The good news is that I am now on Christmas break. I don’t have to go back to school til January 2nd, which is nice. The bad news is that, on Friday, our union (which is supposed to look after our interests) sent us a notice that it was going to cut the fee schedule 20% on our dental benefits.

At my school district, our medical insurance is covered 92% by the district and we make up the remaining 8% which is about $89 a month this school year. For some reason, our Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance does not cover dental or vision. Instead, we have something called the Wellfare Trust, which covers all the teachers in the school district. This Trust is run by the union, which gets money from the district each year from the Trust. Additonal money also comes from the union by way of our union dues. Since September, the Welfare Trust has run at a deficit every month, cutting into the trust reserve. So, on the day we begin Christmas break they send us all a notice letting us know of the benefit cut.

The problem I have with this is that the dental benefit provided is already pretty crap. My orthodontic treatment is not covered at all and every time I go for the routine checkup I end up paying a lot of money for the visit. Even worse, they only cover dependents one half what they cover employees, meaning they now pretty much pay nothing for dependents. The result is that Irene cannot go to the dentist and I have to fund most of my own dental care out of my own pocket.

I was all ways told that one of the great benefits of being a teacher was the great benefits. The low pay teachers received was made up for in great health benefits, vacation time, and good retirement package. Since I became a teacher, I have found all that to be crap. What is more is that things seem to be getting worse. Along with all the other nonsense I have to put up with, it just gives me one more reason not to be a teacher. It also give me yet another reason to move from New York.