$34.06 an Hour -- That's how much the average public school teachers makes. Is that "underpaid"?

Who, on average, is better paid--public school teachers or architects? How about teachers or economists? You might be surprised to learn that public school teachers are better paid than these and many other professionals. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, public school teachers earned $34.06 per hour in 2005, 36% more than the hourly wage of the average white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty or technical worker.

In the popular imagination, however, public school teachers are underpaid. "Salaries are too low. We all know that," noted First Lady Laura Bush, expressing the consensus view. "We need to figure out a way to pay teachers more." Indeed, our efforts to hire more teachers and raise their salaries account for the bulk of public school spending increases over the last four decades. During that time per-pupil spending, adjusted for inflation, has more than doubled; overall we now annually spend more than $500 billion on public education.

The perception that we underpay teachers is likely to play a significant role in the debate to reauthorize No Child Left Behind. The new Democratic majority intends to push for greater education funding, much of which would likely to go toward increasing teacher compensation. It would be beneficial if the debate focused on the actual salaries teachers are already paid.

It would also be beneficial if the debate touched on the correlation between teacher pay and actual results. To wit, higher teacher pay seems to have no effect on raising student achievement. Metropolitan areas with higher teacher pay do not graduate a higher percentage of their students than areas with lower teacher pay.

In fact, the urban areas with the highest teacher pay are famous for their abysmal outcomes.

If it's a Manhattan Institute study on teachers, it'll be missing a few things. Our HIGHEST (with PHD and additional credits) salaries are around $50,000 here. For hourly salaries, one might be using just teaching time. There is additional preparation time too (some of which may be included in CONTRACT TIME). Contract time is 40 hours a week here while teaching time is different. The OUTSIDE time is hard to factor in, but if it were to be factored in, the hourly salaries would be much lower.

The simple matter is teachers aren't dirt poor. BUT they aren't rich either. NO teacher at our school is the main wage earner in a home unless he/she is single. That is another thing to take into account--many teachers are co or secondary wage-earners. Nonetheless, I can't get much of a housing loan (if any) on my salary alone.

A simple measuring stick--if teachers are indeed paid so much, there'd be more males entering the profession (like me) and more would not leave for more lucrative positions.

I work at LEAST 1700 hours outside of the classrooom in addition to those 1400 hours in the classroom. Let's see divided by 40 hours a week, how many extra weeks am I working? :)

Note--it depends on the teacher. Not evetyone works as many as I do. I know of few who work ONLY those 1400 hours though. :)

"Strange, my wife is a teacher (junior high special education), and she works 10 hours a day, for 9 months a year (approximately 40 weeks). That comes to 2000 hours a year. She makes about $19.00 an hour (rounding UP). "

Your figures are much more accurate. I often put in 16 hour days myself.

But then, it's not the money that I do it for, it's those 20 bright shiny faces I get to see each day. They're doing pretty well this year. Even the lowest of my first graders can write out compositions, know the different sentence endings, know what proper nouns are and how to distinguish them in a sentence, the difference betweeen to/too/two, and so on. They're about 70% accurate with nouns, verbs, and adjectives so we'll get there. :)

I feel slighted by this article . I made at least $79.00 as a teacher with medical, sick day accumulation, and a great retirement package to boot .

My wife had 3 TIMES the amount in her retirement that I did after working 5 times as long (she was a computer programmer--10 years vs. 2 years). Because of GASBI, you will see some retirements change quite a bit. Ours have changed quite a lot already and will continue to do so. I've never had a sick day in 11 years of teaching so you can imagine my accumulation. :)

"Let's not forget the grueling hours they work - What is the worst case? 8:00 to 3:00? And how many half days do they get? And here in the NY, a few flurries an a Monday or Friday gets you a three day weekend. It is not like they are working 50-60 hours a week like us mortals.

Underpaid my arse."

Not working 50-60- hours a week my arse (it's a big one). :) Actually, I often work more than that, even on some vacations. SOME work the 8 to 3, OTHERS do not, it depends on the teacher.

You can't be serious! Teachers (I know, I was one) generally have the finest medical and dental care in the nation. No deductibles, no co-pays, no HMO's, no hassles, any doctor, any time. Its worth tens of thousands of dollars a year and as far as I can tell wasn't even factored in to the article's computations. The don't call it Cadillac health for nothing.

My brother worked for 1 year as a high school teacher and had horrible health insurance (and yes, he did pay for it). It was not as easy a job as he thought, though he did enjoy the kids. It depends on the area. My dental insurance was horrible for many years, but has been okay the last couple of years.

If you've got it all figured out, don't hide your light under a bushel for your own kids. Jump right in, get a teaching job, and show 'em how it's done.

This is the attitude that is why homeschool parents don't trust government school teachers. It's just a totally different mindset. For homeschool parents (in the interest of full disclosure, while I am a homeschool graduate and intend to homeschool, I am not yet a parent myself) the idea that teaching our own kids at home is "hiding our light under a bushel" is nonsense. What is better, to be 1 of dozens of teachers in hundreds of kids' lives, or the sole (or at least one of two!) teachers in 1, 2, or 5 kids' lives?

Not to mention that your children are 100% your responsibility. Their education should always be a higher priority than concerns for others.

