$85,000 salaries: Teaching pays off

The image of the underpaid schoolteacher who sacrifices life's riches for the sake of children still fits many educators but not all.

Thanks in part to a decade of healthy pay raises and a system of incentives that rewards longevity and postgraduate studies, 1,943, or almost 2 percent, of Georgia's public school educators were paid $85,000 or more last year, according to salary data from the state Department of Education. Among that group, 81 principals had annual salaries that topped $100,000.

"Georgia's average teacher pay rose more than 49 percent over the last 10 years, greatly outpacing national or regional pay rates," said Kathy Cox, state superintendent. "In fact, we rank first among states in the Southeast in terms of teacher salaries."

Indeed, Georgia's average salary of $43,933 in the 2001-02 school year was higher than 11 other Southeastern states and ranked 19th nationally, according to a survey by the national teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers. National comparisons from last school year -- when Georgia's average rose to $45,414 -- are not available.

Lifting Georgia's average were educators such as Judy Henry, who as a third-grade teacher in Paulding County last year earned $90,847.

Henry typifies how teacher salaries rise to the top levels. After beginning her career in Tennessee in 1977, she went on to earn a master's and a doctorate.

To move her pay along, she taught after-school and extended-year classes and received her certification in gifted education.

"If there is any way to make some extra money, volunteer to do it," said Henry, who teaches gifted elementary students. "You have just got to keep looking at the pay schedule. [The top] should be your goal."

Like Henry, most of Georgia's highest-paid teachers receive supplements for taking on responsibilities like coaching, after-school tutoring or summer school teaching. Most of them have postgraduate degrees and more than 20 years' experience.

In Cobb County, teachers who sponsor academic activities can earn from $570 to $2,640 extra per year. Music directors are paid an additional $1,000 to $6,820. Supplements for coaches range from $1,000 to $8,800. Other counties have comparable systems.

For Danny Cronic, whose $90,895 salary made him the highest-paid classroom teacher in the state last year, serving as head football coach of East Coweta High helped push him into the ranks of the top earners.

Cronic, who teaches physical education, received a doctorate from Middle Tennessee State University in 1985.

"All I have ever done is just coach and teach," said Cronic, 57, who is exploring retiring after this school year. "The doctorate came about because I had a principal who gave me some advice. He said if I was going to be in education long-term, I needed to get as much education as I could."

Such decisions have helped move some educators to the top stratum of earners. Households with incomes of more than $75,000 fall into the top one-fourth of all wage earners, according to the Census Bureau.

"I don't think anyone needs to be ashamed of saying they want to be a teacher and not be poor," said Janet Bass, spokeswoman for the Washington-based American Federation of Teachers. "If a teacher has a number of years of experience, a master's degree or a Ph.D., that teacher should be well paid. Just like in any profession, the more credentials you have, the more you are worth to the company, and in this case the more you are worth to the student."

About two-thirds of the teachers in the state have 15 or fewer years' experience, and the state salary schedule for that group is $27,650 to $58,103. The schedule does not reflect supplements.

"By law, a system must pay minimally the state salary schedule," said Bobby Stephens, a senior associate with Metropolitan Regional Educational Service Agency, a consortium of school systems in the Atlanta region. "Gwinnett, DeKalb and others pay a lot more than the state salary schedules."

DeKalb County paid beginning teachers with a bachelor's degree $36,900 last year, the highest starting pay in the metro area, according to Metro RESA.

Most educators leave the profession well before they reach top pay levels, according to the teachers federation.

"We probably have a [salary] schedule in Georgia that pays not enough at the front end and maybe appropriately at the opposite end, but it takes a long time and additional degrees to get there," said Stephens, who used to be director of human resources for DeKalb County Schools. "During that time, a lot of folks drop out. The dropout rate is really high in the first five years. . . . Teachers in the $80,000 to $90,000 pay range are a rare exception to the rule."

Cobb County choral teacher Cheryl DeMenna agrees. "It is impossible for just a regular teacher to make that kind of money. The average teacher just comes in to teach from 8 to 3:30," she said.

DeMenna, who earns $81,590, sometimes works 12-hour days, juggling chorus rehearsals and extended-day classes.

"I don't gripe about the money I make, be it a lot or a little, but [without supplements] I would make substantially less," she said. "If you are coaching or doing extracurricular stuff, you are there before school, after school, on weekends. [You] earn every dime of what [you] make."

The state's highest-paid principal, Bobby Rorie, suggests that the $111,000 he was paid last school year is commensurate with the hard work of being an administrator and the preparation required to become one.

