Free Republic

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

...But this noble sensibility ignores a crucial fact about the teaching profession in Westchester County: Teacher pay levels in Scarsdale, and several other districts in the county, are now high enough to constitute an entry ticket to upper-middle-class income and status. In Scarsdale, 166 teachers - nearly half - have base salaries exceeding $100,000; for more than a dozen, base pay tops $120,000. A study of teacher salaries across New York State found that as administrators and affluent parents compete to give their children every possible advantage, thousands of teachers in the New York suburbs now make six-figure salaries -...

Merit pay? Please. We can develop a fair system that helps students and teachers alike By Ari J. Kaufman and Aaron Hanscom Teachers at Shenandoah Street Elementary School in Los Angeles. Their blog is www.partialtranscripts.blogspot.com All teachers are saints, incapable of succumbing to the baser instincts of human nature like laziness, selfishness or ingratitude. Of course, this assertion is as verifiably false as the statement that all car salesmen are honest, gracious and industrious. While teaching is still viewed as a noble profession, Californians can be forgiven for viewing their children's educators in an increasingly suspicious light. Recent infighting among...

Sacramento -- The committee supporting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's package of ballot initiatives said Friday that it will not have enough signatures to put a proposal for teacher merit pay on a November special election ballot. Allan Zaremberg, co-chairman of Citizens to Save California, said the idea to pay teachers based on merit instead of seniority is "lagging behind a little bit." Zaremberg did announce that the committee began turning in signatures for the governor's budget reform proposal Friday. Signatures for the governor's two other initiatives -- changing when a teacher can receive tenure and how legislative districts are drawn --...

The Hawaii State Teachers’ Union (HSTA) is asking Hawaii teachers to ratify a new two-year contract Thursday, April 28, that will reward the HSTA’s upper echelon with the largest salary increases while cutting entry-level Class II teacher pay to $28,357 from the $35,486 won during negotiations last year. A computer assisted analysis shows the contract will allow teachers on Step 1 and 2 on the salary schedule to move up in 2006 after a year stuck at the lower pay scale. Some teachers believe the cut to new teacher pay is the unintended result of Superintendent Pat Hamamoto and HSTA...

It's only a 38-page document, but it determines how millions of tax dollars are spent, sets working conditions for 462 employees and indirectly affects the education of more than 5,500 students. Ridgewood's teachers contract is key in managing the school district's $70.7 million enterprise. And like any of the other 610 teacher pacts across the state, it is arguably the most powerful public document in town. More money from property tax bills goes to pay teachers and school support staff than any other group of local public employees in New Jersey. Funding for school districts makes up about 55 percent...

Texas House passes controversial plan to restructure public education ASSOCIATED PRESS AUSTIN (AP) - A sweeping plan to restructure education in Texas won tentative approval in the Texas House on Wednesday, despite criticism that a teacher pay raise is unfunded and $3 billion in new money is not enough. Opponents say the money won't keep up with inflation or cover new requirements schools would face under the plan. During two days of debate on the measure - the top priority of the current legislative session - the House leadership approved a teacher salary increase and additional funding for the mileage...

Group rallies for higher teacher salaries By Becky Orr rep6@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - Freya Butterfield says she would like to teach in Wyoming when she graduates this spring from the University of Wyoming. But she won't, because she can't, she said. "I'm not going to get paid enough," Butterfield said to a crowd of hundreds gathered Monday on the steps of the state Capitol. The group came in support of the Legislature providing more money for salaries for support staff and teachers. Many at the rally told emotional stories about low teacher salaries. They urged people...

February 3, 2005 Dear Education Activist, Now is the time to contact the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, your own Delegate, and your State Senator and ask them to keep the teacher salary increase in the state budget. Click here to find a pre-written letter to the Speaker, and to identify your Delegate and Virginia Senator and send them a pre-written letter. You can send the letters as they are, or add your own talking points and personlize your letter. Last week in response to Delegate Plum's resolution calling on Virginia's Governor's to move teacher salaries to the...

The union representative is angry about publication of salary, reimbursements and sick days amid contract talks. WRIGHT TWP. - Every Crestwood teacher's salary, tuition reimbursements and related pay hikes, plus accrued sick days will soon debut on the school district's Web site. School board member Gene Mancini Jr. said it's a way to inform the public as contract negotiations continue, but union representative John Holland called the move "offensive and irresponsible." "It's the public's right to know," said Mancini, who serves on the contract negotiation team. He said the board held a public session in November and next week's planned...

