Nation's Largest Union Sets Goal of $40,000 Starting Salary for Teachers

AP ^ | AP-ES-07-03-05 1627EDT

[TheOtherOne]

Nation's Largest Union Sets Goal of $40,000 Starting Salary for Teachers

By Ben Feller The Associated Press
Published: Jul 3, 2005 LOS ANGELES (AP) -The typical starting salary for teachers should be $40,000, the head of the country's largest education union said Sunday, pledging a renewed fight for higher pay.

But the National Education Association's challenge is enormous. Not a single state pays its new instructors an average of $40,000, with the U.S. average hovering close to $30,000 for beginning teachers, according to the American Federation of Teachers, another teachers union.

NEA president Reg Weaver, speaking to reporters at the union's annual meeting, said his officers will work with their state and local chapters to lobby state leaders and school boards.

Weaver, poised to begin his second three-year term as the union's president, said higher pay for veteran teachers and classroom aides will also be a political priority for the NEA. No cost for the ideas was given, but they would likely require hundreds of millions of dollars or more.

"The issue is where the money is going to come from," Weaver said. "And to respond to that, my answer is I don't care. I don't care where the money comes from. Because when this country thinks and decides that something is important, they find the money."

Teacher pay has long been a point of contention within education. Salaries are often seen as an important reason why schools struggle to hire and keep teachers, which is particularly true for young instructors, men and minorities, Weaver said. But an increasing number of states and districts want to make classroom performance or student scores a bigger factor in teacher pay.

Overall, teachers were paid an average of $46,752 last year, a slight raise that did not keep pace with inflation, the NEA says. Pay is usually based on teacher seniority and education.

The pay proposal is part of a broader NEA priority list to close the achievement gap between white and minority children and reach out to minority communities. The NEA push comes as it is at odds with the Bush administration. The union has sued the federal government over Bush's No Child Left Behind law, arguing that it puts unfair financial burdens on states and districts.

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On The Net:

National Education Association: http://www.nea.org

AP-ES-07-03-05 1627EDT

[Kenny500c]

If the public education system were doing a good job with all the money that's thrown at them we would be a well educated society with a corresponding national wealth that would allow higher pay for teachers and all other professions and occupations.

[Tacis]

My bet is, of course, that they've set their target at $40,000 per year and that will be the new base on which union dues are calculated. The dems are despirate for cash and increasing the dues is the best way to get it, less, of course, the cut that the union officers usually take.

[litehaus]

Yep! Gotta be right thing to do. Look how the TSA (airport security)has improved since they got big raises and gubmint benefits.

[Zenith]

Wash DC spends $15,000. per student--

Pay the Teachers 15,000. until they show that students can read and write ENGLISH>

[4Liberty]

" 'The issue is where the money is going to come from," Weaver said. "And to respond to that, my answer is I don't care.'"

Wow - says it all.

AFT gets 1% of each teacher's pay check. So they are NOT an impartial observer where salary increases are at issue.

[hkp037]

$40K is just a drop in the bucket. These poor people need $66,666,66 just to break even. After all, it's for the children, isn't it?

[neodad]

Weaver, poised to begin his second three-year term as the union's president, said higher pay for veteran teachers and classroom aides will also be a political priority for the NEA.

Wonder what his salary is?

[sittnick]

Very simple, just drop the pension programs and let them pay into their own 401Ks. The pension programs are what drive costs up, and they commit taxpayers decades later.

[kitkat]

Since so many teachers get their diplomas from state-run "teachers colleges," they can pay back their total student loans in one year with just a $30,000 paycheck and have money left over. How nice for them. Of course, the taxpayers have already paid for the teachers' education, so I think that all those who attended taxpayer colleges should be taxed higher to show their gratitude.

[sphinx]

I am waiting for the NEA to run a comparison of pay in private schools -- all private schools, not just the silver spoon ones.

[MikeHu]

That's funny.

The Hawaii State Teachers' Association (NEA) keeps claiming that all the other states pay their teachers an average of $100,000 -- we need to pay ours twice that just to keep up -- because of the highest cost of living in the world!

The AP writer must be wrong.

[Indy Pendance]

$15,000 per student is outrageous. Private schools do it for much less per student. The unions are sucking the money for their liberal pet political projects, which is all our taxes, usually via property taxes. How many times do you read a story where the school cuts music, but just hired a new grief counselor? The school boards are always asking for referendums for increased taxes. The gov should get out of education and let private enterprise take over. Good competition is what it will take for the public systems to wake up. If the schools focused teaching kids the basics, math, English, history, etc. instead of all the feel good liberal social programs, like how to wear a condom, or Adam and Steve are a family too, maybe they'd deserve a raise. The district near here gives the teachers 100% health benefits, 3 months off, and they still moan and groan they aren't getting enough.

[Torie]

Good idea, in and in an exchange for dumping tenure protection, and a merit pay scale.

[4Liberty]

>"Wonder what his salary is?"<

Too much.

[kitkat]

***Pay the Teachers 15,000. until they show that students can read and write ENGLISH***

During publicity over how ridiculously easy the teacher's exam is to pass, a teacher from a nearby city wrote to the paper to protest. She started out by saying, "I and my colleagues..." and followed that up with other obvious mistakes in grammar. So from whom will our children learn to speak and write English correctly?

[4Liberty]

Hell will freeze over before that happens (i.e., before unions run an efficiency report, with private vs public institutions examined, side by side.)

[OldFriend]

How about this for a goal........

Kids can read, write,and do arithmetic by the third grade.

[sittnick]

I am waiting for the NEA to run a comparison of pay in private schools -- all private schools, not just the silver spoon ones.

The pay in the "silver spoon" ones is crappy, too. I went to a middle of the road prep school (Cheshire, CT), but the teachers at Choate School in my home town of Wallingford, CT weren't paid well, either. Plus, they often get to be hall monitors, coaches on the side, etc. Some of them did get nice little houses provided, though.

[MikeHu]

While the cost of living for everybody else is the same, the cost of living for teachers is ten times as high -- and needs to be adjusted accordingly -- according to our newspaper writers.