Teachers' poor pay just myth

Scottsdale Republic ^ | Craig J. Cantoni

[hsmomx3]

Contrary to union propaganda, teachers are not underpaid. I say this as someone with 28 years of experience in conducting salary surveys and designing pay plans.

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, local elementary school teachers earn about the same average pay on an hourly basis as local reporters ($23.74). They also earn more than microbiologists ($20.60), zoologists ($17.36) and accountants ($22.49). Secondary school teachers even earn more per hour than civil engineers.

[PatrioticAmerican]

"$200/month"

I have to spend far more than that just on clothes. We computer geeks spend thousands each year just on books and software. Computers account for a few more thousand.

Want the education, a REAL education, not that "Education degree" crap? Try $40,000 for for the bach and $65,000+ for that grad degree. Post grad is $90,000+. Training each year better be paid by the employer or a computer geek could easily spend $5,000 on that each year.

[wardaddy]

Yep....private school teachers are paid less on the whole as you said.

[PatrioticAmerican]

Yep. My wifes is an Adult Protection worker. THIER kids (50+ year olds) are REALLY CHILDISH and OBNOXIOUS! At least with most kids, ya just gotta love 'em. It's their parents that need the time outs. LOL!

[wardaddy]

Yes...but it's not polite to generalize...

[glory]

You can defend yourself all you want--NO TEACHER is worth 50K a year, well maybe a few, but they are tried and true and have proven their worth.

As for pay and not wanted underpaid teachers to teach your children--well fine, you dig deeper in your pocket and pay your teacher what you think he or she is worth, stop robbing and taking from my children to do it. I must make the point though that you are wrong. Some of the very best teachers I ever had were when teachers were only making 19k a year. They were marvelous and had a passion for children that I am hard pressed to find in most modern day teachers. The people who were interested in making a buck were free to pass up the profession and move on to more lucrative deals. Now I fear that many teachers put up with kids just because the deal is lucrative and that is NOT what I want for my kids.

[netmilsmom]

>>But I bet my sister is more flaming liberal than your sister. She isn't a lesbian though. <<

You win. Yours is more liberal. Mine is weirder. Did I mention she has Munchausen Syndrome?? She does a yearly vacation in the hospital, mostly during the school year. She is tenured and they can't get rid of her. Neither can I.

[glory]

katiebelle, you are welcome to pay the teachers of your children what they are worth. Dig into your own pocket and pay them a bonus. You do not have the right to dig into my pocketbook to pay YOUR teacher. If you and others truly believed teachers should get what they are worth, then I expect you are all for rewarding homeschoolers whose children are excelling by rebating some of their taxes paid into schools they don't use? Didn't think so, those teachers don't count right?

[Amelia]

I was done with assignments and would just sit there. The teachers I had hated that.

I can relate. I got blasted once by the teacher for reading ahead in the book - I was already finished with that day's assignment & trying to keep myself occupied. She apparently didn't want me getting ahead of the rest of the class. DOH!

She thought I would be just fine. I was not.

Doesn't sound like a very pleasant childhood, but you seem to have turned out okay. :-)

[laredo44]

Do you generally call all people you disagree with liars?

Not all, no. In this case, in post #133, I didn't call anyone a liar. In the first case, I think the guy is factually wrong about Social Security. I think he's mistaken, not lying, and said so.

In the second instance, about spending $2000-3000 per year out of his own pocket, I think he's blowing smoke and challenged him to prove me wrong. If he does, I'll admit my own error, but I'll bet he never responds.

[laredo44]

But you're spending part of that time FReeping, not working. ;-)

I get some moments of downtime. Can't leave my post, though :)

[Amelia]

Some of the very best teachers I ever had were when teachers were only making 19k a year.

You could buy a brand new car then for about $5000, too, right?

