Posted on 02/02/2007 5:20:28 AM PST by Zakeet
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Hey Moog, are you taking a sick day? ;-)
My wife teaches fifth grade with 34 kids in her class. Most, if not all, are low-income. Many are military families, so that helps, but every year she has at least 3 kids who disrupt everything. I finally convinced her to boot them to the principal, and that helps her.
In the 8 years in her district, she has had no parent volunteers in her class. She earns her salary with that many kids. And she is very well paid.
When I compare her hourly, adjusted for months and hours worked, she makes less than a CPA or other professional. But she makes plenty, and does not complain at all.
If you don't want to do the work, don't take the job.
To me, the extra work IS PART of the job, and I shouldn't be expected to be paid for it, but I don't expect to hear how "highly" I am paid either. It depends on different areas. Nevertheless, there are two things that ring true--teachers aren't dirt poor, nor are they filthy rich.
And what else is true is that MANY professions could be tagged as being underpaid. I appreciate ANY person in ANY vocation who has a good attitude, puts forth an honest effort, and has a good work ethic.
Although there are many wonderful, hard-working teachers, the ubiquitous perception that teachers are underpaid clearly demonstrates how well the teachers' union propaganda resonates with the masses.
Some misuse the "underpaid" thing too much for sure, but it seems the "overpaid" thing is too at times.
If Teacher’s salaries are calculated hourly and compared to other professions, they need to be adjusted to account for summer breaks and for "other" hours too.
Just like a retail manager at Christmas time.
WE ALL are responsible for OUR OWN choices in life and how we live it. What we learn and how we apply it is chiefly up to US.
Hey, that's my secret. :)
$25/hour is still $52,000 a year. That's not too bad... especially with all the vacation.
There are teachers in my area earning over $100,000 per year. Granted, they teach specialty areas and coach teams, but some coaches are getting more than $12,000 additional to coach.
I see you've taught Middle School.
"Given my situation, when I see somebody complaining about being paid good money in a job with a pretty much guaranteed position, it just digs me"
As do I when I see some who have swimming pools, snowmobiles, go on many vacations each year (I go to visit my parents), motorhomes, good kids, really nice houses, and so on complain that I am "overpaid" or about raising kids (I would love just to be able to have the opportunity to raise one).
"You are delusional. Teachers do not just work, "worst case? 8:00 to 3:00" as you state. That is the BEST case. Those are the hours they are in school. But teachers are also expected to prepare tests, grade tests, meet with parents, etc. I would say 10 hours a day is average, or perhaps even below average. 12 hours a day, and quite a number of hours on the weekend is more typical! "
It's usually about 12-16 hours a week on weekdays, and about 10-20 hours a week on weekends often for me.
And some people complain about them like children too. :)
Actually, to me, anyone WITH children shouldn't be complaining at all. They often don't realize what a privilege they have.
"I do think that some teachers hurt themselves by insisting that they get paid for all this"
Getting paid for all those extra hours--that'll be the day. :P
It's something to me that is part of the job.
Woah, back up there a minute cowboy - you pay the sub? out of your check? or out of your sick time? I'm hoping it's out of your sick leave bank, not out of your salary.
Hey, long time no see Moog - sup?
She has my sympathy. She must be an exceptional person. I've taught emotionally disturbed children. To be able to teach them for 19 years and maintain your sanity is truly exceptional. She should be paid double. Teaching today is bad enough, but to teach those children takes an extraordinary human being. God Bless her.
My numbers are accurate for my wife and the 3A school district she works at. From what I know, the hours she works are about the same as any school district (old friends wife was a 1st grade teacher in a 5A, worked about the same amount of hours).
The shame of it all? They are paid princely sums compared to the janitorial staff that has to clean up after the 'kids', who often work as much or more, than the teachers.
And therein lies the discrepancies. I'm IT in my class often. I get a little parent help, but I don't have an aide or specialists (we do have 1 reading specialist) and never will. I DO see some teachers in other states who do have all the "extras" and STILL complain about being underpaid. I don't have any sympathy for them. After 4 years of me teaching my wife worked PART-TIME without a degree as a computer programmer and made just as much, actually a little more than me. But you know what, I don't want to do anything else. I LOVE teaching these little first grade buggers. Every day is different. In what other job can you act as dumb as you want to and still see wonderful progress from the kids? AND you have hit upon another factor. Sometimes you do get kids with hard home situations. Those can't be accounted for in dollar terms. One of my lower kids has a single mom who works too many hours to help him much and a deadbeat dad. He's had issues just dealing with the situation at hand and hasn't always been in the mood to learn. But he's coming around now. Today, he even took a book to read as he was waiting in line for lunch. I had ONE year where I had about every situation you could think of. I had 4 "normal" kids out of 25. I worked my tail off that year and came home EVERY night exhausted. I had some very hard personal situations to deal with and one of my most beloved former students was diagnosed with brain cancer and died. But I LEARNED more that year than any else and saw just amazing miracles that year with kids and parents, none of which was my doing for sure. I learned to try not to complain so much, especially from the student with the brain tumor. I learned that no matter how bad we have it, someone always has it worse. I learned that it's our ATTITUDE that counts in life and how we live it. It was my most challenging, but also my most rewarding year.
The shame of it all? They are paid princely sums compared to the janitorial staff that has to clean up after the 'kids', who often work as much or more, than the teachers.
And janitors are not a position that has a college degree. But yes, in some areas this would apply. Nonetheless, there are "extra hours" not accounted for and probably that couldn't be.
I sure appreciate our janitor. She's always hard at work. In school, they told us that the janitor should be one of the first people you make friends with. I've remembered that ever since.
We do not get paid for holidays or summer breaks, we are paid for our contract days which is kind of misleading. If I say I only have to work 200 days, then it would seem I should have 80 or more days to work in the summer, but our year is broken up with breaks. The working time in the summer is about 8 - 10 weeks.
Some do choose to work during that time, some take classes, myself I watch softball games.
Woah, back up there a minute cowboy - you pay the sub? out of your check? or out of your sick time? I'm hoping it's out of your sick leave bank, not out of your salary.
It's out of the salary. But the sub payment isn't as high as our daily pay though.
Hey Moog, are you taking a sick day? ;-)
Early day. :)
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