I'm a teachers assistant, part time.  I love the job, but it doesn't give enough hours/pay to keep me afloat.  Ah well.

Congrads on the new place

That sounds like an awesome accomadation (with an equally awesome connection) for a first-time place.

Congrats on moving up in the world!  

Congrats!  Having your own place is certainly nice.  Better still that you don't need a roomate to cover the rent.

ok...so you're saying teachers make too much money?  I wouldn't exactly equate the roles of 'teachers' and 'computer support staff'.

I'm talking about TA's

support staff = "teachers' aide"

the "teachers aide" who worked with my autistic son worked her ass off.  she was supposed to be taking direction from my son's homeroom teacher, but I'm not sure if his teacher even knew his ####ing name.  she kept calling him "Kyle" and he never spent any time in her class anyways, because she kept sending him out of the room for being too loud.

in the end, the school told us that my son "didn't qualify" for a TA anymore, and they wanted to stick him in a segrated classroom for retarded kids (which would have driven him nuts. he tested at grade 12.9 level for math fluency but only "3year old" level for language fluency. meaning: he's hyperintelligent in some areas but he just can't talk. he's not retarded. his doctors recommended an integrated classroom with 'same age peers', with the help of speech therapy and a full time teacher's aide.  but the school decided it was in their best interests to , first, cut speech therapy so he couldn't communicate, and then, pull his TA so he'd have no liferaft.   when we said: "you're leaving us no choice but homeschool" , they said "thank you" and "goodbye")

point is, that TA worked her ass off.  
she worked harder than any "teacher" I've ever met.  for 1/3 the salary  

(it ain't worth it.  if you can't beat em, join em.   I've often thought about getting a teaching degree myself thats where the real money's at. hehe)

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Dave should get his teaching degree and he'll be set for life with a cushy job and a 2 month vacation  

a TA's life is hard  

(TA's are taking up the slack in the system, as educators try to 'make ends meet', the TA is caught between "high class sizes" and "low budgets"; they end up working their ass off for no money.  the "teachers" salary is fixed and determined by their level of training not their abilities; teacher's salaries can only go up* but the TA makes less and less from year to year and they don't even get benefits)

*(and because of the pension crisis, there is a push to hire MORE teachers, so they can have more people paying INTO the pension fund;  the only way to fix the inequities in the pension fund is to hire MORE teachers not less;  each year, as budgets dwindle, the school boards WILL NOT lay off teachers (heh) --> so each year the TA gets the shaft "an inch further" than they did last year.    OUCH)

"support staff" are the only expenses that are flexible enough to 'give and take'
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p.s: can you tell I'm pissed over my son getting forced out of the sytem? heh.  yeah

(my son went from 'full time TA' to 'shared TA' to 'no TA' within two years)

((I felt sorry for the TA))

[/ Rant]

*pant*
*pant*