25 Teachers' Salaries

10/03/2022

It's been a long time since I posted an update. Our campaign kind of petered out years ago when the California Teachers Association governing board refused to support us. We wanted to get the legislature to pass a resolution talking about the priority and value of education as opposed to bombs (killing people in war). We worked through the appropriate channels and got the item before the government board. But the CTA President, who had advised us on how to pursue it. failed and refused to support our resolution. his leadership was key. He could have persuaded or at least encouraged the board to support is. He was a con man; an unreliable and untrustable erstwhile political ally.

The issue remains though. How many billions do we spend annually on the Pentagon weapons budget? How many starting salaries of public school teachers could this money pay for?

And why do we let this continue?!

12/23/2019

QED

03/23/2018

It's still true. The U.S. still spends around $200 billion per year on weapons, part of a Pentagon budget that is upwards of $600 billion. The so called war on terror, began by W. and continued and expanded by Obama, continues under Trump.
I don't know how much a Tomahawk missile costs today but in 2010 it cost about $1.5 million. Considering that the average starting teacher's salary in California public schools K-12 was about $40,000, a single missile cost as much as 25 teachers' salaries for one year.

Obviously it would be a much better use of our tax money to give that $1 million to the states to be used for teachers' salaries than to pay for 2/3 of a missile, whose only use is to kill and injure people and destroy inanimate objects (houses, other buildings, roads, bridges, hospitals, etc.)

Why are we so crazy as a country that we put killing people in other countries ahead of educating our children?! It is time for a change.

07/17/2017

Somebody stole my domain name! Aaaaaargh!

05/18/2015

What does American need more: weapons or public education?
$1 million would pay for the starting salaries of 25 public school teachers for 1 year OR 2/3 of a single Tomahawk cruise missile.

Either educate our children or kill men, women, and children in faraway countries.

The war machine consumes $600 billion per year.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were costing $125 billion per year. That is $400 million per day.

Can you imagine what America's public schools could have done with $400 million per day for one week, let's say 5 days?

5 days worth of war, or $2 billion. The schools could have hired more teachers, reducing class size, reducing stress and improving the quality of education in every classroom. The schools could have bought more textbooks, paper and supplies, and offered more classes (classes that had been cut because of the budget crisis).

More students would graduate from high school and go to college. More students would have basic skills to enable them to get jobs even if they did not go to college.

$400 million per day. One day of war expenses could have paid the starting salaries of 10,000 teachers.

Like our page if you like this idea.

For an idea for how to contact your local school board and present a resolution supporting "trading bombs for teachers" see our "get involved" page on our website.

http://25teacherssalaries.org/what-can-i-do/contact-your-school-board/

11/08/2014

The California Teachers Association represents over 325,000 teachers. It is the largest labor union in California.
But last year when the CTA Board was asked to help the 25 Teachers' campaign to build momentum for "trading bombs for teachers", CTA refused.

Read more at
www.25TeachersSalaries.org

About 25 Teachers' Salaries Who we are: 25 Teachers’ Salaries is a not for profit organization in Davis and Sacramento. However due to lack of support from teachers and especially CTA, this organization is now inactive. What we want: We wa ...

10/29/2011

October 27, 2011 - We talked to the Woodland Board of Trustees. There were several principals at the board meeting and we talked to 5 of them and followed up by email. We contacted the Presidents of the Woodland Education Association and the CSEA and will seek their support in asking the Board of Trustees to place our proposed resolution on the agenda for the December 8 meeting and to pass it.

10/29/2011

October 20, 2011 - We talked to the Clark County (Nevada) Board of School Trustees about our campaign and proposed resolution. This Board was kind enough to allow some extra time during public comments. We also spoke with several members of the Education Support Employees Association after the meeting and with the president of the Clark County Education Association, who invited us to submit a packet which he will present to the executive board at the November meeting. We will prepare and send a packet. Clark County recently made $148 million in expenditure reductions to balance its budget.

10/29/2011

September 6 and 20, 2011 - We talked to the Sacramento County Board of Education about our campaign and our proposed resolution. This is a do nothing board that is far more interested in protecting the appearance of normalcy in the face of a growing financial crisis. Out of 7 board members 4 gave absolutely no feedback whatsoever despite individual follow up emails. The board president gave his cell phone number at the September 20 meeting and invited a phone call but after one call he refused to return messages.

09/28/2011

Tonight I went to the meeting of the Board of Education of the San Juan Unified School District in Carmichael, CA. There was a going away honoring for Steve Duditch, who retired after being a teacher since the mid 1970s and a leader in the SJTA (Teachers Association) for many years. I had the pleasure of meeting him last December and he invited me to talk to the SJTA executive board earlier this year. I would have loved to be Mr. Duditch's student.

08/25/2011

Sacramento, CA -

25 TEACHERS’ SALARIES CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCES CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION SUPPORT IN ASKING LAWMAKERS FOR RESOLUTION SEEKING MORE FUNDING FOR EDUCATION LESS FOR WEAPONS SPENDING

Asks California legislature to pass a joint resolution petitioning Congress to pass “America’s Weapons Rebate to Education Act”, a Citizens’ Bill

http://25teacherssalaries.org/?page_id=778

Asks California legislature to pass a joint resolution petitioning Congress to pass “America’s Weapons Rebate to Education Act”, a Citizens’ Bill