Posted on 10/26/2003 1:59:13 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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.
'A rare exception to the rule'
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.
Enrollment supplements
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 take the lead
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."
But sometimes young principals get top dollar without the help of a supplement.
Morcease Beasley, 33, has eight years' experience and earns $94,848 as principal of DeKalb's Stephenson High School.
Not many years ago, such salaries were unheard of.
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.
Right place, right time
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.
"There was a time when educators' salaries were pitiful," Callahan said.
A winner credits his/her "good" luck for stories like yours, but we all know it wasn't due to luck at all. Likewise, a loser blames "bad" luck for their failures and again it isn't really luck. Congratulations on your acheivements. (Of course the school did part of it, by providing inspirational teachers.) but most of the credit is due the student who does the hard work day in and day out.
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)
As a former teacher in California while living in Austin I looked into teaching there. With ten years senority I was offered a salary of $24 K in 1989. There were some school districts in better neighborhoods who paid better. (Eanes in Austin)
However, money has never been my first consideration.
Teaching is rewarding in its own right.
Thanks,
"The school systems across America reap with corruption."
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They reap...while I sow.
They also reek..!! hehehe..
Best FRegards,
I'm not a teacher - I'm in business. I'm simply intelligent enough to understand that what you call an "exaggerative whine" was a refutation of your ill-considered claim earlier in this thread.
Second, just about every job on the planet involves some work-time that is not compensated. Teachers just like to complain about it more than others.
Do they? I'm quite familiar with people in many professions, and I've never been able to discern a difference in the amount of complaints.
As far as whining, let's review the events of this thread. You make an assertion. The assertion is refuted. You claim the refutation is "whining".
Now shoo, go away and figure out the obvious, without bothering the adults.
I take it you must have had a rough time in school and that experience has carried over into your adult life (I assume you're an adult, although that's certainly in doubt considering the caliber of your posts). Didn't your teachers protect you from the bullies who stole your lunch money and hung you upside down from your locker?
I like how they kept the most important facts for the bottom of the article. I read through the whole thing wondering if they were going to report on the results.
Actually student performance outcomes mean nothing to Judy Henry and mean nothing to the Boards that run the school systems. And that is thanks to the tenure system that allows the incompetents to be paid as much as the better teachers.
"The problem is that teaching salaries are assigned by seniority, not performance (so the teacher down the hall that's doing nothing gets paid much more than I do simply because she's been there 10 years longer). Consistent performance is what should be rewarded, not longevity. But considering how many people in this world have earned their salaries via longevity, as opposed to what they actually produce in their job, I think a lot of people on here are throwing stones in glass houses... "
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You make some good points. I think longevity...actually should be a considered in salary increases. But is most certainly shouldn't carry more weight than performance..!
I've worked at many places...( healthcare..) where you almost had to be a mass murderer...to NOT get the "big" ( maybe we will give it..) yearly auto 2-3% raise. It made the people that were nearly always on time, nearly always willing to help others, and generally just "good" employees...wonder if it was worth it. The practice reminds me of socialism/communism...where performance starts to take a dive....even with the people who actually "care".
Ummmmmmmmm...I think I've swerved into some truth..!!! LOL!!
Take Care,
That's the problem...it's demoralizing for the outstanding teachers who are simply cogs in the union model...you did the right thing to get out. Math education has never been worse.
Shocked! Shocked I am!
Couldn't make it anwhere else? Considering you know nothing about me, your post shows that the only person with a problem here is you (since you obviously couldn't cut it as a teacher, and because you allow your own delusional prejudices to shape your evaluation of even teachers you don't know). Ask any former student of mine (even those that failed my class), and they'll tell you that they learned more in my class than any other class they've ever had (in fact, my kids often come back from college saying that my class was great preparation for college work). I'll let my teaching record speak for me any day of the week. I'm betting that it was your classes that help contribute to the steady decline in education (good thing you're out of it now), especially if you taught English (as I believe you are missing a word or two in your last sentence, and are a bit confused about proper punctuation in the sentence before)...
"Do they? I'm quite familiar with people in many professions, and I've never been able to discern a difference in the amount of complaints."
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Not my fight here.....(vbg) But...I've got to disagree. I'm quite sure...albeit anecdotally..that I hear/read/see way more complaining about teacher's salaries than any other single profession. No doubt in my mind.
Best FRegards,
There are people making really big bucks teaching -- it's just that they are on TV or making educational computer games, rather than sitting in front of 30 kids at a time. For example "Bill Nye the Science Guy's" program was excellent, he had a good long run, then went back to teaching engineering at some college.
The trend should be toward automation: getting the people best able to explain and clarify material on video, pay them big bucks, put the videos in every classroom.
But then the classroom teachers become more like babysitters -- they won't like that
I don’t accept your premise. Overestimation casn be a dangerous thing you know!
an "exaggerative whine"
Do you or do you not think that the statement standing 6 hours a day was an exaggeration or not? What objective evidence do you have to counter someone who actaully worked in the job?
..ill-considered claim earlier in this thread s thread.
What specifically was ill-considered? Why don’t you show all of us how bright you are by specifically refuting what I said and demonstrating how it was ill-considered?
Do they? I'm quite familiar with people in many professions, and I've never been able to discern a difference in the amount of complaints.
Right. You have demsontrated beyond question your experience and analytic skills. Excuse me for ever wondering if your unsupported assertions about yourself might be a tad biased.
…You make an assertion. The assertion is refuted. You claim the refutation is "whining".
The refutation was innacurate and exaggerative whine, as is obvious not only to someone who has actually worked in the profession.
…I take it you must have had a rough time in school and that experience has carried over into your adult life
Your assumption is not only incorrect but a sophomoric attempt at changing the subject at hand.
Besides, I'm not dissatisfied with my pay (...more than anyone else is). I would just much rather have it be based on my performance rather than on some stupid seniority scale, as I know I would be making a lot more if it was (and many of the lousy teachers making a lot less, which is why the teachers unions... read that as "organizations invented to protect the incompetent"...will never let merit-based pay happen). I never have to worry about being employed, because when you are good at something you can always get a job doing it. I just hate watching the slacker down the hall screw over the kids and my school's general reputation, and still draw the same paycheck as I do...
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