Posted on 10/03/2018 12:47:33 PM PDT by Vigilanteman
It seems like the media will never stop promoting the myth that public school teachers are “underpaid.” The most recent example is the front-page story in Time, “This Is What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in America.”
Time tells of a woman who makes $55,000 per year teaching but works two other jobs in order to “pay the bills.” The article includes complaints about a teacher making almost $70,000 per year and even suggests that sexism is partly to blame for deficient pay because there are more women teachers than men.
It is no surprise that the media promotes these sorts of stories. They want public elementary and secondary school teachers to make more money. Unfortunately, it is probably not for the reason they want us to think. For if the media cared about teachers as a class, they would also advocate for private school teachers (who make far less than public school teachers on average). There is something about public education that concerns them.
The likely explanation for why the media constantly tell us that public school teachers should be paid more is that teachers unions and the media are political allies. It is no secret that the teachers unions have strong ties to the Democratic Party . And the mainstream media, including publications like Time, leans to the political left.
(Excerpt) Read more at mises.org ...
When I was a pup, almost every public school teacher in my hometown had a summer gig. One ran a farm and orchard. Another hawked insurance. Still another repaird string instruments. One of them even helped found a major vitamin company which is still doing well. Because they had a wealth of real experience outside the classroom, most of them were great teachers who could relate to us.
I know more tha a few that can retire before 50. Not like that in most professions.
You wont get most teachers to admit it in casual conversation, but if you know any teachers well enough...
Besides, I don’t care how much you get paid, no one ever thinks they deserve a pay cut.
People pay lip service to teachers and I personally don’t mind it (the public school racket is a different story) Not all teaching jobs are a like but they have their own set of demands and qualifications and you like to hope that the right people are doing it.
In before the “Teachers only work a half a year” baloney.
Teachers I know in GA retire with full pay.
Most schools require 175-180 days a year. I understand teachers have some additional days at the start and end of the school year, plus a few in service days. Most of the rest of us work 240 or more. My dad was a teacher and he worked other jobs every summer. He felt that was the right thing to do. I wish I only worked 180 days a year.
‘It seems like the media will never stop promoting the myth that public school teachers are “underpaid.”
yes, but as I learned from a poster on this very site, public school teachers just want to be treated like humans...
They live a big BooWhooWhoo scam.
They do OK.
Dont work all year like most of us, city town pensions etc.
& medical
They want to buy pencils and other goodies for the cookie crunchers out of their pockets,good for them go for it
We wont be fooled a again
‘In before the “Teachers only work a half a year” baloney.’
you’re right; it is baloney...they actually only work three quarters a year...
There is a company in my town called “Painting Teachers’
All teachers off for the season.
Been in bus for 20 plus. Stacked up for work
They paint homes, repair rotted wood the whole thing.
You need to book a year in advance.
Contrast what teachers do and what they make and the fact they have 4 years (or more) of college, and it all adds up.
They all are underpaid.
Unmitigated BS
How so? How many years of service?
Contrast what teachers do and what they make and the fact they have 4 years (or more) of college, and it all adds up.
They all are underpaid.
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One has to take into account the fringe benefits they receive while working, the allowable retirement age and the pension and other retirement benefits they receive.
I know teaches that have retired at 50 and receive more in pension payments than they would have earned had they continued working. With the average life expectancy now over 80, they were effectively earning twice their salary during their working years.
A 3% salary is effectively a 6% increase when you take into account the pension benefit increase.
If they want a larger salary now, they should negotiate a reduction in their retirement benefits. Of course, that will not happen.
Agreed, a great article. I never really gave any thought to how the primary/secondary teaching market is so damaged by government interference that it is incapable of seeking an appropriate wage.
As an aside... another problem due to government interference is the requirement that teachers have in many states to do continuing education — I believe this is at their expense, and would often be done in those summer days when so many of your teachers supplemented salary with other gigs.
Teachers work 200 days a year for 6-6.5 hr/day
The rest of us poor slobs work 250 days a year at a full 8 hr/day and at a third of teacher’s pay.
I've interviewed about thirty teachers while on the school board and what I see are youngish (30 or so) "teachers" that have come out of lefty colleges and have learned the various "teaching techniques" superintendents like in order to keep them in control.
Essentially, cookie cutter "teachers" to match up the national indoctrination that public schools provide.
How do you think we got all those Jay Leno Doofi and the snowflakes in need of safe rooms ?
Sounds like you’ve been buying the lies coming from Big Education.
Just going to college to get a degree that qualifies one for a given field does not make that person worthy of a given salary.
Some degrees are useless. Some institutions granting otherwise-useful degrees render those degrees useless. Some of the holders of useful degrees from qualified institutions are useless.
Likewise, not every important job has a great salary — and not every job that has a great salary is actually important.
Furthermore, public-sector unions of all sorts should be disbanded.
And don’t get me started on what’s covered by their health bennies.
In the same market, I have an advanced degree, a skillset just under engineering, a second language and 30+ years experience and just broke $70K within the last year or so. Plus I work 12 months per year, not 9.
Every teacher opening in our school district gets literally HUNDREDS of applications. When my present job opened, they told me that I was one candidate of four. As the guy who wrote the article says, we will never know if they are underpaid, because they won't allow it to be a supply and demand thing which sets the pay.
If you want to teach in suburban Pittsburgh, you are either going to have to have very good connections on the local school board or whomever does the hiring or get a few years experience down south or West Virginia to distinguish yourself from the competition.
This is NOT a situation which describes underpaid.
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