$20,000 a year? Instate tuition if FL is probably around $2500 - $3000 per year these days.
Wow --
My in-state for Texas . . . having gone back in Summer '05 is as follows (note these are totals including ALL the misc. craptastic fees they charge us):
Summer '05 4 hours $849.71
Fall '05 12 hours $2450.47
Spring '06 18 hours $3542.63
Summer '06 9 hours $1883.72
Fall '06 15 hours $3223.20
Spring '07 18 hours $3594.85 (present semester)
For a total in two years of $15,544.58. Due to my "age" and the fact that I stayed home with my children and provided wifely support to my husband as he built his career, I am not eligible for many scholarships. My loans are unsubsidized due to his salary. The amount that a family is supposed to provide is absurd for ALL students. That being said I've gotten one scholarship for $400 and one grant for $750 (both last summer).
Keep in mind this does *not* include living expenses, food, transportation or textbooks (books have been anywhere from $200 - $500 a semester -- with this semester being on the higher end).
That all being said, I'm a Speech Language Path major. I know people in the education department and I am SO . . . annoyed by them much of the time. I know drug addicts and girls who are essentially idiots -- but they are getting A's in their education classes. Would I want them teaching my children? Heck no!
Some teachers, yes, are underpaid. Are they all? No. Do they deserve more? Some of them. Salaries are commensurate with the degrees and time worked though. So many "educators" seem to forget that ALL of us come out with loans and the like. If I go out in the field as an SLP -- I might make 40K a year -- and have to prepare things "off the clock" for clients, and I have to work year round. In the schools, SLPs are actually paid on an adminstrator's pay scale rather than an educators *shrug* Ironic though that we don't make much more (if any) and we HAVE to have a MA or MS to be licensed.
Oh -- yeah -- I'm finishing my undergrad with 21K in student loans, and I'm going on to graduate school. So who KNOWS how much I'll owe then. So to all these teachers, I say, QUIT WHINING. Everyone's jobs have their challenges. EVERYONE I know works "after hours." Want to compare how much out of the office time my husband spends "off the clock" to any teacher's time grading papers?
</ends her vent>