Substitute Pay is a National Scandal,

but school districts get away with it because so many goddamned fools do this "job" in some vain hope they will get a teaching job eventually.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And in this economy, the odds of getting a real gig are probably lower.

This poor guy is retirement age, and he is so destitute he has had to live in a homeless shelter. Of course, subs have no real union, so they are SOL if they don't like the rotten pay and no benefits.

Oregon's legislature has the pay of subs at around $162 a day (give or take a dollar or two) for a full shift. Unfortunately, the market is so saturated with teachers that one cannot get steady work as a sub teacher unless signed up with multiple districts or else also sub as a classified employee. It gets worse still when districts favor retirees who do NOT need the money over people who desperately need the work.

In my case, I will see how this pans out this year. If it is going to be hit and miss, or if I have to go clear out in the sticks to get an assignment, then I will have to go on an OJT program to at least get on my feet again.

From the article:

Wolfson, a tall, slender man with the slightly rumpled look of a college professor, originally set out to be a journalist. After growing up in Rogers Park, a few blocks from the shelter where he lives, and getting his bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, he began freelancing book reviews and feature stories for the Sun-Times and occasionally the Tribune.

But he couldn't make a living. So he began substitute teaching, first in Chicago Public Schools and then in Skokie.

Subbing is a poor sole source of income. The pay is low and the work inconsistent. In fact, when Wolfson first arrived at the shelter, he encountered another sub living there.

For a time, Wolfson managed. But the group medical insurance he was buying through the National Writers Union proved unreliable. The only other policy he could get with a pre-existing condition of hypertension was through the state — and cost $15,000 a year.

He paid it for two years. Then he ran out of money.

School districts pull this shit because they can. And they treat their classified just as bad. The big trends now are outsourcing classified help or just putting the majority of classified employees on part-time status with NO benefits.

Of course this man wouldn't be in this position if we had single-payer health insurance.