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Teaching In A Blue State

• Mirav Ozeri

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California Teacher

What does teaching look like on the progressive West Coast? After exploring education in a red state last week, we turn our microphone toward the challenges and rewards of teaching in San Francisco—one of America's most expensive blue cities.

Amy Brownstein Lum shares 25 years of wisdom as a literacy specialist who helps struggling readers navigate the complexities of language, and talks about the financial realities of teaching in an astronomical housing market as she breaks down the salary structure.


Topics

0:00 what it takes to be Literacy Specialist

3:21 What certifications do you need

4:50 Teacher Shortages and Classroom Dynamics

7:15 Teacher Salaries and Side Hustles

10:05 Have to deal with ICE?

12:12 what change would you like to see?


Resources

Learn about the Wilson Method https://www.wilsonlanguage.com/announcements/orton-gillingham-and-wilson-reading-system-what-you-need-to-know/

What is Orton–Gillingham system? https://www.understood.org/en/articles/orton-gillingham-what-you-need-to-know

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Music credit: Kate Pierson & Monica Nation

Speaker 1:

trying to understand why some children have a really difficult time learning how to read and write and it's complicated and it happens in parts of our brain hi, welcome back to how much can I make.

Speaker 2:

I'm a curious journalist with passion for exploring jobs, careers and what people really earn. Last week we had a segment with a teacher from Florida and we got a firsthand look at the challenges and realities of teaching in a red state. This week I thought it would be very interesting to explore the other side of the spectrum. What is it like to be a teacher in a blue state? Is it different? So I reached out to Emmy Brownstein, a longtime educator in San Francisco, california, and let's hear her story and see how the experience compares. First of all, amy, thank you so much for doing it and giving us your time. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

It's my pleasure. I love talking about this subject.

Speaker 2:

Oh good, let's start by telling us what is it that you do.

Speaker 1:

I am the literacy specialist at an elementary school. Some people call it a reading teacher or an interventionist, so it's someone that works with small groups of children or one-on-one with students who are not meeting grade level expectations in literacy or might be on the dyslexic continuum but are not in special ed. So they would not have yet been diagnosed with a learning disability, and so I would intervene in hopes that they would stay out of special education and give them the tools and the skills they need for reading and writing, even if they have some kind of dyslexic disability or phonological.

Speaker 2:

Did you say it was a?

Speaker 1:

public school.

Speaker 2:

Was it a public? Yes, it's a public school. It's a public school.

Speaker 1:

So I'm not a special ed teacher. I would be the bridge between general education and special education.

Speaker 2:

What kind of education you needed to get.

Speaker 1:

I happened to have a few different certifications that I pursued on my own because I wanted more knowledge. So I'm trained in a program called Orton-Gillingham sort of an umbrella.

Speaker 2:

Is that a national program or is it just a California?

Speaker 1:

It's worldwide. It's sort of a set of rules in how we would teach reading and writing in a multi-sensory approach to students that have dyslexia, or what we call phonological learning difficulty, and it's been around for about 100 years.

Speaker 2:

Wow.

Speaker 1:

And it was developed through trying to understand why some children have a really difficult time learning how to read and write, and it's complicated and it happens in parts of our brain, and so a doctor and an educator created this approach to a program and many programs use this philosophy, this teaching method.

Speaker 2:

Let's go back to the certification for a second. So you have this certificate of this worldwide program, right so?

Speaker 1:

I was sent to a different school district in Northern California who was offering a training, and it was a week-long training to learn about what's happening in the brain, how to teach this to students that need this approach, and then you walk out with a certification.

Speaker 2:

And is that the?

Speaker 1:

only-, I also have a certification in a different program that uses that philosophy, which is called Wilson, and I'm a reading and recovery teacher, which is a certification through college to teach first graders who are behind in learning to read and write. You always wanted to be a teacher. No, I actually wanted to be an actress on Broadway and have a bachelor's in musical theater.

Speaker 2:

How did you end up? A teacher?

