At Torah U’Mesorah’s President’s Conference this weekend, a Lakewood woman made an impassioned speech, urging and beseeching those in attendance to take the issue of how teachers are treated and paid more seriously, receiving rousing ovations throughout the course of her remarks.
“These women are amazing… They’re in school for eight hours a day! They’re in school more than they are at home,” Mrs. Miriam Tress told the conference.
“Besides the salaries, treat them well, make them feel good. If they have to take off for their child’s wedding, you’re going to dock a day of pay?” she asked incredulously. “You’re not even giving them money for the wedding. The men are getting it – which is amazing – you don’t give them money for the wedding but you say ‘It’s your sick day’?”
“Their child is getting married! Where is the [decent] treatment?”
Mrs. Tress, a self-described “nobody” with no connections, said that seeing how teachers are treated upset her so much that she decided to spring into action.
She is now spearheading efforts to raise massive amounts of funds for female teachers in Lakewood for Pesach. Those efforts are still in their infancy.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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42 Responses
I love her!!! She’s 100% right! Let’s hope and pray they’ll listen and do something positive!
This lady is a hero
About time someone stood up and says it like it is!
I have talked to my friends about this over the years but it always went no where. I am proud that klal yisrioel has women as brave as this modern day Esther who have the guts to take a mic and say it to the (private) school owners who make a fortune off the teachers while they make a lousy 20K a year
So here is the real shaila. How will the Lakewood school owners who will be forced to shell out more money from their busting pockets be able to manipulate the Lakewood Rabbonim to have this lady silenced. DO NOT BACK DOWN
Kudos to this tzdeikis
Not tzniyus for a lady to do this. Tell her to go bake cookies instead. Let the school take care of this themselves. It’s none of anyone’s business what teachers get paid. Especially not this lady.
She’s right!! The problem that no one seems to be touching on is that NO ONE GIVES TZEDAKAH TO THE LOCAL BAIS YAAKOV. Tzedakah always goes to yeshivos. Yeshivos are the ones with endowments, real estate, what have you. We need to encourage more people to donate money to chinuch habonos. We need to encourage gevirim to endow girls’ schools (and make sure there is oversight on where all this money goes, I.e. primarily into the pockets of teachers and not administrators or owners).
(All this is not to say that yeshivos shouldn’t be a priority, but to say that chinuch habonos has fallen so low on the totem pole that we are now facing a teacher shortage as well as other potential issues with our girls’ education. Problems that impact 50% of klal yisroel affect all of us.)
Teachers should be bumped up to at least $50,000 a year with bonuses for yom tovim and simchos. Thank you Mrs Tress (whoever you are. I live in the Midwest)
Don’t worry. She will be trashed to the gutter in no time. Give the Lakewood machine a few hours to get working. The school owners will black list her grandchildren from every school.
How DARE she call for school to treat teachers like the people they deserve to be?
LOL.
Hang in there Mrs Tress. You have Klal Yisroel backing you!
KEEP IN MIND MOST GIRLS’ SCHOOLS ARE PRIVATELY OWNED. DEMAND THAT THE OWNERS ACCOUNT FOR ALL THE MONEY. SUPPLY AND DEMAND DETERMINES WAGES. IT IS IS WORTH A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF MONEY TO THE MORO TO WORK IN SCHOOL, BE OFF ALL SUMMER, BE OFF WHEN THE KIDS ARE OFF ETC. REMEMBER WORKING IIN AN OFFICE, ONE GETS 2 WEEKS OFF A YEAR AND YOU MUST USE THOSE DAYS FOR YOMIM TOVIM.
The school owners, some of them, are wealthy businessmen. The teachers get less then their cleaning ladies. Think I’m joking? I’m not.
THNK YOU MRS TRESS
I NEVER KNEW WE STILL HAD WOMEN WHO WERE NOT AFRAID TO STAND UP FOR THE TRUTH!
SO PROUD!
She needs to speak to the schools in all communities. Not just Lakewood.
A woman speaking in front of men????? יצא שכרה בהפסדה even if she was right. And she’s wrong for many reasons. First and foremost no one forced these teachers to be teachers. If they don’t like the job don’t be a teacher
psting this article on ywn is not going to succeed in getting teachers to be recognized and respected , i love how yeshivaworld thinks they are the ones that are going to bring the issue to the forefront by publicizing it as if their publicity goes a long way , ya right,
What about other Yidden who are vastly underpaid? I am a mashgiach and have been offered $16 to $17 an hour for positions in NYC. I have over 30 years experience. In order to get a decent salary I often have to relocate to some distant out of area location far from a frum community. In NYC minimum wage is $15 an hour. I am being offered a slight increase from that for 30 years experience? How do I pay insane rents in NYC area? Am I supposed to have to lower my standards in order to be able to live ? Where are jobs in NYC for mashgichim that pay a living wage?
Often if I want a higher salary I must do additional duties in the workplace to justify my position which take away my efficiencies as a mashgiach and have nothing whatsoever to do with a Mashgiach’s duties but impede his ability to function adequately as a mashgiach.
A mashgiach should not be required to also be the cashier up front as he must supervise the kitchen in the back on a food establishment such as a restaurant. How can he be in two places at once? This supposedly will be used to justify payment of a higher wage. The mashgiach is NOT the fill in for a shortage of other help. Mashgichim need respect.
Whoever said wait for Lakewood to bring this woman down us right. Everything that happens in Lakewood is designed by the “daas Torah” and no one has the right to question or criticize. Remember what happened when someone spoke our against the Lakewood school admissions process and children left without schools? He was forced to make public apologies. For speaking just basic moral truths.
Yes, it’s about time that the woman of some frum schools fought against the insufferable wages in these schools.
