Posted on 02/08/2004 7:20:15 PM PST by Chi-townChief
How much is a job worth?
What should we pay a coal miner, who goes deep into a rock shaft that can come crashing down at any moment? Or a soldier, who is prepared for a deadly combat eventuality at all times?
What should we pay a major league baseball player, whose contribution to this world is that he can hit a rising fastball? Or a Hollywood actor, whose job is too look good while mouthing the words that someone else wrote?
Does a company CEO, who makes tens of millions of dollars a year, work that much harder than the person who cleans the offices all night?
How about teachers? How much should they be paid?
The simple answer, of course, is that we all are paid according to what the market will bear.
Baseball players or movie actors command seven-figure salaries because there is a demand for their ability to entertain us.
The CEO is worth the big bucks because he is the person most associated with the price of a company's stock.
With teachers, though, it is a far trickier proposition. For most teachers, we are talking about public sector employees. Defining "the market" is a lot more complicated when it comes to people who work for a unit of local government.
According to the fine piece of research and writing by my colleague Patrick Ferrell in The Star today, scores of teachers in our South Suburbs are making yearly amounts that are well into the six figures.
An analysis of salaries and add-on payments in 13 south suburban high school districts shows that 275 teachers in our area were paid in excess of $100,000 during the 2002-2003 academic year.
Many of these teachers work in school districts on the state's so-called financial watch list.
The inherent question raised in the stories is "Are these teachers being paid too much?"
Or, at least, are some teachers being overpaid?
And, if so, what should be done about it?
My basic response is that good teachers are worth every penny that they are paid. (You may notice that I qualify this with the word "good" and I'll get back to that later.)
I freely admit that I have some biases when it comes to teachers.
My late wife Kat was a second-grade teacher at Fulton School in Tinley Park. I know how hard she worked a couple of nights a week she worked late and came home only when the janitor locked the building at 9 p.m. It was what she knew she had to do to make a difference in her students' lives. And it worked.
So if anyone ever talks to me about lazy teachers who don't do anything all day well, I know better.
Beyond that, I know what my kids have gotten out of their teachers. In grade school, we are talking about people who put in long hours showing small kids how to read and compute. In high school, I see my kids doing college-level work and being genuinely prepared for the world ahead.
I think in particular about my oldest son, who is now a college freshman, and the rigorous, challenging curriculum that his teachers put him through in high school. By the time he graduated last June, he'd learned a lot, and was ready to move ahead.
How do you put a price tag on awakening curiosity? Or showing a young person how to use his or her natural talents? Or sparking their interest in a real love of learning?
Especially during the teen years, when we all make the awesome transformation from children to near-adults.
The importance of high school in our lives never can be discounted. I have this theory that everyone remembers their high school fight song, and I also believe that just about all of us can recall an inspirational high school teacher who made a significant difference in our lives.
Realistically, though, a price tag needs to be put on teacher salaries. All the salaries in today's paper were negotiated according to very specific rules laid down by the state, the courts, school districts and the labor organizations that represent teachers. Teacher salary structures did not happen overnight and are the result of years of back-and-forth negotiations between school officials and unions.
I am not saying this is perfect. I am saying that this is what we have.
It is a system that does not differentiate between a teacher who is outstanding and one who is less than inspirational. If someone wants to come up with a workable plan to reward only the "good" teachers, I'd be more than interested to hear about it.
But if you are really looking for a system that is not perfect, consider the state's funding formula for schools.
The state's share of funding for schools has gone down steadily over the years, which means that more and more reliance is placed on local property taxes. This just about guarantees that more-affluent school districts will receive more funding which means the market will bear even more in those areas.
You can be sure that teachers in Wilmette and Hinsdale and Naperville are getting top dollar.
Today's "market," unfortunately, means that our children will be competing first for college placement and later for jobs with students from those pricier areas.
If they are to succeed, they are going to need competitive schools and experienced teachers who can help show them the way.
If we try to do this on the cheap, the results are sure to speak for themselves.