"I don't think teaching is lucrative because of the responsibility that is included in the job," said Rorie, who works in the Clayton County school system. "First of all, you borrow lots of money to get your college education, and then you have to borrow more to get your master's and doctorate.

"Then, when you are finally making a decent salary, you also have accumulated a large debt . . . and at the same time you have got a house, a car and other things you are responsible for as well."

Because of Georgia's pay freeze for educators this school year, Rorie and his wife, Vera, an assistant dean at Emory University, have cut back on spending.

While some are feeling the pinch of a pay freeze, principals at a number of Gwinnett County schools are watching their income grow because of a system that ties pay to enrollment. The school system rewards principals with $7.01 for every student projected to enroll. Gwinnett's is the largest school system in the state -- with almost 129,000 students and 1,530 trailer classrooms -- and its growth continues to outpace that of other counties.

Last school year, the county's highest-paid principal, Glenn McFall of Suwanee's Collins Hill High, received a supplement of $29,021 for enrollment. The extra money accounted for about 27 percent of his $109,160 salary.

If head counts in September show a school has exceeded enrollment projections, the per pupil pay is adjusted upward. In a check of major school districts in the metro area, Gwinnett's school system was the only one paying its principals per pupil.

"The enrollment supplement allows the school system to appropriately compensate principals for the number of students they serve, and the responsibilities and challenges that come with the day-to-day operation of serving those students," said Sloan Roach, spokeswoman for Gwinnett County Schools.

But when enrollment forecasts exceed the number of students who attend a school, the principal is paid based on the forecast.

The administrator is still paid $7.01 per student as if the projections had been met and the students had come to school.

More than 50 Gwinnett principals this school year were slated to be paid for students who were not in their school, according to the September enrollment count.

Principals in DeKalb County sometimes get salary bumps to push them above the highest-paid teachers in their schools.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools requires principals to be the highest-paid employees on their campus. DeKalb school officials estimated that this year 20 principals benefited from the standard.

"Like in industry or anywhere else, if you have a CEO or a person in charge, that person is usually the highest-paid person on staff," said Mont Bush, director of accreditation services for SACS' secondary and middle school commission in Decatur. "He or she is in a leadership role.

"The difficult part of the standard is where you have young administrators coming on board. Schools usually have three to four years to set up a process of reaching that goal in the event that they are hiring a young administrator."

Morcease Beasley, 33, has eight years' experience and earns $94,848 as principal of DeKalb's Stephenson High School.

In 1985, the average teacher's salary in Georgia was $20,606, about $3,000 less than the national average. At the time, the teachers federation ranked Georgia's pay 34th in the nation.

That same year, Jane Stegall -- now one of the state's top 10 highest-paid principals -- was settling into her second year as a department chair at Shiloh High School in Gwinnett County. The move had given her more responsibility and a salary of $27,068.

Stegall had begun her career in 1973 in DeKalb County Schools making about $9,000 a year.

"I made ends meet," she said. "I'm just not the kind of person who worries about the almighty dollar."

But by 1991, with Gov. Zell Miller in office, teachers began to see aggressive state efforts to raise their salary. Miller, who was governor from 1991 to 1999, made improving teacher salaries a priority, pushing through annual raises of 6 percent during his second term.

Miller also backed 5 percent bonuses for teachers who earned the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification, the highest professional teaching credential. At the time, only a handful of teachers in Georgia and fewer than 100 nationally had earned the elite certification.

By 1995 Georgia had moved up to 30th in the state ranking of teacher pay, and Stegall's salary was rising with the state tide. A promotion to assistant principal at Shiloh High also helped boost her paycheck. In a decade, her salary had more than doubled to $56,648.

In 2000, under the administration of Gov. Roy Barnes, Georgia's teacher pay jumped to 19th in the nation. Teachers averaged $41,122, just $700 below the national average.

By that time, Stegall had earned her doctorate and become assistant principal of Brookwood High, making $74,840. Now, as principal, she makes $108,433.

"I was in the right place at the right time," Stegall said. "I am a believer that there are some people who are lucky enough to find their calling in life. I was meant to be in education."

Robert Burke, principal of Fulton's Chattahoochee High School, who was paid $110,333 last year, has also been at both ends of the salary spectrum.

"When I was a teacher trying to support a family, I had to work three jobs. I taught adults at night. I also ran a youth center," he said.

Although lawmakers did not approve teacher raises this year, Superintendent Cox said the state would continue to find ways to reward teachers.

"The trend over the last decade demonstrates that Georgia has put teachers on the forefront of our efforts to improve education," Cox said, "and when the budget situation improves, you can rest assured that we will continue that trend."

