Teaching does not require a degree from a highly ranked university. Degrees from a community college and state schools are more than adequate to get a job. Also, admission to teaching programs are competitive either and teachers are among the lowest with SAT score.
Add to this that teachers can work more years because they can enter the job market with a B.A. degree and if a masters is needed can often acquire this degree in off hours and during their generous summers....and again big name colleges are not needed for these advanced degrees ( that are the joke of the academic world).
If pensions and health plans,the reduced cost of their tuitions, and the extra years in their career that they can work, teachers are doing at least as well or better as many in medicine, law, and dentistry.
Teachers conveniently take the highest earning years of those in the professions, and IGNORE the years of lost income while in training, the lost income waiting for a new practice to make money, the 3/4 of million or more to start a practice, and the high malpractice, and the complete lack of pension and health insurance, and the 24/7 responsibilities that go with the job.
They have summer vacations that more generous than a European worker, and if someone points out that they work 185 days a year, they WHINE that they put in out-of-class room time. Well! SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE!
By they way,,,,when was the last time you saw a teacher wearing a beeper because they were on 24/7 emergency call? Never!
My sister in law teaches 10th grade English in southern California and makes $70,000 a year. Not bad.
Not bad for a 9 month work year
Why is it okay for only a few in this country to make exorbitant salaries but the average joe is lambasted for the same ambitions?
Plus, the test scores of the vast majority of home schoolers, many of whom are taught by non-degreed moms, puts most public school teachers to shame.
There there are all the holidays and "conventions" and other time off. A benefits package that rates better then 95% of the rest of the work force's benefits package. Hmmm.....
I've always been impressed by their complaint that they make "so little" that they have to work during summer vacation to make ends meet. Well guess what, I worked year around as a matter of course. If they would pay more attention to teaching the basics and less to whining and trying to turn all of our kids into liberals, we wouldn't have such dismal results on what the kids learn in school.
You forgot to mention the teachers' remarkably high rates of absence, which can average 15 days of the measley 185 annual working days.
As a lawyer turned teacher, I would like to address at least one point you make, in that everyone else puts in extra hours. That may be true, but perhaps not to the extent that teacher do.
As a former prosecutor I put in a good days work, and would generally take work home if I was preparing for an upcoming trial, but that was seldom.
This past year as a teacher, I often found myself in my classroom at 5:30 am getting ready for the school day. (School started at 8:20) and often times not leaving until 4:30 or 5:00 pm. Then, go home eat dinner, and grade papers the rest of the night. So on an average day, I might put in anywhere from 15-18 hours. It's worse for coaches.
It has often been said that teachers are nothing more than glorified babysitters. If that's the case, then I would love to have a babysitter's salary. Let's do the math. If a babysitter charges say $3.00 an hour per child, and the average class size is 25 students at 7 hours a day that comes to $535 per day. Teaching 185 days a year, that comes to an annual salary of $97,125, far more than the $32,500 I earned this past year, and that was a Doctorate level salary, not a Masters, or Bachelors. Please pay me like a babysitter.
Or lets look at a daycare. My local daycare charges me $20 a day. So, $20 times 25 students is $500 a day, at 185 days is $92,500. Please, pay me like a daycare.
Are there problems amongst the teaching profession? Sure, but so are there across all professions. Even in the legal professions there are attorneys that have no business practicing law. Bottom line, teachers have a far harder job then you would think. How do I know? I worked harder this past year as a teacher then I ever did as an attorney. I've seen both sides.
You're right, teaching is a really plum career.
Why isn't there a glut of teachers? Why isn't everyone hear trying to become one instead of complaining about them?
An influx of conservative teachers into the field could stem the liberal tide in education as well. Looks like a good idea to me.
bump
I'm a former US Naval officer with a masters degree and outstanding track record as a teacher. After 25 years I'll top out at...drum roll...around 65,000. Overpaid? - not true.
HOWEVER - did I know what I was getting into? Absolutely - so I don't complain. But don't you complain about crappy teachers when the best and brightest out of college often START at 65,000. You have to love your subject and kids in order to put up with PC nonsense, obnoxious parents who treat teachers like yard help, and some f'd-up kids from prominent families.
Not interested? I didn't think so...
Since teachers do so little and are paid so much - why don't you join them?
You too could revel in a relaxing, highly paid part time job. Could it be you don't believe what YOU are whining about?
BTW - I'm USAF, and don't care what teachers make. Teacher's salaries are a small part of the school budget. Figure the average class size multiplied by the average student cost runs maybe $230K/year. Few teachers make a third of that - so most of the cost is in buildings and admin.
ping
I'm curious. I would like to know what everyone here thinks the average salary of a teacher should be.
Try teaching. Try passing the test. Try getting a job as a teacher.
I have a hard time watching bankers, real estate agents, and sales people make cash. Talk about no skill easy money.
All I remember about teacher's salaries are the two married English teachers who both drove BMWs.
Also average teachers salary in Pennsylvania is the highest in the country when adjusted for cost of living.
Thirty-eight states do not allow public school teachers to strike. Pennsylvania is not among them. Guess which state leads the country in number of teacher's strikes? Anyone?... Bueller?
I agree, in theory, that teachers are underpaid. I know home-schooling works great, but not everyone is in a position to do it. That's why teachers are important. And, all of the teachers I know are hard-working and dedicated. Don't confuse the individual teacher with the Unions.
Now, if I were a teacher, I'd be asking whether my Union was really serving me. The Teacher Unions are, for all intents and purposes, wholly owned subsidiaries of the Democratic Party. Yet, it's the Democrats that have created massive bureaucratic education beasts that suck up all the education dollars.
And there's plenty of money in the system to pay them more! The problem is that the education bureaucracy sucks up all that money. I live in California, where a huge chunk of education dollars never makes it out of Sacramento or the regional school district offices. It's ridiculous. And it's why I don't vote for more money for education. EVER. The problems will never get fixed if we keep funding the beast.