Retired Teachers top volunteers in state

Our fact free ANTI friends love to demonize teachers, even retired teachers. Roxy and other bloggers in the North County Times have said that our retirement pay is 100K a year that our pensions are bankrupting school districts, etc.* Of course our ANTI friends disparately need evil straw men to fight so that their sad little lives have meaning.

It seems contrary to the hate and bile our ANTI friends spew that actually California Teachers are champs when it comes to volunteering. I wonder if our ANTI friends ever voluntarily help anyone but themselves? At least we know teachers do. In fact this last weekend, I know a group of teachers at a public school here in VUSD that VOLUNTEERED between nine and ten hours of their free time Friday Oct 30 and Saturday October 31 for Halloween carnivals. Parents with children in those schools, repeatedly thanked those teachers. Of course our ANTI friends will never know about those self sacrificing teachers as their children do not attend our good VUSD schools.

Here is the article:

FALLBROOK: Retired teachers lead state in volunteer hours
By MORGAN COOK - mcook@nctimes.com Posted: Friday, October 30, 2009 9:35 pm
Even after retirement, Fallbrook-area teachers are working hard to improve their communities.

About 75 members of the Fallbrook Avocado Division 81 chapter of the California Retired Teachers Association volunteered a combined total of 58,284 hours in Fallbrook and Bonsall last year, division 81 spokesperson Lenora Sears this week.
The 149-member division is one of eight divisions in the county, which led the state in reported volunteer hours last year with a total 2.7 million, according to an association report on volunteer hours.

The report was released earlier this month in advance of California Retired Teachers Week, which begins Sunday, as a way to underscore the value teachers have in their communities in dollars and cents.

The nonpartisan, nonprofit association organizes volunteer work, awards scholarships and reaches out to lawmakers on legislation that could affect public education or retirement benefits for teachers, officials said.

The association has more than 52,000 members statewide.

Sears said retired teachers volunteer at schools, hospitals, libraries and anywhere else they're needed, giving them an opportunity to provide the kind of community service that drove many of them to become educators in the first place.

"Many of us have worked in the classroom for over 35, 40 years," Sears said. "We see the need to be of help. We all feel that what we can give is very much needed, so we give where it's needed."

The report said that each volunteer hour is worth $20.25, an estimate of what volunteers would earn if they were paid for their volunteer work, Sears said. By that measure, volunteer hours by Division 81 members last year would amount to more than $1.1 million.

Contact staff writer Morgan Cook at 760-740-3516.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/fallbrook/article_cbb8e3fd-a919-5009-b196-36d5f9a136ba.html


*I am a retired teacher who gets 25K a year after 25 years in the public school classrooms with four different kinds of teaching credentials. I learned to speak Spanish while a California public school teacher and in Spanish for several years to classrooms of non English speakers. I was also a superintendent/teacher for a tiny two classroom, single school district in southern Tulare County, California.

I have driven a school bus and been a custodian.

For all of that service, every bit of it in California for public schools, my retirement with NO medical benefits whatsoever, NONE, not even Medicare, I make 25K a year.

All of my retirement pay comes from the State Teacher's Retirement System, not one cent comes from our local district.