[glory]

I bet when you factor in the health insurance premiums that people in the private sector pay for, you could call it even, but to answer your question, yes, many professionals have to pay for their own supplies--some are reimbursed through the company, other can be written off, but you can expect to probably put out a couple grand that is just out of pocket. I can't believe someone who would call themself "teacher" would presume they are the only profession who must work overtime, provide their own supplies on occasion, etc. And you all wonder why you are getting a bad wrap. When you are acting as though you are the only working and deserving American worker out there, you better believe you are going to hear crap for it!

[laredo44]

Did your parents have to sign the papers making you eligible for special ed?

Here's some personal advice. Never, never, never, never, never, never let the school test your kids. Once the "experts" label them, you stand to lose all parental decision-making ability over your child's education.

[glory]

I agree with you. Most of my education was spent delving into my father's extensive collection of historical accounts and such. If my father was not so self-absorbed he would have been a wonderful homeschooling teacher. I feel like in the last 10 years the self study has really boosted me beyond anything I attained in my required 12 years of school.
And that's not to say that I did not run across fine teachers, but most were like you said, especially in high school. I had one high school teacher, an english/literature teacher, who would not let me be a flunky. She refused to ignore me and made sure I knew about it. She knew there were alternative learning styles and was not afraid to utilize that alternative if need be. BTW, she was this kind of excellent teacher back when teachers really were underpaid--now how did that happen *gasp*.

I sure hope to still find her so open-minded. I just got ahold of her present email address and in the course of the conversation, I'm sure homeschooling my children will come up. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Amelia]

Once the "experts" label them, you stand to lose all parental decision-making ability over your child's education.

Not really. I've had more than one student who was failing, was tested for special ed, and the testing showed the child to be mentally retarded, but the parents refused to allow the student to be placed in special ed.

The children continued to fail, however. :-(

[laredo44]

Prep period is the hour a day teachers generally spend shooting the breeze in the teacher lounge.

Really??? Do you work in a school? Can you document this observation?

See my post #130.

It's amazing. At my campus, I'll bet that there are three teachers who would rather visit than work during their conference period. The more I accomplish during my conference period, the less I have to do at home. From their behavior, most of the teachers on my campus agree with me on that.

I would view you assertion more favorably if I didn't see so many teachers claiming how they are always helping students after school and working extra hours at home. Yet, whenever I've been to a school shortly after students are released, the teacher's parking area is virtually deserted. When I was teaching, I spent most of my social life with other teachers. It was very rare for me to find one of them grading papers or doing other work at home. These are just my observations and my explanation of why I am skeptical.

[Amelia]

I think the guy is factually wrong about Social Security. I think he's mistaken, not lying, and said so.

I think he's mistaken, too, but I haven't gone to the trouble to look it all up.

In the second instance, about spending $2000-3000 per year out of his own pocket, I think he's blowing smoke and challenged him to prove me wrong.

I spend a fair bit out of pocket as a teacher, but not nearly that much. I suppose I could spend that much, but I won't, and I'd guess that some people do. I didn't have to spend much, if any, out of pocket when I worked in the private sector, however.

[laredo44]

I've had more than one student who was failing, was tested for special ed, and the testing showed the child to be mentally retarded, but the parents refused to allow the student to be placed in special ed.

I didn't say the parents would lose, just that they could. Perhaps your school is more customer friendly than others. However, given that schools are paid a bounty every time they sign up a new special ed'er, I wouldn't count on a kid staying off the short bus.

[liberalnot]

after my undergrad degree, i worked for a state university and had access to sat and gre scores. education majors ranked at the bottom with journalism majors. both groups took easy courses.

as an undergrad i completed my language requirement in egyptian hieroglypics, hieratic, demotic, and coptic. also, i had three years of classical greek which kept me up very late at night.

passing thru' the education building on my way to classes, i couldn't help but notice the stupid things the ed majors were doing. several of my girlfriends were ed majors and they always had time for parties and a social life, which i didn't have much time for. ditto for my journalism roommate. it was party-hearty for him.

seeing that my humanities degree wasn't going to get me very far in life, i completed a master's of science in engineering which also kept me up very late at night.