Superintendent Worries Teaching Less Attractive Than Factory Work

Howell Public Schools Superintendent Ron Wilson says teachers need their salaries raised significantly to ensure teaching career stays viable.

He said he recently talked to a third-year teacher in his district who has a bachelor’s degree, three children and a stay-at-home wife. According to the district's union contract, that teacher would make $40,530 a year. Wilson said the teacher’s children are eligible for the reduced/free lunch program.

"You're going to see kids making a choice not to go into education because they don't want to live like paupers. It's unfortunate," Wilson told the Livingston Daily newspaper.

"I start to wonder if they're even going to be able to have enough money to put gas in their car and get to work.”

Wilson says teacher’s starting salaries should be raised by $10,000 to $12,000 a year so schools can attract "the best and brightest." The superintendent asked "how do you justify" someone with no education going to the auto industry and making $33,000 a year with someone with a bachelor’s degree with college loans who makes a similar salary.

General Motors raised its starting pay in 2011 to $16 an hour, or about $33,280 a year.

The starting salary for a teacher in Howell with a bachelor's degree is $37,452. After 13 years, the top of scale is $72,958. The average salary of a Howell teacher is $63,359, according to the state of Michigan.

Charles Owens, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said to compare auto workers with teachers is unrealistic because the autoworker works 12-months a year while a teacher is contractually obligated for nine months.

"If he wants to compare apples to apples, we need to do some converting," Owens said. Howell’s starting teaching salary converted to 12 months equates to $49,936 a year.

"Let’s take that autoworker. He gets married and has three kids. Should GM pay him $50,000?" Owens said. "He has three kids at home and his wife doesn’t work. Isn’t that the way the private market works? I’m being facetious.

"If that job in the auto plant is so desirable, nothing stops a teacher from deciding not to go to college and try for that auto job. Are we losing a lot of teachers to the auto plant? I doubt it."

Owens said a teacher's starting salary isn't out of line what other professional earn in other occupations.

A bachelor’s degree in education has a median salary of $36,800, according to payscale.com's 2011-12 college salary report. That is higher than starting salaries for degrees in criminal justice ($35,300), health care administration ($36,700), paralegal law ($35,300), sociology ($36,100), and public health ($35,500).

"Everybody starts out at the first job and it’s not the dream job," Owens said.

Wendy Day, a tea party activist who served on the Howell Public School Board, said that Wilson’s example of the teacher with three children and the stay-at-home wife was about choices.

"That’s a choice you make. Going into education is all about choice. They always say it's not about the money. They know the consequences. They know the pay level. They also know there are tons of benefits," Day said. "It's almost like they are surprised what they get paid.

"Being a stay-at-home mom with three kids at $40,000-a-year is not a unique struggle. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for that. It's a choice to be a stay-at-home mom. It's a choice to have three kids. It's a choice to have that career. They are all great choices and they have wonderful benefits. But it is still a choice."

Michael Van Beek, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's director of education policy, said raising teacher pay scales doesn't necessary reward the "best and the brightest."

He said that's because the public school's pay schedule is based solely on level of education and years of service.

Michigan Capitol Confidential reported that seven gym teachers in Troy Public Schools made more money than a science teacher honored as a national teacher of the year.

"If there were an open market for teachers, high-performing ones would probably be compensated better than they currently are," Van Beek said. "The problem is that union contracts distort the teacher labor market and prohibit schools from paying good teachers more. All teachers are paid the same regardless of their performance, and this artificially reduces the wages of the best teachers."

$40,530 / 9 = $4,503.33 * 12 = $54,040 a year. $33280 / $54,040 = 61.5% of the teacher’s salary.

What this superindent is whining about is that he wants to steal more money from a person making 28.5% less than a teacher so that the teacher can make more. In other words, he wants to WIDEN the income gap. Hypocricy, thy name is MEA.

Yes, think about it. The 3rd year teacher could be only 24 or 25 years old, making over $40,000... with guaranteed raises for time of service and cost of living, cheap benefits, sweet retirement deals, a “can’t get fired” union deal no matter the performance and results. And 2 and a half months off each summer, in which to earn another few thousand dollars. I am getting tired of this mantra about teachers suffering so much financially.