Homeschool parents ar ethe only underpaid teachers, since they have to subsidize wasteful government schools.

> Three months off is a benefit, not a penalty.

Three months unpaid leave is a penalty, not a benefit. Lots of teachers I know end up taking second or third jobs in order to top up their take-home pay.

Personally, I would prefer to see doctors, nurses, cops, firemen and teachers receive up to $100 per hour for 12 months per year, based upon agreed performance outcomes.

The real problem is that teachers are hamstrung by their superiors, the board, and the NEA to teach watered down PC dreck, and real learning is discouraged or flat out disallowed. The average teacher loses more and more control over their own curriculum every year, and more and more of it is being dictated by liberal idealism and politcal correctness. Any attempt to fight that can lead to losing their jobs. Some of that is true in some areas for sure. I've always had the freedom to teach how I wanted, in fact I have an absolute ideal situation--I teach in my community, have students who want to learn and who progress quite a bit, have the support of parents, and so on. It's actually a LOSS of freedom that I fear with all the negativity emphasized each year.

Welcome to everybody else's world, pal. I've been working ias an IT professional for 10 years and I don't make $34 an hour. I have to fly all over the country and be away from my family for weeks sometimes. I commute 50 miles to work and have 40K miles a my 1-year old car. I leave at 6:30 and get home 13 hours later. I'm not sure what my house looks like in the daylight.

So, boo hoo. Maybe you should become a teacher.

It's amazing how many folks who don't actually know any teachers, think they know all about their days.

AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN!!! Yeah, it does amaze me how "much" some seem to "know" about ALL teachers. There are a lot of us who DO care and who DO do a good job. There are some who don't and it's the negative that gets focused upon. It's gotten easier to just pass the blame for a lot of things on teachers, but there are multiple factors for things. Nonetheless, you just keep going and doing your job. To me, it's what my little students and parents say that matter the most, not the doom and gloom and negativists who puport to know all about me.

"Actually, I often work more than that, even on some vacations. SOME work the 8 to 3, OTHERS do not, it depends on the teacher."

Let me see if I have that right. YOU work 50-60 hours a week, sometimes more, and you work on holidays and weekends. Other teachers just put in 35 hours -- and only during the time school is in session, and maybe the week before and the week after. And that teacher and you get paid the SAME? Is that what you are saying? I really find it hard to wrap my mind around that one.

If so, why do you consider yourself overworked and underpaid? I can think of a few other descriptions for someone that would work 60 hours for the same pay as a colleague that works 35.

"These NUMEROUS extra hours do not equate in extra pay at $34.06/hour"

That's the most accurate statement yet. :) You often see these periodic "studies." In some places, I would indeed say teachers are overpaid, but not in my own plce.

And that teacher and you get paid the SAME? Is that what you are saying? I really find it hard to wrap my mind around that one.

That lazy teacher may be paid more if they have more time in. I have to say the single most frustrating point for me is having little control over what I earn. It doesn't matter how hard I work or how many great ideas I come up with, my pay is determined by time.

Of course, I knew that going into it, and accept it. But it truly does rub me the wrong way.

"I have to say the single most frustrating point for me is having little control over what I earn. It doesn't matter how hard I work or how many great ideas I come up with, my pay is determined by time.

Of course, I knew that going into it, and accept it. But it truly does rub me the wrong way."

It does not just rub you the wrong way -- that is what gripes non-teachers about teaching, too. I have worked as an engineer. I have taught in a classroom (as an adjunct -- and yup, even accounting for time spent outside the classroom it totaled up to about $30/hr -- that was back in the 1990s). I have been an IT consultant. I am a freelance writer.

The only job I had where the quality of my work absolutely did not matter to my pay was when I was teaching. Those that just showed up and marked time got paid the same as those that put their hearts into it and knocked themselves out.

I could hack that as an adjunct, but if I had been doing it full-time it would have killed me. I would have either gone postal or become a drone. I am much happier back in engineering, where pay (and holding your job) is merit-based -- and as a freelance writer where you get paid to deliver and paid more if you deliver quality.

"Teachers don't get to choose when to take vacations, unlike people in most other professions who, a month or two ahead of time, just block out their calenders. Yes, they get a certain number of "personal days," but these can't be used as a supplement to a vacation, and you can't take more than one consecutively."

We have to pay the sub too if we require one. That's why in 11 years of teaching, I've only had a sub maybe 10 or 11 times--MOST of it being because my mom said I HAD to take the day off to go to a family reunion, a marriage, or a graduation of one of my siblings (with 8 kids, it's hard for our family to be toghether too much). So the "mom" factor for me is the biggest factor in me missing a day. :)

"call parents at night because they can't be bothered during the working day. Their job is too important to be bothered by the teacher of their child."

That's why I and many teachers love stay-at-home moms. Calling at all is going the extra mile and should be done by more teachers. I find parents appreciate a phone call, and it doesn't have to be negative either. I often call to report something positive. :)

"There are obviously people with strong opinions on both sides. Some say teachers are paid too much; some say teachers are paid too little. How do we square this circle and find the real answer? Easy! Let the market in, break the union, and introduce vouchers. Then teachers will be paid exactly what they are worth. No more; no less. No more arguments."

There are LOTS of ways to judge "worth." What would be the good way is to get away from the two extremes and all work together.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.