Posted on 06/17/2006 5:15:15 AM PDT by wintertime
One of the ongoing controversies in the public schools is the issue of teacher salaries. Teachers largely claim they are too low while taxpayers are equally vehement that they are more than adequate.
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Then there are the actual salary levels. Statistics in 2005 showed the average teacher salary in the nation was $46,762, ranging from a low of $33,236 in South Dakota to $57,337 in Connecticut. Even this ignores the additional compensation teachers receive as fringe benefits, which may add an additional 33% or more to the costs, primarily for very good retirement and health coverage plans. Further, averages include starting teacher salaries, which may begin at $30,000 or less, which teachers gladly mention, but ignore the high salaries of career teachers at or near the maximum on their salary schedule, important because retirement pensions are often based on the best three or so years.
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Last year, the New York State Department of Education issued a study that reported maximum teacher salaries in that state of $100,000 or more and median salaries as high as $98,000 per year. That is, there were districts, in Westchester County for example, where half of the teachers earned more than $98,000 a year.
A novel approach a few years ago by Michael Antonucci, director of the Education Intelligence Agency in California, compared teachers average salaries to average salaries all workers state by state. First prize went to Pennsylvania where the teachers received 62.5% more than the average employee. That difference is even greater when it is further considered that teachers average a 185 day work year while most workers put in 235.
(snip) Women who had been educators were 7.4% of the total deceased that year but 20.6% of them, nearly three times the statistical expectation were among the affluent few. Former male educators didn't do quite as well but even they were represented among the wealthy decedents by a ratio nearly 1.5 times the anticipated numerical ratio.
And I have a neighbor boy who could hardly make it through high school who is making $100,000+ as a conductor on the railroad. Three months training. Go figure.
I know plenty of teachers that work on the weekends, stay late because of after school activities and meetings, and get to work way before I wake up (7am).
but mostly, they live charmed lives....don't get up as early as most people to go to work....have frequent breaks plus a nice lunch, get to finish work in 6 hrs...School begins at 8:30 in our school. I am at school by 7:30. My frequent break is 1st period prep which is used to attend various meetings regarding my students. LOL, my nice lunch consists of a 25 minute lunch period. After the students are dismissed at 3:20, I remain after school to run off papers for the next day. I usually leave school around 5:00, tack on about an hour to 3 hours to grade papers depending on what needs to be graded.
they don't have to work any weekends...any holidays....and summers and spring break and all those lovely three and four day holiday weekends....let's not forget they also can take other Personal days just in case their time off which is extensive, is not enough.... During the school year I use a big part of my weekend making lesson plans for the following week. We do get 3 personal days a year that I use for personal business. As to sick days I rarely use them. This coming year I will have accumulated 156 sick days. Ya never know when I first started to teach I had 85 days accumulated when I had to have back surgery causing me to use them all.
remember also that they get these added "free" days designed specifically so they can work on all those tough issues like how to set up recess time with the kids or how to cram more stuff into even fewer days so they can go golfing or whatever they do....Personally I would rather remain in the classroom and teach my students. Unfortunately NJ law requires that we accumulate 100 hours of continued education. I try to avoid missing school days by taking summer courses. I hate taking them because we are stuck listening to a bunch of nitwits who haven't taught in a classroom for years.
education students have the easiest course load available..
I took the classes other students tried mightily to avoid. My degree is in Anthropology and Archaeology. My certification is in secondary school (history) because of the strong background in science I also got a certification in Science.
I just can't stay away!!
Folks like that will NEVER get it and as I said, when we try to point out where they are mistaken, we end up sounding like we are whining about our jobs. If it makes them feel better to think we all get up late, go home early, have leisurely lunches (which makes me laugh out loud!),only work when the sun's out, and get paid exorbitant sums of money-well ok. Hell, why isn't EVERYONE clamoring to be a teacher with that work schedule??
BS&W. There is absolutely no reason for giving a politician--and that is what the job entails, politics--more money than the salary of the President of the United States.
Do you know that the superintendent of the Dallas ISD is paid three times the salary of the governor of Texas?
My "nice lunch" is usually a sandwich I brought from home, eaten at my desk during my 25 minute lunch break while I grade papers or do lesson plans.
Before I can have my "nice lunch" of 25 minutes I have to escort my students to the lunch room and then meet them after lunch is over.
LOL, my mom was always reminding me to take my time when I got home for dinner. I was still on my teacher schedule and would wolf down my dinner.
I just wonder what kind of perks also go along with that Superintendent's job: a car to drive, etc.
In our district in San Jose, we have a superintendent and 3 assistant ones, and they all make huge amounts of money.
There is so much overhead in our district office. I see so much more waste in the administration than I do with the teacher salaries.
"I hope you never need EMS, Fire, or Police services....It would be a shame to have to be indebted to people whose wages you "
I repeat I begrudge every dollar government collects from me....I want to make sure it is spent wisely and only for necessary items.
Just because certain people in certain jobs, in the course of doing their duty, might do something for me, the person who provides for their paycheck does not mean that their paycheck should be infinitely large. Just because a teacher teaches one of my kids does not mean that gov't largesse ought to be granted to them.
It's really a simple concept. That the elegance of limited government - and necessarily limited government services - is lost upon those who feed at the gov't trough is no surprise, really.
But, I do financially support my volunteer EMS & Fire Depts.
They do a good enough job and are an excellent value for the taxpayers of my area - and unlike the EMS, Fire, or Police services that you envision, serve all the people in my area, regardless of whether they financially support them.
Management gets away with this stuff because businessmen go along with this stuff. They think that superintendents are "one of them" just because he has a huge budget at his disposal.
Teachers - the Millionaire Next Door. After working twenty years as a teacher, I retired and make slightly less than $1,000 a month in retirement pay.
But, I AM the millionaire next door only because I took my pittance of savings and invested well, very well. It has nothing to do with a retirement plan. The retirement plan my county held lost money.
I know you hate teaching as a profession, but you, too, can be a milllionaire.
I'd teach you but I hate rude clients.
Exactly when was the last time a CEO of any company sent in a goon with a gun to demand that you pay for a product/service that was pure unadulteratedl sh*t?
I am not saying the salaries are justified. Anything above $150,000 a year is too much IMO.
Hope you aren't a math teacher.
Just a socialist ( Marxist-lite).
As I previously posted there should be a bumper sticker:
I am an economic illiterate. Thank a Marxist teacher.
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