As Clara Zetkin once said, “What made women’s labour particularly attractive to the capitalists was not only its lower price but also the greater submissiveness of women.”
@genuk shoin – Sounds like you own a school in Lakewood. Not to worry. This article will cause a ruckus like never before. Thank you MRs Tress and thank you YWN.
This is all a challenge of capitalism
Not that socialism is better, but at least in capitalism there’s a discussion and a give and a take
This is a great start. Mrs Tress, ignore the few haters, and go forward 100 MPH. Do not stop under any circumstances. Ignore the few haters. Rest assured, the haters have such bad baggage that will all come flying out one day.
50,000 is a joke these days. 80,000$ should be the minimum STARTING salary.
Here’s an idea to jumpstart this great initiative: In a couple of weeks the great “Yeridah” to Florida and beyond will begin………
How about sending the teachers and their families to Orlando instead for a well deserved break, and the balabatim mishpochas can enjoy a nice (also well deserved) stay-cation with their families as well
This is long overdue. Shameful that it came to this, but thank hashem for a brave woman like MRs Tress.
Why are any of the schools private for profit businesses?
Where is the money coming from? If parents can afford to pay, they should organize their own school and run it a better way. This may require at least some people to get jobs outside of chinuch/mashgiach fields and earn sufficient to provide for the right schooling.
Mrs Tress is correct, however if you bring Moros up to 50k, be prepared to bring Rebbeim a lot higher. Many Rebbeim are still making 50k and they work 6 days a week, longer hours and in some east coast schools they even work 11 months a year. We gotta take it easy and act reasonably and not do things without seeing the entire picture.
My wife had been teaching in a major midwest school for 35 years. The parentage is considered progressive but no so progressive as to demand that Moras be paid as much as Rebbeim.
Nobody named Tress is a nobody. Is this from the powerful Tress family of Mike Tress from the Agudah?
This subject is very emotive. Let’s all calm down.
No one is forcing these women to be teachers. If one has a degree that allows to teach, then they can teach in any school. They can find a better employer. If the schools find themselves short on teachers, then the law of supply and demand will take hold and the schools will be offer incentive to work. What exactly is the issue? Lots of people feel underpaid and under appreciated. But you are free to work elsewhere.
So hear we go again. Attack the very school where you send your kids to.
BTW, I guess tznuis went right off the cliff. No normal tznuih would get up and give such a speech. She couldve asked her husband to. V’hameven yaven.
BTW x2, totally uninsipired by this obviously disturbed indivual.
So now teachers shouldn’t be docked pay if they take off? In any job field if you take time off be prepared to use your sick days even if you have a Simcha. I can understand the need for better pay/ better treatment but that line seems off to me.
Thank you Mrs. Tress for speaking up on behalf of the Morahs. You are correct.
whos her husband? son- grandson of mike tress?
Can she do the same for my profession??
1) Not a teacher, I work the 8 hour plus per day,
2) Also had to use a “day off” for my family smachot. Since I wasn’t “sick”, using that as an excuse would be lying. (some example for the talmidos).
3) Also didnt “get” money or any bonus for weddings, I made modest affairs- way within budget, didnt provide apartments , my dtr wore a dress from a Gmach, I skipped the extras (no sushi, 8 pc band, or charcuterie sorry , I didnt even have a make-up artist) and I didnt have to crowd fund to pay for it. We saved over the years (no Orlando, Sukkos and Pesach at home) and yes, Hashem was really good to us. May He continue , to us and everyone.
Yes, Teachers should be well compensated, respected and appreciated, of course. I wish Mrs Tress much Hatzlocha. Not sure if her impassioned speech was the derech.
Teachers jobs are not comparable to any other job! These teachers are our Shluchim to educate our children! This is most definitely our business! There teachers are educating and building the future generations of Klal Yisrael! This is not a private matter! This should be on the heart and mind of every single Yid! And no don’t say they should quit! We want teachers! We don’t want them to leave! On the contrary we want them to be respected for the respect they deserve.
Don’t have much of an opinion, except for this fact: Teachers in girls schools work less days and hours than teachers in boys schools. And it is less hard work.
I have no issue with teachers getting a raise. However, what i do have an issue with is the lack of tznius being applauded. This is not the torahdika. For that I am ashamed.
As long as married women are expected to support learning husbands, girls will be seeking lucrative jobs, to be the bread-winner in the household.
Getting a woman’s teaching salary is no tachlis. A forward planning girl needs to become a therapist to earn a full parnasa.
As a result, post seminary girls are applying for BA programs, to put on their resume that they are not just looking for a long time learner, but are capable to support by getting a therapist job.
Adaraba, putting on the resume that the girl is teaching – that’s a huge CHISORON, and will disqualify her for serious long time learners.
That depletes the employment pool of post seminary girls as teachers, leaving only married older women, that don’t have young children (babysitting costs take the entire net salary after transportation costs), who are bored and looking to get out and do something.
The entire “wife supports learning husband” implodes into this crisis.
The truth hurts, but the proof is, communities that don’t have this “wife support” system, they have no shortage of girl/women teachers.
Az es shtinkt, es shtinkt foon kop (when it smells, it smells from the head). The smell in Lakewood, all of it, comes from the head.
The problems with schools rejecting kids, the banning of some concerts but not others, the otd kids, the deteriorating sholom basis and escalating divorces, the Din Toras, the machlokes , the crisis after crisis…it all traces back because the head smells.
The head that stated that certain yidden are not part of klal yisroel (re: asifa) – that head smells. And that is the stench that pollutes the city.
Don’t blame the feet. The smell is coming from the head. V’ten l’chochom v’yechkam od.
She spoke and she DID!
She just distributed millions of dollars to every single teacher in Lakewood.
All u oiber chachamim keyboard warriors should take a lesson from her.