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OP it’s not just you. I am sure there are several states teachers are paid abhorrently. However one post I read from a friend is she couldn’t live off of $90k a year. For the schedule they have, that’s pretty damn good.
I work crazy hours, stress, have held multiple jobs at once to pay bills, have to play politics, don’t have a guaranteed job day to day.....
$90k after 20 years isn't that much. New hires at my company make that much or more, and have a less stressful job.
Not all teachers are protected by unions, especially in places like Texas, where the only function of the union is to provide support to teachers filing grievances and to lobby the Legislature which keeps cutting funding for schools.
They are all free to leave their teaching posts and join your company. I wish they would do that rather than striking continually to raise my taxes. Oh, wait, but then they’d have to work 40 hrs a week all year and probably not get the sweet benefits (ridiculous retirement) packages. They knew what they were signing up for when they went into the profession so suck it up!!
They are all free to leave their teaching posts and join your company. I wish they would do that rather than striking continually to raise my taxes. Oh, wait, but then they’d have to work 40 hrs a week all year and probably not get the sweet benefits (ridiculous retirement) packages. They knew what they were signing up for when they went into the profession so suck it up!!
Just how often have teachers in your community gone out on strike. Let's see, I taught in districts in New York State (where, at the time we had unions), Maryland (where we had unions), and Virginia (where we were a right to work state, so no actual union), and let's see 33 years in education and was never in a system where there was a strike. A couple of times we did work to the rule. So which community are you in where teachers are "striking continually"?
And BTW the income ceilings for teachers in my area are pretty high. After 20 years it's over 90k.
LOL Harsh but true. People get waaaaaay to caught up in other people's cashflow. CEO's SUperintendent's Senior partners, Owners of sports clubs......just leave these folks alone. Apparently they were smarter or had better connections than the rest of us.
I only come down hard on pro athletes b/c they make millions and compare it to slavery. (See Adiran Peterson)
Quote:
Originally Posted by silverkris
Oh. Puhleez.
There are states in which teachers have to take on 2nd jobs just to pay the bills.
.
Almost all of if not %100 of those teachers knew the pay scale going in and they took the teaching job anyway. In the land of the free you can get better skills and goto a higher paying profession.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WRM20
$90k after 20 years isn't that much. New hires at my company make that much or more, and have a less stressful job.
.
Median HOUSEHOLD income----not individual----in the USA is like 58k. Most profressions aren't paying 90 after 20 years, and certainly not free healthcare, and for 10 months of work. And for the the fields that do pay 90, it's rare that a whole bunch of people in the same office are making it. You literally have schools where half the staff is probably at top pay.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gentlearts
Yes, it is. I’m old, I know, but nobody I know ever made $90k, and I’m not unusual.
It's not as common as some make it out to be. 90K is still a good chunk of change unless you plan to live like Mike Tyson. But nobody in the real world gets laughed at for that salary, even today.
Quote:
Originally Posted by veuvegirl
OP it’s not just you. I am sure there are several states teachers are paid abhorrently. However one post I read from a friend is she couldn’t live off of $90k a year. For the schedule they have, that’s pretty damn good.
I work crazy hours, stress, have held multiple jobs at once to pay bills, have to play politics, don’t have a guaranteed job day to day.....
I'm a teacher and I understand. Every job has its gripe. The problem is.....many teachers are CAREER teachers and have done nothing else. So they live a bit in a bubble and can't understand why the whole world isn't on their side regarding raises, ect......
I had other jobs before teaching. And after getting out of work at 6:30, working the occasionaly weekend, having to pay for my healthcare, and being suited everyday...I'm good.
The major problem that I will admit that the outside world doesn't realize is how hard it is to remover problem children. That usually comes from Washington telling local school districts not to suspend or expel.
In NY State, the age limit was and might still be 21 for a kid to still be in HS. You had a bunch of 19,20 year olds just walking around buildings causing chaos and schools are powerless to get rid of them. ANd if they have a learning disability, forget it. Almost impossible to remove. Not to mention the law forces school to take kids that are coming right out of jail. They literally can turn your school upside down within weeks.