Speaker 1:

I thought I love children. I've always loved children and I wanted to work with kids and make an impact. So I thought of social work or teaching and, to be honest, I didn't know if I had the heart to work with children in that child protective services realm or work with children that are struggling in whatever way. And then I knew that teaching would offer me the schedule, like summers off and all holidays off to be with my own family when I chose to have one. So that's the route I went.

Speaker 2:

So how many years have you been doing it? 25.

Speaker 1:

Wow, always the same grade, yes, and I really didn't know how to teach reading. To be honest, they don't really prepare you very well in credential programs because they don't know where you're going to be honest, they don't really prepare you very well in credential programs because they don't know where you're going to be. Entering these programs is sort of like loose qualifications. In other countries it's a rigorous application process. They take only the best of the best to be teachers. In America it's quick. It's a year. You student teach for half a year and you're in.

Speaker 2:

Wow.

Speaker 1:

So they can't, they don't have enough time to teach you everything. So it's up to the school district that hires you to really give you that training, and they don't.

Speaker 2:

So I read that there is a big shortage of teachers in San Francisco. Do you feel it?

Speaker 1:

Yes, it's a double edged sword because there's a shortage in our district. There are classrooms that are not filled, and the goal is really to do that, but at the same time, there are many teachers that are outside of the classroom, like me, and teachers that don't even give direct services to children. They might be working in curriculum and instruction or coaching teachers, and over the last few years, they've been trying to push people like us out of those roles and back into the classroom.

Speaker 2:

So when you say you're out of the classroom, what do you mean? The education that you give is not considered part of the curriculum, or?

Speaker 1:

right, it's up, it's a supplement, so we have. My school is very small, we have 13 classroom teachers and then I pull kids out of their classroom and work with them in my room and then we have one-on-oneone you work with the kids one-on-one. Sometimes, sometimes I work with small groups. It depends on what I'm teaching.

Speaker 2:

How many students in the classroom?

Speaker 1:

In K-3, the state mandates that you don't go above 22. If you do, you'll lose funding from the state. So for every child above 22, they'll give you less money. So most school districts want to adhere to that. But there are some school districts in California that have more and they just take the cut.

Speaker 2:

I read that one place said that there's a big diversity of students in San Francisco and another said that there aren't really too many black and brown kids in San Francisco. What do you see?

Speaker 1:

That's true. They're all in a certain neighborhood, a certain part of the city, I'll say, and many families have been pushed out of the city and moved elsewhere because they can't afford to be here. And that always falls in specific populations, right, and the schools have a lot of people like middle class, middle to upper income families have gone back to their public schools. So you see a lot of middle class, middle to upper class socioeconomic backgrounds in these public schools.

Speaker 2:

Now, it's known all around the world. I think that San Francisco cost of living is humongous, but the salary is not enough. So how much does a teacher make at the beginning and how much can they grow to make?

Speaker 1:

There's a base salary if you have a bachelor's degree, plus 30 units, which are the number of units it takes to get a credential.

Speaker 2:

What's that base?

Speaker 1:

And $53,562. So that's the base salary and then there might be add-ons, like these propositions that went through and the taxpayers voted to sort of add on because, let's say, the salary schedules they felt were low and for different things. So, you might get like an extra 7,000 a year. Oh, okay, if you have 60 units above your bachelor's or actually I think it goes to 45 next and then 60 units above your bachelor's, which is usually a master's or some kind of certification you will make the most that you can make 81,700.

Speaker 2:

So that's the base salary and the extras is when you get-.

Speaker 1:

So this is a base salary for someone that has 60 plus units more of education, so someone like me. When you get to year 14, you have three years at one salary. You mean 14 years in the business, After 14 years yeah you make $93,623 and you have that for three years. It doesn't move for three years, and then there's a career increment another three years. So then you're stepping every three years and still, instead of every year.

Speaker 2:

Is there a way to make more money? Like I know in Florida, she told me they tutor.