Montana ranked last in the nation for starting teachers' salaries and 47th for average teacher salaries, according to a survey by the American Federation of Teachers, which was released Thursday. The survey shows Montana's 10,427 public school teachers made an average of $35,754 in 2002-03. Starting teachers earned $23,052, according to the survey. The starting pay for teachers in Sidney's school district is $23,670 for the 2004-05 school year, said Doug Sullivan, Sidney's superintendent of schools. "Based on the salary ranking, our district was 76th out of 200. We not only recruit against other Montana towns, but we compete for...

As a nation, we're confused about how we see teachers. Most polls show that respect for the profession has risen in recent years, yet we have certain quietly entrenched ideas—that teaching is easy, that teachers get out at 3 p.m. every day—and these notions, all ludicrous, allow us to accept the injustice in teachers' dismally low salaries. We love teachers, we think they're saints, but most of us consider unavoidable the fact that they are underpaid and often have to work two or three extra jobs to maintain a middle-class existence.The latest statistics put the average teacher's salary at about...

The image of the underpaid schoolteacher who sacrifices life's riches for the sake of children still fits many educators but not all. Thanks in part to a decade of healthy pay raises and a system of incentives that rewards longevity and postgraduate studies, 1,943, or almost 2 percent, of Georgia's public school educators were paid $85,000 or more last year, according to salary data from the state Department of Education. Among that group, 81 principals had annual salaries that topped $100,000. "Georgia's average teacher pay rose more than 49 percent over the last 10 years, greatly outpacing national or regional...

Denver teachers have voted to embrace a new pay plan that would stop rewarding them for years on the job and start recognizing specific skills and achievements in the classroom. Approval from the teachers' union puts the closely watched plan into the hands of Denver voters, who will be asked in 2005 for a property-tax increase to pay for the $25 million annual cost. Members of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association supported the proposal, written as part of the teachers' contract, by a decisive 59 percent to 41 percent. About 2,700 of the union's 3,200 members cast ballots. The 70,000-student...

Schools chief Bonnie Copeland delayed classes for two hours Friday, prompted by fears that hundreds of angry teachers might hold a sick-out after rejecting a 3.5 percent pay cut proposed by city officials. "At this time we have 620 out who have called in sick today," schools spokeswoman Edie House said. "Our hardest hit area was the middle school area with 171 teachers out." During the vote Thursday, teachers received flyers urging them not to report to work Friday, and the system received more than 300 calls by Thursday evening. Union officials said they weren't supporting a sick-out and weren't...

Well, we ignited quite a little blaze on Sunday with our front page centerpiece story, didn't we? Reporter Patrick Ferrell's story on high school teacher salaries — headlined "Are area teacher salaries ahead of the curve?" — sparked some rather emphatic answers to the question by some readers Monday morning. One called for Ferrell's firing for writing what was perceived to be slanted and opinionated stories. (Which they definitely were not, by the way.) Another writer slammed the stories for not including elementary school teachers, who are on average paid far less than their counterparts in the high schools. Another...

How much is a job worth? What should we pay a coal miner, who goes deep into a rock shaft that can come crashing down at any moment? Or a soldier, who is prepared for a deadly combat eventuality at all times? What should we pay a major league baseball player, whose contribution to this world is that he can hit a rising fastball? Or a Hollywood actor, whose job is too look good while mouthing the words that someone else wrote? Does a company CEO, who makes tens of millions of dollars a year, work that much harder than...

<p>Public schools traditionally pay teachers based on how long they've been in the classroom rather than on how well they've taught their students. Now that seniority system faces a major challenge. Last week, New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein proposed promoting a "culture of excellence" by awarding merit bonuses to effective teachers.</p>

The Illinois high school teacher who shows students how to parallel park and use a rear-view mirror likely earns more than the educator who teaches them to solve quadratic equations or diagram a sentence. Occupying the "suicide seat" beside novice, adolescent drivers, full-time instructors last year had an average take-home pay of $64,503--surpassing that of virtually every other teaching assignment, according to a Tribune analysis of state data. Driver's ed also had one of the highest percentages of six-figure wage earners. More than 11 percent of high school driving teachers made at least $100,000, topping the rate of all but...

Gov. Tim Pawlenty proposed Wednesday staffing the state's most difficult schools with "super teachers'' who could earn up to $100,000 through bonuses. The teachers would have to give up such union protections as tenure, allowing them to be fired at will. The teachers also would have to be willing to let student test scores be a key factor in how much they're paid. In return, the teachers could reap some of the largest nonadministrative salaries in public K-12 education today. "We want flexibility in exchange for this turbocharged compensation package,'' the Republican governor said as he unveiled a new administration...