National test scores have not correlated with rising pay. Despite ranking 19th in teacher pay, Georgia is 50th in SAT scores.

"It is so hard to evaluate good teaching -- you can't just do it on test scores alone," Stephens said. "It is very difficult to put a finger on performance and associate salary with it."

Just the possibility of a higher salary may inspire more students to pursue teaching careers and more teachers to become principals, said Tim Callahan, spokesman for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, which has 57,000 members.

"Perhaps I was amazingly lucky, but I went to a public high school in Texas that didn't really have trouble with equipment; sure, we didn't have an indoor pool or clay tennis court like a nearby wealthy private school, but what the hell did we need with things like that, anyway?

They don't, yet in Delaware County (Philly subs) a number of public high schools have them. They are very expensive and it shows up in the tax bill. The teachers make up to $80,000 --not counting benefits. This is for about 190 days work. Some of the schools are very good while others are very substandard.

School vouchers would even out the playing field.

Actually, most can not teach. When I was teaching, maybe one in twenty had the majority of students wanting to attend class and actually learned something.

It takes a special person to light up a classroom and change someone's life forever. Ask almost everyone you know and in most cases they will only remember only one special teacher.

I lit up a classroom (there were only a few teachers in the school who did this, I am being honest), made it fun, and taught difficult subjects, electronics and computer repair/networking. I gave up on teaching because the deck was stacked against the teachers and change. The hours spent trying to secure funding (grant writing), inventing an electronics/computer repair/networking program (this was in 1994 and was one of a few in the public school system at the time) from the ground up, teaching students how to study again, etc... was all for naught. Some of my students cried when I left (tears of happiness?).

I spent my first 20 working years in the corporate world before leaving to become a teacher. Frankly, I'm glad I did. I figure I work 20+ MORE hours a week but personal satisfaction couldn't be higher. I really enjoy working with the kids and watching them succeed. I also enjoy being the rare republican counter-balance in the land of liberals.

I have a M.S. degree plus work toward a PhD but my salary is NO where near the numbers being stated for Georgia or other high paying states. There are secretaries in this city that make twice what I do and they don't have degrees. Is it fair? No. But I chose my profession and I'm stickin to it. There's more to life than money.

I teach high school (3 preps: 5 classes @ 1.5 hrs each block). I teach technology and spend most all of that time on my feet in the computer lab. I'm the department chair for tech and get a supplement for that, but spend most of my planning time administering the equipment as well as helping the staff out of their tech jams or training them. Nights and weekends - I grade, plan and administer the school's website for no extra pay. I also work for admin in grant writing and other special projects at no extra pay. We all pull together and have a very successful school.

On the other hanb, I spent the first seven years teaching in an inner city school - teaching 6 preps from intro to A.P. CompSci. I worked with teachers who had "given up" because their hands were tied by liberal discipline policies. I saw high administrative turnover because they couldn't control the day to day violence similar to terrorism's hit and run tactics. I was shellshocked by the time I left that school.

Both experiences have formed my attitude today. I regret the bad rap that hard-working teachers garner due to inept liberal and ineffective administrations and the misdeeds of a few. I regret that the ACLU has its teeth in the school system where students have more power than those in their charge. I regret that many have left the system rather than fight to correct it. I regret that illegal immigrant children flood the system and eat away at services for legal students. But, I do not regret becoming a teacher and stay to fight the malaise that has crept into the system.

Sounds like we have similar stories.

You made my point. It takes someone special to really reach children and make them interested in learning. In my opinion, children have a natural desire to learn but when something is presented in a very cold and dispassionate way, it is very difficult (for anyone) to pay attention. Teachers who are not passionate, not looking for ways to really reach their students are usually not successful. Thanks to the NEA and other teacher's unions, there is nothing we can do to replace these folks with teachers who give a darn.

Tell me this: is there a difference between teaching orchestra and teaching band? Down here, we were a band during football season, but an orchestra during concert season. However, our teachers just called themselves our "band directors" the whole year.

A modern orchestra is a group with a core majority of string instruments (violins, violas, celli, and basses). A symphony orchestra is typically a large string group with a few of each wind and brass instruments added, along with a percussion section. Typical instrumentation has a wind section of two to four oboes, flutes, clarinets, bassoons, trumpets, french horns, trombones, and one tuba. A percussion section is staffed with about a half dozen people. A typical professional orchestra will have a harp player or two on staff, as well as someone who plays piano.

A school band, military band, marching band, concert band, symphonic band, or jazz band typically has no string instruments, and if there are string instruments in any of these groups, it is an exception rather than a rule. Some of these bands include instruments not found in an orchestra. Saxophones, baritone horns (or euphonium), and sousaphones are expamples of these.