——I think the problem is this BS that somehow teaching is more important work than other careers, its not.-—

You have a point. But it depends on the objective importance of the subject matter (theology/philosophy v. Hotel management) and the receptivity of the learner. Aristotle, as a teacher, would be worth his weight in gold.

But payment for education should never be coerced. Schooling is not synonymous with education, and is often antithetical. Socrates even believed that the professionalization of teaching would obstruct good teaching. Compulsory schooling and compulsory funding of schooling are unjust. Vouchers would be a step in the right direction.

I think Superintendent salaries need to be raised so we get some who are brighter than Ron Wilson.

Ron, send some of your teachers down south. I can probably help them get factory jobs for $10. an hour with no health insurance or retirement.

I graduated in 1970 with a BS in education. It was during that time period (I’d say ‘65 to ‘75) that the profession underwent a sea change. It was the teachers themselves who pushed for more areas of responsibility (i.e. sex ed) because the parents just weren’t as smart as the “experts”.

The educational establishment was behind all the New Age nonsense that has replaced the teaching of fundamentals.

So, if teachers are overburdened with responsiblities previously shouldered by parents, it’s because they asked —— no -—— DEMANDED that they be the sole arbiter of what Johnny would be taught, or with what world view Mary would be indoctrinated.

So now, not only can Johnny not read, Mary has access to birth control or, if that fails, abortion information.

Sidelight: back in the early sixties, when the push for unionization was spearheaded by the AFT, the NEA was adamently opposed to unionizing teachers. Like I said, a sea change

According to the district's union contract, that teacher would make $40,530 a year. Wilson said the teacher’s children are eligible for the reduced/free lunch program.

40 grand sounds like a pretty decent salary to me. Certainly, they're not getting rich, but neither are they paupers.

If they can't get by - perhaps it's time for the wife to work? Or the teacher to take a 2nd, summer job? Or the family to move? Or the teacher to find a higher paying gig? Or any number of other options?

But no. It's easier to sit and whine about the consequences of your decisions.

"Vouchers would be a step in the right direction."

I agree but vouchers will never just happen. It will take total commitment to eliminating public education. Vouchers would mean the end of public schools. If people, by choice, could receive a voucher for private schools instead of paying school taxes they would do so in numbers that would financially break the government system. It would also make it obvious to those that don't have kids that they should not have to pay property taxes to pay for schools when the aren't using the system.

If we just put an end to government involvement in education all the other problems will solve themselves. Good teachers and schools will be paid well and bad teachers won't be teachers. Perpetual property taxes to pay for bloated government waste can be eliminated and be a huge step for the reinstatement of the right to own private property.

-—people, by choice, could receive a voucher for private schools instead of paying school taxes they would do so in numbers that would financially break the government system——

Govt school spending averages around $10k/child/yr. Higher in cities.$200k/yr/classroom of 20.

Most school choice plans include vouchers valued at half the per-pupil govt school expenditure. The amount is sufficient to cover the tuition of an inexpensive private school.

Govt schools would lose many students, at first. But competition would force improvement. The resulting system would look like the private college/state university system.

This system would be stable, and could last indefinitely. It would be very difficult to transition to a truly free market. But the possibility of jumping from our current system to a free market is non-existent.

"Govt schools would lose many students, at first. But competition would force improvement. The resulting system would look like the private college/state university system."

I have serious doubts about this. Government involvement in college education is a complete disaster. The cost is exploding to the point where it's common to debate whether the cost of a college education will EVER pan out for the student.

The same would happen from elementary schools on up.

public schools everywhere, every year are howling for MORE MONEY. Vouchers would cut available funds so drastically they would collapse very quickly without huge tax increases.

And don't forget, the public pressure that will come from those that don't have kids and are not using the system at all. Where is their voucher? Why should they pay anything? If I take my kid out of the local elementary school and get a tax voucher for 5k how do you explain that to my neighbor who has no kids in school but still has to pay the full boat tax?

The Public school system is an unsustainable government cabal. It will collapse. Like a lot of things with big government, it's just taken many years to reach the breaking point. The good news is vouchers would accelerate the collapse and the move to totally private education.

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