Slam in Oakland, California. If you'd like to help him get the slam organizers' attention, click the YouTube link, then click Like on Schaeffer's video. Simple!
Re-related: Wait a minute! Schaeffer does fit today's news. Britton native gone D.C. denizen Kelly Wismer, daughter of South Dakota gubernatorial candidate Susan Wismer, reads Beth Wischmeyer's article on South Dakota's teacher pay crisis and tweets in response that countless South Dakota teachers have left the state or the profession because of that lack of fiscal support.
Countless? Nope. Add 1. I ask Schaeffer what he's doing in Alaska, and sure enough, he says he was underpaid and overworked teaching in South Dakota. When he left for Alaska in 1999, he was able to double his salary and halve his hours.
Average 2013 teacher pay in South Dakota: $39,580. Average in Alaska: $65,468.
Hate to disagree with you Cory, but the statistics below are for the two worst States in 2010-11 school year. If memory serves, the following year was the first year of the 6.8% cut in funding for education, and there certainly have not been enough increases since then to get us anywhere near the figure that you are quoting. Note that with difference between North Dakota the second worst and South Dakota, the worst of over $9,000, the South Dakota teachers are also teaching 1.5 more students per teacher.
http://xfinity.comcast.net/slideshow/finance-worstpaidteachers/worst-paid-teachers/
1. South Dakota
- Average Salary 2010/2011: $35,201
- Number of Enrolled Students Per Teacher 2010/2011: 13.4 (14th)
2. North Dakota
- Average Salary 2010/2011: $44,266
- Number of Enrolled Students Per Teacher 2010/2011: 11.9 (6th)
Doggone it Cory, I got so carried away about the teacher pay, (as all correct thinking South Dakotans should) that I forgot to watch Mr'Schaeffer's video, Funny and well done. I also got to thinking, I wonder if grudz is going to challenge me on, how is South Dakota getting 1 1/2 students. Shouldn't they all be whole students?
Now, that was a funny video.
Mike is a good friend, a great teacher, and his poems are legendary! I had the chance to see him a few years ago give a reading/performance in Minneapolis. He kept the audience totally entertained. Once you here him, you will never look at a porpoise -- or its blowhole -- the same way again!