I don't understand the confusion here in Texas, as a band and orchestra are two distinctly different entities. Where I am from, a band director would not dare to call himself an orchestra director, nor would an orchestra director call himself a band director (kind of a little war they have going there). We cringe at such things... lol

In inner-city Birmingham, I was simply known as the "string-man". That's an entirely different story.

As for the difference in teaching band and orchestra, you do need to use different techniques. A band teacher needs to be able to tell what is happening in a student's mouth, and be able to recognize what he cannot see. A string teacher has everything out in front of him and can easily see when a student needs to work on technique. Other than that, music is music. A talented musician and teacher can teach band, choir and orchestra equally well if he so desires.

Come to think of it, we did gain strings during orchestra season - we had an upright bass and violas and such. However, since that was like 20 years ago, I can't remember what those kids did during marching season. I don't think they were flag corps - those were usually girls, and I don't recall any female upright-bass players from back then. Hmm.

To complicate matters, the bands that met at different periods of the school day had different names, and the classes (except for second period) started off bad and got better as the day progressed. First period was for people who wanted to be in band but were just lousy, and I can't remember what that was called. Second period was stage (jazz) band, the exception to the better-is-later rule. Sixth period was the coveted Viking Winds period. We had plain band, stage band, something third period, Viking Orchestra, Viking Symphonic and Viking Winds (the best).

I've a question...If you don't mind my asking...How long have you been a teacher? Or, in other words...when did you graduate from college fully credentialed to teach?

I'm not a teacher, never have been, never will be. I was offered a job by the DISD in Dallas. That does not mean that I actually took the job. If you're curious about my education, I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin which was accredited last time I looked (I don't think the appropriate word is "credentialed"). I'm qualified to teach French. I'm not "credentialed" (as you put it) to teach anything else, though I have been paid to tutor in such varied subjects as algebra, geometry, chemistry, Spanish, and linguistics.

You don't say, but were the majority of teachers in your school liberals with left leaning ideologies? Were you taught that corporations are to blame for the degradation of the environment? That income tax is fair and sales tax comes down hardest on those least able to pay? In other words, were you taught to be a good socialist as part of your public school education? (I was educated in California where the answer to all my questions was yes)

Politics wasn't really discussed in my school except during election years. During the 1984 presidential election, I was 9 years old and in the fourth grade. In my social studies class, we had a mock vote. Mondale won, but not by much. The 1988 election passed unnoticed, and some debates broke out spontaneously during the 1990 Texas gubernatorial election and the 1992 presidential election; however, this was not really encouraged by our teachers, who wanted to keep partisan politics out of school.

As for ecology and taxation, I don't remember being told that corporations were to blame for the state of the environment or that income tax was fair or unfair. In our economics class (required by state law) we were taught macro- and microeconomics, the differences between capitalism and communism, how interest rates work, what the stock market is about, etc. You know...economics. Environmentalism wasn't discussed at school; of course there were some students who wanted to save the planet and my school had recycling bins, but that's as far as it went. It wasn't really part of the curriculum. I started kindergarten in 1980 and graduated from high school in 1993.

What were your qualifications for the 28K? What other options were available for you outside teaching and what were they paying? Wonder what a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army was making back then?

Qualifications:

BA in French, minors in Spanish, Portuguese, Biology. Post-graduate study in all three. Oh, and unlike most French teachers, I can actually speak French fluently with almost no accent.

Other options:

CIA translator, $27,000. Turned it down. Private sector translator, $30,000. Did it for three months. System analysis, private sector, $60,000. I've been doing that for 5.5 years, though I only made $60k in Texas. Salaries in the UK are considerably lower thanks to union collaboration.

Army salaries:

No idea...I have never had any interest in serving in the armed forces. It's not that I'm not patriotic. I'm just lazy, and I'll admit it. The thought of all that exercise makes me breathless. Plus, I have really bad asthma.

It takes a special person to light up a classroom and change someone's life forever.

Amen to that! I got a teaching degree in music "to fall back on." I really wanted to perform. I ended up doing neither. Performance didn't work out - I didn't have the discipline. I never used the teaching degree because I decided not to inflict myself on the kids. I learned during my student teaching that I really didn't have the passion. They really should have students who think they're interested in teaching do a semester of student teaching early on to make sure that's really what they want to do. How many teachers are out there just because they didn't realize until it was too late (e.g., financially impossible to change majors) that they didn't truly enjoy teaching?

Truly excellent teachers are worth their weight in gold. We can't possibly pay them enough. Look at how much depends on them!

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