Posted on 03/26/2025 5:21:12 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Quite the statement, eh? Let me explain. I’m well into my 60s and for my entire adult life I’ve heard that public school teachers are underpaid. It has been repeated as a mantra for decades.
Ignoring for a moment whether it is true or not -- and the answer to that is generally, it depends -- let’s accept the mantra and analyze why public-school teachers are still underpaid after all these years.
It’s not spending. As most voters know, it seems that every stinking year there is some ballot initiative or measure or legislative move to increase spending for our woefully underfunded public-school systems. It never seems to end. There doesn’t seem to ever be a point of “we’re good.”
Total nationwide spending on public K-12 education is approaching a trillion dollars! In most states, public K-12 education consumes around 50% of the entire state budget. Nationwide, we now spend an average of $17,000 per student per year. In New York it is $33,000! Yet teachers remain underpaid.
The Department of Education’s spending has gone from just under $11 billion in 1980 to a high of almost $193 billion in 2010 to last year’s spending of $158 billion. Yet teachers remain underpaid.
The number of administrators versus teachers has exploded -- “The number of district administrators in U.S. public schools has grown 87.6 percent between 2000 and 2019 compared to student growth at 7.6 percent and teacher growth at 8.7 percent.” And many (most?) of the administrators make more than teachers. Yet teachers remain underpaid.
Remember when technology was going to transform public education? We’ve spent billions on classroom technology and what have test scores done? At best stayed flat, in many cases they went down.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
My wife was a paraprofessional for 20 years. She told me that every position-EVERY position in a school had a union. Teachers, paras, secretaries, janitors- no matter what you did in a school (at least in our local district) you would be in a union.
Teaching (at the K-12 level) can be done by just about anybody. You don't need a fancy college education to teach kids history, or math, or any K-12 subject for that matter.
The most important attributes I look for in a school teacher is the ability to control a classroom. Keep the kids focused. Don't tolerate any disruptive behavior. Challenge the smarter kids (don't let them just skate by).
Otherwise, you are teaching off a syllabus. You have a required amount of material to cover on any given subject during a school year. You can master that material with just one year of being a teacher's assistant. When you get your own class, it will be your task to keep that material interesting for the students and keep them engaged (control of the classroom).
I have no degree in history but I've been reading history books all my life. I have a passion for it, especially U.S. history. I could walk into a high school history class tomorrow and give a compelling lecture on any period from Colonial times up to the present.
But I would never get hired as a U.S. history teacher in this country because I don't have the "required degree" and all the other certifications and such they force teachers to get these days.
+1
Them that can, do. Them that can’t, teach.
The old joke goes...
I wanted to be a doctor but didn't qualify
So I wanted to be an engineer but it was too hard
So I wanted to be an accountant but there was too much math
So, I wanted to try art studies but I didn't have the talent
So, I finally graduated after 6 years as a teacher.
First of all...Teachers are NOT underpaid. Most work only 9 months a year.
Second...They picked this career, knowing full well what it paid. Why should I feel ANYTHING for their career choice. Don’t like it, then QUIT!
Third...Unions have taken over the teachers and students are the least of their concern. The President of the Teacher’s union was once famously quoted that they would care about students when the students paid into the union...
I could go on and on, but NO, they are not underpaid.
Once the unions took over education, many go into teaching as a guaranteed government payment and pension with a three month vacation every year.
Sure there are some good ones, but most are slackers and union goons.
My older brother would pull the slide out and then push it back in. “I just completed an infinite number of calculations”
lol, nice!
Well, if we didn’t actually experience it, then I might agree with you. The truth is...Most teachers are basically worthless.
Sorry if it hits too close to home. I had a daughter in high school and I saw ONE good teacher out of all of them I ever talked too or dealt with.
True. Many blame the teachers for all the ills, not that teachers don’t deserve a good bit of the blame.
They need a DOGE for every state education.
Because of the unions. You will NEVER improve education when teachers are union. NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN...
I have found parents to be a major problem of why students are not getting educated. They expect teachers to raise their kids instead of being a teacher.
For many, the school is just a “free” babysitting service. When I hear that students can’t read after graduating, I wonder where were the parents?
I could read some BEFORE I went to school, because my parents taught me. I learned more at school but my parents remained involved in my education.
Yes it is weird that you can teach at college level but need more college degree to teach at a LOWER level.
The whole college degree is a moneymaker. It doesn’t really show anything but a degree, not that you know what you are doing...
Low income people can’t afford laptops for all their kids and they simply won’t buy them if they are not handed out.
And this is why education in the US will NEVER improve.
Stereotypes do have a basis in reality
I graduated from high school in 1964. The high school had a nice office near the front door, with the principal’s office on the left, the Superintendent of Schools office on the right, and the secretary in the middle. There was also a nurse and a Guidance Counsellor, each with their own office. That was the extent of the administration.
Now the high school still has roughly the same number of students (roughly 20% more), but the administration has expanded into hoards. It needs its only standalone Administration Building (occupying an entire re-decorated previous middle school). It has many assistant principals, vice-principals - administrative assistants, secretaries for most of these, minority counselors, etc. etc. The teachers per student ratio has remained about the same. That’s where all the cost is.
The class was for seniors, and algebra was the only condition I attached to enrollment. About half of the class were able to work problems in Ohm's Law. The other half handled everything I could throw at them.
I stand behind my opinion that calculators are necessary tools from high school up. The mechanics of base operators should be well known before entering high school. Speed and accuracy in problem solving is far more important than solving arithmetic in the head.
Are you disagreeing just to be a contrarian?
No, I teach according to expectations in the work place in the 21st century. Bear in mind a calculator is of no use unless you know how to go about the computations in the first place. Tools are tools.
Four digits, maximum.
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