Posted on 06/06/2005 4:33:44 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
...But this noble sensibility ignores a crucial fact about the teaching profession in Westchester County: Teacher pay levels in Scarsdale, and several other districts in the county, are now high enough to constitute an entry ticket to upper-middle-class income and status. In Scarsdale, 166 teachers - nearly half - have base salaries exceeding $100,000; for more than a dozen, base pay tops $120,000.
A study of teacher salaries across New York State found that as administrators and affluent parents compete to give their children every possible advantage, thousands of teachers in the New York suburbs now make six-figure salaries - numbers strongly at variance with the popular stereotype of the poorly paid, altruistic mentor of the young.
The study indicates that only the most experienced teachers, with the most education, earn such salaries - which are the highest in the nation. But the money is arguably substantial enough to affect what it means to be a public school teacher. Consider this, for instance: A family whose parents both teach in Westchester schools can make enough to put it in the top 6 percent of earners in the county.
Teachers say the salaries are justified, even necessary, in a place where the cost of living is high. "You can earn $100,000 and not afford to live here," said Susan Taylor, a longtime Scarsdale teacher who heads the district's teacher training institute...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Teacher ping.
when the median income amongst the tax base paying these salaries, is significantly lower then what the teachers earn, something has to give.
I'm with you. When public employees are making 2 to 3 times the median income in a state and retiring at 80-150% of their base salary, that is unsustainable. Sooner or later the that little ponzi scheme goes belly up.
We just lost my kids' wonderful speech therapist to industry. She is going to be some kind of recruiter.
My kids loved her, and she will be greatly missed.
I think she was totally sick of everything at our school. Our district is closing my kids' school next week. It's a wonderful, National Blue Ribbon School. Out of 31 elementary schools in the district it has the 6th highest test scores. The district is losing enrollment in the poor part of town where the low performing schools are, but they are not closing those schools. They are closing ours.
It's a shame.
You have left off the distorting effect of union membership.
Most folks Iknow in the 100+ area work a damn site harder than any teacher I've ever heard of - included Mysterio's wonder parents. Most can barely take their 10-15 vacation days.
But the key is risk - the union/monopoly removes risk for them. For the rest of us we could be fired, laid off, have our company acquired and downsized etc. The teachers' salary needs to be adjusted up for the lack of risk.
Diva's Husband
Yep. My husband works over 12 hours a day and on weekends. He rarely takes a vacation.
It's what he does so that I don't have to work. I don't know of any teacher that works like that.
My husband was a software engineer, and now he's a software manager. Engineers work very hard. They don't get paid well unless they go into management. Teachers don't have to worry about outsourcing like engineers do.
Risk means opportunity. With hard work, a little imagination and some luck a software engineer could end up a billionaire. The best a teacher has to look forward to is a penny pinching retirement.
Take away teachers long enough and there wont be nurses...doctors....fireman and as you put it "..policemane."
You don't know about school teachers in Alaska obviously
Good teachers deserve the chedder-- it's the fat-@ssed bureaucrats in their pencil-pushing cubby-holes making $120,000 / year here in L.A. that fries my grits.
Same here in North NJ ..Im teaching 9 years making 40K while th eBoard members ( most uneducated bunch you can imagine )make 175K+ and then they hire their girlfriends on the sode for 60K to do phoney jobs at the board..I WISHED I only had to put in a 40 hour week ..I always wonder, when do people think I read all those essays from 113 kids a year I teach ?
You're a 10 month employee also..You dont get a check all summer unless you have them take extra money out all year long and get THAT in the summer..Not the sweet deal you all think it is.
If the retirement package is more than $50 or $60k, I'd be surprised. But then, it must be difficult to get good teachers to go there.
Good point, many teachers would not find many jobs in industry. I had a BSEE and was able to transition into and out of teaching. And in engineering I was asked to teacch in addition to my regular duties. I know math teachers can make the transition if they teach the upper high school grades. So could the physics and chemistry teachers. But they are not looking for humanities teachers in most of industry. Of course individual circumstances are always more important than generalizations. Some teachers are so good that industry would want them regardless of their teaching subject or level.
I didn't characterize them as anything except overpaid
Go look at garbage collectors salaries in NY City , them tell me that again.The janitors in my place make WAY WAY more than I do .i let a big mouth buddy of mine come to school with me one day and shadow me for 7 hours.He went hom ewith a MAJOR headache , had to take a nap and then called me to say he would jump out a window after a week of dealing with these kids..Try it sometime bro.
In San Jose, the teachers get paid didly squat (under the state average), and the administrators get paid way over the state average. San Jose is an expensive area, and the teachers should get paid more to work here.
I can't stand our administrators. They treat our teachers horribly.
most don't pay Social Security. ???
Where did you get that from ? We also donr get workmens comp either . When your sick days run out so does your money ..
That describes many other people's work pace - people that get paid far less and have far less benefits. Your parents get paid to do that job.
Teachers are not underpaid just because they work hard or because they think they have a tough job. And when you consider their level of job security and benefits, they should be happy with less than other professions make.
No one beats out North NJ ..The corruption is BEYOND BELIEF.School Board members make SERIOUS $$$and are no place to be found..All political favor gift jobs//All have the ENTIRE families on the public tit as well.We have the FEDS in our district now trying to find out where all the Fed $$$went to build new schools..
most of the BIG mouths on here wouldn't last untill lunch time if they had to deal with inner city kids in class.
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