Class Assistants
Why do some teaching assistants feel aggrieved (Metro, Nov. 6)? After 10 years as a heliarc welder, certified in aluminum and stainless steel, I earned $7.50 an hour at my last welding job. According to my last Los Angeles Unified School District pay stub, I now earn $9.44 an hour at a job that required only that I be a college student at the time I was hired.
Teaching assistant has never been a career position. It is, instead, an excellent opportunity for college students to make money and gain teaching experience. Apparently that’s not enough for some people, most of whom have never made so such money in their lives, I’ll bet. They want a permanent place at the public trough, without all the effort of becoming a certificated teacher or even taking a civil service exam. They should be ignored. There are plenty of college students willing to work for $9.44 if the unionists won’t.
STEPHEN ZEIDER
Arcadia
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