Posted on 06/03/2003 1:20:39 PM PDT by hsmomx3
Edited on 05/07/2004 7:09:24 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WASHINGTON -- The conventional view that public school teachers are woefully underpaid may be wrong, according to a new report by an expert on teacher pay.
When salaries are computed on an hourly basis, public school teachers generally earn more than registered nurses, accountants, engineers and other middle-class workers, says Michael Podgursky, chairman of the University of Missouri's economics department and co-author of the 1997 book "Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality."
(Excerpt) Read more at detnews.com ...
Teaching is complex, demanding work that extends beyond the hours a teacher spends in the classroom, she said. "After all," she continued, "teachers don't just use the same lesson plans, teaching from the same books, giving the same tests, assigning the same homework, year in and year out." On reflection, she said, "well, maybe they do do that, but its still hard work."
"It's common sense and common wisdom that they are underpaid for the work they do," Feldman said. She ended by saying "these people are tenured, meaning they can't be fired, even for the worst incompetence, therefore, they need to know that their pay will continue to go up each year, regardless of the results."
On another note, the teachers are fighting to do away with all testing of students. "after all, only the teachers are competent to decide whether or not they are doing a good job at teaching the students" Feldman stated.
I love the obligatory qualifier used by most talk-radio callers; "... don't get me wrong, there are some good teachers out there...".
The only reason it's considered "common sense" or "common wisdom" is that the teacher's unions have flogged the point for decades. As the old saying goes, repeat a lie often enough....
The school year in my state is 180 days. Add (a generous) 10 days for teacher prep at the end of summer and (again, a generous) 10 days at the end of the school year for wrap-up, and that's 200 working days total. I'm discounting OT....most all salaried people work OT (I think....at least everyone that I work with does.....) and I figure that's a wash.
The work year for an average salaried worker is 240 days. If I only drew 5/6 of my salary, then I'd be paid like a teacher, too.
That having been said, I never met a person who thinks that they are overpaid. I'm also waiting for teachers to start flaming........
Also, once, just once, I'd like to see anything described as Liberal-Leaning by the media.
http://www.fredoneverything.net/Schools.shtml
....Next I'd pass some laws. To teach in grade school, you would have to be in the upper third of the GREs, and sign a statement that you hated self-esteem worse than rabies or pellagra, and that you would teach children to read and write and know stuff and if you didn't you would be boiled into tallow and made into candles and sent to India, where they can't read at night.
Further, to teach in high school you would have to be in the top ten percent, and have a degree from a real university in the subject you taught. Not in education. You can't teach what you don't know. Then I'd raise salaries by five thousand dollars a year, each year, until I got bodacious fine teachers that you could show in the county fair.
You can catch anything with the right bait. It would be about as hard as getting ticks in a cow pasture. I reckon you might need a long afternoon to find twenty kerbillion smart women who wanted to actually contribute something to society, and get home when their kids did. I'd give'm great retirement programs and their summers completely off. Pretty soon they'd get respect from the community because they'd be worth respecting.
I like Fred. He gets to the point.....
I have never met a teacher in the public skool system - I know several dozen - that did not whine incessantly about their long hours and low pay (I don't know any private school teachers). The ones that are more burned out whine about the horrible kids. It's almost like a script that they all follow word for word....must be a part of the education curriculum.
I wonder if the whining is a function of the people, or the position? Would the whining stop if, say, the salaries were doubled? Would higher pay make the teachers happier, -or - would the current crop be replaced by a higher quality of worker that's less prone to whining and attracted by the higher salary? This is all a moot point. Never will happen. Just a fun idea to kick around.
Isn't that the same arguement used to get 'Top Quality' federal inspectors in our airports? Why does the law of economics work for Engineers, programmers, economists, carpenters and every other profession in existance, except teaching? If we paid (and we currently DO) pay $70-80K teachers, we'd be exactly where we are today.
Fact of the matter is, that the educational background for teaching primary is not as challenging as law, engineering, programming or medical professions. The classes required for education are not nearly as intellectually challenging. Want to compare the course load of the average engineer, programmer against a primary, secondary or high school teacher's? I'll put Calculus, Differential Equation, and number theory (or atomic physics) against anything you want to bring.
Others are paid more, because we have to work harder, and our work is measured. If we do not perform, we lose our jobs. We have neither the job security, pension, holidays, vacation nor benefits teachers enjoy.
However, if I could make $70-80K as a teacher, I'd surely rethink my employment. Haven't met a teacher pulling in that kind of jack, though. Doubt I ever will.
I'm a firm believer in 'You get what you pay for'. If you pay $25-40K a year, then, by and large, that's the type of people that you'll get (before the flames come out...by this I mean that, say, a topnotch computer programmer that can command $100K in the private sector is unlikely to take a job for $40K, regardless of their desire, committment and teaching abilities) . An increase in pay, increases the pool of applicants and raises the standard. A decrease in pay (ie $15-25K/yr) would surely lower the standard. It's unfortunate, but I think that the quality of teachers mostly comes down to economics.
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