Speaker 1:

A lot of people I know work in the summers. They tutor after school. They have some kind of side hustle.

Speaker 2:

What's the going rate for a tutor in San Francisco?

Speaker 1:

You know it depends on your expertise. So I have tutored and because I have been trained in these specific programs for students, like I mentioned before, I could make $100 an hour or even more, and I have, and others might make less.

Speaker 2:

It just. I think it depends on your clients and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2:

I know in Florida they're limited what they can talk about and what they can teach. Do you have any kind of limitation established by your government?

Speaker 1:

Yes, there are standards that we have to follow and guidelines. There are certain things you have to teach and actually I think in our district it's sort of it leans to the opposite problem, where people will be teaching a history class or an ethnic studies class and they insert their own politics and their own viewpoints to a fault that they're not supposed to do. You're not supposed to give your opinion or your political affiliation to your students. You should relay facts and then they can investigate and learn and be critical of you know how they see fit. But it's sort of like a little bit of an ongoing debate right now in San Francisco, unified.

Speaker 2:

Do you have to deal with ICE coming to your school district?

Speaker 1:

We prepare for it. Yes, we have training to prepare for it. We do have undocumented students every school does and these are families I've worked with. Like I have the third sibling of families that I've worked with that are undocumented and it's very scary for them to move around the city, especially on public transportation, and run that risk of being stopped and approached. So we have been told not to answer any questions and say you need to speak with the office and just leave it at that.

Speaker 2:

What did you say was the biggest challenge? Did we talk about it I?

Speaker 1:

said time, I said time. I think all teachers feel like they're expected to work beyond their paid hours and do whatever they need to do to finish grading, writing report cards, prepping meetings, and we're not getting paid for it. It's a known Teachers work beyond their paid hours.

Speaker 2:

So what would you say is the biggest reward?

Speaker 1:

For me. I love working with kids. I think they're the most honest and real and joyful people to be around. So as a classroom teacher, I loved that and I loved the schedule. But now that I'm really an intervention teacher and I am working so closely with students, I see exactly where they are and I see the change and the growth I never really saw that as a classroom teacher. You're not working as intimately as you are with students. When you pulled them out of letters and the sounds and cannot blend sounds to read a word and then to see them leave you and reading is huge. It's just the most rewarding thing I've ever experienced. I get all the best I get to work with them and see them and then give them back to their teacher and I don't have all of the management and the behavior and the organizing that they have.

Speaker 2:

If you could change something in the system in your district, what would that be?

Speaker 1:

Right now. It's very mismanaged at the top. We've had years and years of mismanagement. That's what has put us in this particular position of being in a deficit. The state has semi taken over our school district funding budget, so we have a financial advisor from the California Department of Education managing things now to deal with this, and so we're suffering huge cuts right now. And it's a hot topic right now because budgets just came out to the schools, the principals got their budget and there are a lot of cuts happening at every school site. So people are really fighting back and speaking out because they don't want to lose staff or programs and they feel like the schools are suffering. The students are suffering because of the mismanagement at the top.

Speaker 1:

Right. They adopted a software for payroll and human resources. The school district purchased it without the support of the company, so like you could pay for also the tech support, and they opted out of that, and it's been a disaster to the point where people weren't getting paid or they were getting underpaid, and so the district spent millions to try to fix it and millions to try to unravel it, and then millions for a consultant to figure it out, and millions of dollars later we're now buying a new one. After three years of this mess. There's a whole different software system coming in for next school year.

Speaker 2:

Well, I guess there's corruption and millions disappear everywhere. I just don't get it. Maybe we have to get used to it, but anyway, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much Thanks for featuring a public school teacher Of course.

Speaker 2:

Okay that's a wrap for today. If you have a comment or question or would like us to cover a certain job, please let us know. Visit our website at howmuchcanimakeinfo. We would love to hear from you. And, on your way out, don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with anyone who is curious about their next job. See you next time.

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Mirav Ozeri

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