Tom Houlihan may be reached at (708) 802-8820. Or you may send e-mail to thoulihan@starnewspapers.com.
Only if you volunteer more time and money to the Mafia. < /sarcasm>
If you "volunteer" 17 hours a week to "get a certification", that is a "requirement", is it not?
One more thing, why don't you volunteer your time and expertise, if you are good at business, maybe, just maybe, you are good at something else. Unless of course, you are a lawyer.
Lawyer? Business?
Do you have a reading disability?
As I posted before, I have a MEDICAL PRACTICE that takes up 6 days out of the week.
After the EMT graduates of your Fire Academy drop their patients off at the Hospital, who do you think takes care of them?
MBA's?
In my life, there aren't 17 hours left over after the six days I spend "leaving footprints".
One thing, my dad is still working 6 days a week into his seventies at the community hospital; the only thing his 5 kids remember of him is how often he wasn't around.
Hey, if I were a teacher, I would want a job in a big city suburb for that reason. But did your source mention the downstate pay?
$10,000 is the starting minimum salary. Down here in southern Illinois, last I heard, it was an average of 20,000 starting and ranged up to $30-35,000 for an average in most areas. Livable, but not great.
Same job - different area.
I can't speak for anywhere else, but in Central Texas, it's about $30-35,000 starting, depending on qualifications, etc. I know some teachers in our neighborhood, and they don't think the pay is worth the hours or the stress from the increased testing due to No Child Left Behind, etc. (another great case of federal interference in local affairs, oh joy). They will be leaving public schools this summer either for private schools, or for another district that is rumored to have opted out of No Child Left Behind and is not spending all of the classtime on tests.
My daughter was going to teach, but after her student teaching, and a couple of month-long substituting stints, she has decided to go back to grad school and do something else. She is of the opinion that public schools are no longer really educating children, but instead teaching them how to take tests so the schools look good, which makes the district looks good, which means our money that the feds are holding gets released back to the local schools.
Her experience was that over half of classroom time is spent on these tests, or the teachers are having to work their lesson plans to teach only what's on the tests.
I'm glad I'm not a teacher either way.
Starting salaries are too low, which is why many good people don't teach. Unfortunately, the starting salaries are used to get increases for the tenured, highly paid teachers that only work 9 months of the year.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Did I insult you by mentioning those lowly EMT's in the same sentence with the Fire Department you some day want to join?
In our County, the first responders to every medical emergency in the field, from motor vehicle accidents to medical emergencies to Fire Rescue Boat operations to fires are Fire Department EMT's.
EMT's are highly trained and highly respected members of the Fire Department.....At least in our County, at least in our Hospital and at least in our Fire Department if not in your MBA mind.
You are actually insulted that someone would even mention an EMT in the same breath with "Fire Department".
You are insulted to the point that you accuse me of "superiority" for mentioning EMT's.
Unbelievable.
You have shown the same holier-than-thou attitude in regards to your "volunteering" in a public school when, in reality, that is a requirement for your public school teaching certification. If someone does it differently than you, they are are lower than.........an EMT!
When your Dad or I drag ourselves out of bed at 3:00 AM to come to the Hospital to deal with a motor vehicle accident victim without any insurance whatsoever and we provide free care, that is "volunteering".
When I accept every patient in this County that walks or is wheeled through the Hospital door in regarldless of ability to pay, although several other specialists in the County do not, that is "volunteering".
There are other ways to "volunteer" besides putting in your required student teaching hours for your certification.
At least you recognize that your Dad did something.
Maybe this is the first time in your life that you have actually had a line of work that isn't totally irrelevant to the health and safety of the community. If that is the case, remember that there are other ways to "volunteer" and others have been doing it for one, two or three decades longer than you have.
Try to change your holier-than-thou attitude before you finish Fire Academy. If not, you are going to have a lot of trouble with your Fire Department colleagues.......especially those Fire Department EMT's you hold in such contempt.
Good bye.
I agree with you 100%. This country could use more doctors like you. Keep up the good work.
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