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Reality Check: Is Teacher Pay So Low They Cannot 'Eat and Have a Life'?
Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 5/28/2012 | Tom Gantert

Posted on 05/30/2012 8:23:33 AM PDT by MichCapCon

Rockford Public School high school teacher Craig Beach wrote a column for MLive in which he alleged that Republican lawmakers are ruining the teaching profession and talked about a colleague’s daughter’s views on teacher pay.

Beach quoted the young woman criticizing the teaching profession’s “extremely low pay” with “I want to eat and have a life.”

The article quotes the young woman as saying: “Mom, I know what goes into the profession. You demonstrate the many hours put in after leaving school, the stress, the lack of respect and now extremely low pay. I want to eat and have a life. I am not ready to invest another $20,000 to make what you do."

A first-year teacher at Rockford with a bachelor’s degree would have a starting salary of $37,184 and that would bump up to $40,537 with a master’s degree.

According to PayScale.com’s 2011-12 annual survey of undergrad college degrees starting median salaries, that first-year Rockford teaching salary is on par with degrees in advertising ($37,700), biology ($37,900) and human resources ($37,900). The Rockford first-year salary is better than the median starting salaries for degrees in fashion design ($36,300), health care administration ($36,700), hotel management ($36,100) and public relations ($35,500).

And that first-year teacher wouldn’t stay at that starting salary for long. The average teacher’s salary in the Rockford School District was $62,351 in 2010-11, according to the Michigan Department of Education.

Leon Drolet, president of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, said he agreed that the young woman Beach highlighted would not be right for the teaching profession.

“She should not be hired (to be a teacher),” Drolet said. “She should take a job where she can ‘eat and live’ and let someone else who can ‘eat and live’ on $50,000 and $60,000 a year who is eager to do that job at that salary. I would be interested to find where those places are. If they know of a secret place that gives them more pay, gives them better benefits and gives them more time off, they should go there and let people who are interested and passionate about teaching have those jobs. Let them go to their secret, mythical place.”

Beach didn’t respond to a request sent to his school email address seeking comment.


TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: educators; overpaid; schools; teachers
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1 posted on 05/30/2012 8:23:42 AM PDT by MichCapCon
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To: MichCapCon

yeah,in Napal


2 posted on 05/30/2012 8:25:20 AM PDT by Doogle (((USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated)))
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To: MichCapCon

yeah,in Nepal


3 posted on 05/30/2012 8:25:46 AM PDT by Doogle (((USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated)))
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To: Doogle
too
4 posted on 05/30/2012 8:26:50 AM PDT by Doogle (((USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated)))
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To: MichCapCon

The problem is the administrators making $120,000 to $180,000 a year. Teachers starting at $35,000 to $40,000 is certainly not rich but if they are expecting to start at $60,000 to $80,000, they need to find some other line of work.


5 posted on 05/30/2012 8:27:30 AM PDT by gunsequalfreedom (Conservative is not a label of convenience. It is a guide to your actions.)
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To: MichCapCon
1968 - My daughter came home from PUBLIC SCHOOL kindergarten and said her teacher was very poor and didn't make much money.

The next week, she was in the little Catholic School. Her bros were right behind her.

6 posted on 05/30/2012 8:29:48 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: gunsequalfreedom

35,000-40,000 a year to start.

Hmm.. What about the 20,000 a year in benefits?

Get rid of mandatory union dues and pay part of health insurance and retirement and that number could go up by 5-10,000 a year.


7 posted on 05/30/2012 8:32:49 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (ABO 2012)
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To: Springman; Sioux-san; 70th Division; JPG; PGalt; DuncanWaring

Poor starvin teachers will be forced to eat cat food.

if anyone wants on the Michigan Cap con ping list, let me know


8 posted on 05/30/2012 8:34:31 AM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: MichCapCon

Oh, BOO FREAKING HOO.

I started as a 1st year in Mississippi at 28K with $500 a month in medical premiums.

That’s right, $1600 a month, with a stay at home wife working part time.


9 posted on 05/30/2012 8:35:53 AM PDT by struggle (http://killthegovernment.wordpress.com/)
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To: gunsequalfreedom
I am always amazed at these type of stories. The people who write them seem to think that a young 20 something kid, right out of college, who has never actually taught for a living, should be at the same pay scale as someone who has put in 20 years or so. It is ridiculous. No one does that. You start at the low end of the pay scale. That is why they call it a pay scale. As you gain more experience, you gain steps up the pay scale.

And, even if you are a truly lousy teacher, you can never be fired. But, yeah, keep complaining about how $30,000 plus for a yearly salary, plus medical benefits and paid vacation and holidays, is going to leave you starving.

10 posted on 05/30/2012 8:37:01 AM PDT by LibertarianLiz
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To: Sacajaweau
Found this little hand stitched note in a classroom display in a museum last year.

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
11 posted on 05/30/2012 8:37:22 AM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: MichCapCon

I dunno...what’s the proper pay scale for professional indoctrinators?


12 posted on 05/30/2012 8:37:34 AM PDT by gimme1ibertee (If you want to kick a tiger in the ass, you better have a plan for dealing with his teeth.)
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To: MichCapCon

Rockford is a small town about half an hour north of Grand Rapids.

I am sure there are many residents who somehow manage to live out their lives there on less than what the teachers are earning.


13 posted on 05/30/2012 8:39:26 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: LibertarianLiz

>>And, even if you are a truly lousy teacher, you can never be fired.

In a state with a teacher’s union. A non-union state can fire anyone easily for the first three years after three warnings are accrued.


14 posted on 05/30/2012 8:40:35 AM PDT by struggle (http://killthegovernment.wordpress.com/)
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To: gunsequalfreedom
The problem is the administrators making $120,000 to $180,000 a year.

And the problem with THAT is so many administrators are ex-teachers who could not cut it in the classroom. But the union would never allow any of them to be fired. So the only way to get them away from kids was to kick them upstairs and give them a desk job.
15 posted on 05/30/2012 8:41:31 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: MichCapCon
It's a part-time job!

The problem is single mothers. Teaching was traditionally done by females with a husband who also had income. Married women brought stability to the classroom and that is no longer allowed in the liberal agenda.

16 posted on 05/30/2012 8:44:13 AM PDT by anonsquared
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To: MichCapCon

Whiiiiiiiinnnnnneeeee...


17 posted on 05/30/2012 8:45:05 AM PDT by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: gunsequalfreedom

I and my parents pit a ton of money into my education, and I have practiced law now for a little over six years.
Two of those years I was a prosecutor and my salary started at 45k and ended up at 50k.
I didn’t whine about it. I took the experience and went into private practice.
Now I’m doing pretty well.
One shouldn’t get all the benefits of a government job and simultaneously demand better pay than the private sector.


18 posted on 05/30/2012 8:46:57 AM PDT by Clump ( the tree of liberty is withering like a stricken fig tree)
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To: MichCapCon

“Those who can-do, those who can’t-teach” Mencken

In other words, pretty good money for those who can’t


19 posted on 05/30/2012 8:50:01 AM PDT by albie
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To: MichCapCon

They are correct when they say people perceive edukators as overworked and underpaid. You cannot argue that they are wrong.

The issue as framed by these people is not the ACTUAL pay and benefits. It is the PERCEIVED pay and benefits framed against the “SACRIFICE” of being a EDUKATOR.

Of course they believe more pay will correct the perception but I say lets just correct the perception by revealing the truth.


20 posted on 05/30/2012 8:51:21 AM PDT by FreedomNotSafety
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