Posted on 11/10/2015 10:11:50 AM PST by MichCapCon
One schoolteacher who gets paid $87,349 annually, and another who gets $80,472, were highlighted in a recent Oakland Press article complaining that teachers had to get second jobs “to make ends meet.â€
The article was written by a third teacher, Julia Satterthwaite, who works at the Rochester Community Schools district and is described as a "summer intern†for the newspaper.
The article featured one of the author’s colleagues, Karen Malsbury, who has been teaching for 14 years. Malsbury was quoted as saying, “There is little or no room for professional growth, little opportunity to increase your personal income, no step increases, no bonuses, no inflation pay rises, rising health care costs and more requirements to take college level classes to get up-to-date endorsements.â€
Except, that’s not accurate. Rochester Community Schools teachers did experience a freeze in their automatic, seniority-based “step-increase†raises in 2013-14, but the raises continued in 2014-15, with additional step increases scheduled in each of the remaining four years of the current union contract.
While the story didn’t mention how much the teachers who were featured get paid, these figures are a matter of public record. Malsbury was paid $87,349 in 2014-15. Satterthwaite herself collected $65,987 from the school district. Under the district’s union contract these compensation levels were for 184.5 work days.
The Rochester contract has 20 annual “steps†in its pay scale, so teachers have some idea of approximately how much more they will earn for each year they remain on the payroll. Some of these seniority-based raises are as high as 5.5 percent, but in most cases they run between 3 percent and 4 percent. Teachers with more than 20 years on the job received bonuses ranging from $450 to $550.
Rochester Community Schools confirmed in an email that the provisions in the teachers’ contract as posted online were accurate.
Malsbury didn’t respond to questions sent to her work email.
The story also featured another Rochester teacher, Erin Slomka, who was quoted as saying it’s sad that teachers aren’t able to survive on one income. Slomka collected $61,741 in 2014-15.
Hudsonville teacher Lori Humphrey was quoted in the story as saying she knew several teachers selling skin care products on the side to make up for pay freezes.
But according to her district’s union contract, Humphrey didn’t have to endure pay freezes. She was paid $80,472 in 2014-15. The three-year contract specified 183 work days, and also included step raises for each year. An example provided in the contract text spells out how step increases work, so that eligible teachers will get a 7.7 percent salary increase in the 2016-17 school year.
The teachers' salaries reported in this story were provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request sent to the state of Michigan, which included a database of public school employees that are a part of the Michigan Public School Employees' Retirement System (MPSERS). The figures cited here do not include health insurance and retirement benefits also given to school employees.
That’s because, like government, they’re overspending their income.
also, curnt!
Depends on where - in the most parts of the Midwest it would be a solid middle/upper-middle class income.
Rochester, Michigan is a suburb of Detroit.
Business Teacher is what used to be called Typing teacher. If you have a typewriter, you can just teach yourself. Using the exact same book.
long time ago (20 years?) read that people making under 100k a year were still living paycheck to paycheck. Way of life for many with champagne taste and a beer wallet.
Oops, my mistake, you’re right. I skimmed over Oakland and thought this was referring to two teachers, one in MI and one in CA. My fault for the reading comprehension fail.
I was talking to a friend who sells real estate.
He said he has kids out of high school expecting to buy a nice 3 bedroom, 2 bath homes with attached carport or garage on an acre of land.
At the same time they expect to have two new vehicles and atv and take nice vacations.
They have no concept of starter homes.
They expect to live the same lives they had when they were living with mommy and daddy.
Delusional.
Well, I’m not the best communicator. What I really meant to say was that you would be just in the middle income bracket but only just in it. I started out only bringing home a little over $800 a month, had 3 kids, one car and we lived far away from both sets of parents. So, yes, you are absolutely correct you can definitely make on less - I have. But what use to pass for middle class seems like it is creeping just ever out of reach for many.
I had the pleasure of addressing this concern once at a family function. I told the young teacher that when students would pay up to $250 a seat per to sit in her class each day and fill up a stadium, then she would definitely pull down the salary of a star athlete.
I guess I LEARNT sumtin..............
GOOD ONE ! May I borrow to use for the teacher in my family ?
I remember my mom and dad talking using almost word for word the example (except for the atv) of your friend when I was in h.s. back in the early 60’s. They said the same exact things. Very unrealistic expectations. We are failing our young people by not preparing them for the difficult future facing them. When I was in college the kids from farm communities were by far the most stable, not into the fads of the moment, had very realistic expectations and were used to hard work. I know it’s very common for young people to have unrealistic expectations - however, there seems to be much missing from the education of today’s youth. Having so many broken families and a government that’s loading you up with debt and no job future sure doesn’t help either.
I would be overjoyed with half that.
Yes. The teacher in my family is a nice person but so naive.
I have just remembered some conversations with my parents and grandparents.
It seems to me that each generation works hard to give their children the things they never had when young.
My grandparents, born in the late 1800’s reconstruction south, moved heaven and earth to make sure their children would have a roof over their heads, decent clothes to wear, an education and plenty of food to eat. With a bit of cash money put back for hard times.
My parents lived through the depression and WWII as their formative years.
Their world was filled with uncertainty of many kinds. They went from not having things because of the depression to not having things because of the wartime rationing.
While they attempted to take uncertainty out of their children’s lives, they were only partially successful.
I had to leave school in tenth grade to work on the farm.
My younger brother was able to finish school and get his diploma.
BTW, it has never bothered me. We all did what needed doing.
They did raise us with the same work ethic they were raised with. The love of Jesus and respect for our elders and those of authority.
We, in our turn, gave our children more than we had.
I farmed and worked a job, sometimes two, to make sure none of my children would miss out on their education.
As a result my daughter attended college and my sons both entered good trades.
They grew up with things I never would have dreamt of as a child.
But it seems they have less appreciation for the things they have because they grew up with so much more than the generations that came before them.
That attitude is so much more pronounced in the generation that is coming into young adulthood now.
Yes, the young people now are saddled with debt from college loans, but too many are graduating with worthless degrees that have no value in the real world.
Most would be better off studying hard sciences or just getting into the workplace and making a place for themselves.
The government we now have, I lay indirectly at the feet of professors teaching useless classes for useless degrees that do nothing to prepare the young for life it’s ownself.
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