But other than that and some other ticky tack things....yeah, my group can be a bit whiny. Some teachers need to pick a new subject, grade level or just leave the profession. Plenty of upstarts down the pike that would to come in starting at 40-50K and leaving work while the sun is still out.
Just how often have teachers in your community gone out on strike. Let's see, I taught in districts in New York State (where, at the time we had unions), Maryland (where we had unions), and Virginia (where we were a right to work state, so no actual union), and let's see 33 years in education and was never in a system where there was a strike. A couple of times we did work to the rule. So which community are yo uin where teachers are "striking continually"?
Of your three, New York was the only one where strikes by teachers are legal. In neither Maryland, which recognizes teacher Associations for collective bargaining, nor Virginia which does not are teacher strikes legal.
You often see people dismissing teacher complaints about workload and pay by pointing out that they have "summers off" and have great health care and generous pensions. The latter simply isn't widely true anymore - better than someone who works at Walmart, sure, but both of those have been very eroded in most states. Teachers now coming into the profession now generally have something similar to a 401k, so their refinement savings are largely dependent on their incomes, which are not competitive until they're decades into the job. They are usually eligible for better-than-average insurance, but much of the cost of that comes out of their salaries. The gravy days in that regard are largely gone.
"Summers off" most places is more like two months. Which is nothing to sneeze at, except that teachers must earn a quantity of college credits or similar (paid for out of their own pockets) to maintain their licenses, so vacation time is the natural time to do that. Obviously that's not the universal schedule, but I think it's pretty common. It is here in Alaska.
I think the thing that people often overlook about K-12 teaching is just how "on" the teacher is required to be all day, every day. There are lots of jobs that are tedious or hard on the body, but very few that require a person to be in presentation mode constantly, while psychologically present to dozens of people constantly, while also being vigilant about safety and whatnot. I'm not sure how one puts a price tag on that.
The hard part is, it’s hard to quantify the effectiveness of a teacher, without hamstringing them to a standardized test...which presents its own set of problems.
And, there are aspects of their job that cause many private sector folks to bristle, like the idea of more pay simply by getting a masters.
I do roll my eyes about complaints about parents or administration, condition of the building, recess duty, etc...that’s all part of working for a living...but I complain about similar things in my private sector job (no parents but still.)
A teacher in North Carolina, I feel a lot worse for than one in Minnesota.
The other thing, an accountant or IT guy can go work for someone else without major drawbacks; teachers have big incentives to stay where they’re at, even if the principal doesn’t have your back and the kids are obnoxious.
LOL Harsh but true. People get waaaaaay to caught up in other people's cashflow. CEO's SUperintendent's Senior partners, Owners of sports clubs......just leave these folks alone. Apparently they were smarter or had better connections than the rest of us.
I only come down hard on pro athletes b/c they make millions and compare it to slavery. (See Adiran Peterson)
Almost all of if not %100 of those teachers knew the pay scale going in and they took the teaching job anyway. In the land of the free you can get better skills and goto a higher paying profession.
Median HOUSEHOLD income----not individual----in the USA is like 58k. Most profressions aren't paying 90 after 20 years, and certainly not free healthcare, and for 10 months of work. And for the the fields that do pay 90, it's rare that a whole bunch of people in the same office are making it. You literally have schools where half the staff is probably at top pay.
It's not as common as some make it out to be. 90K is still a good chunk of change unless you plan to live like Mike Tyson. But nobody in the real world gets laughed at for that salary, even today.
I'm a teacher and I understand. Every job has its gripe. The problem is.....many teachers are CAREER teachers and have done nothing else. So they live a bit in a bubble and can't understand why the whole world isn't on their side regarding raises, ect......
I had other jobs before teaching. And after getting out of work at 6:30, working the occasionaly weekend, having to pay for my healthcare, and being suited everyday...I'm good.
The major problem that I will admit that the outside world doesn't realize is how hard it is to remover problem children. That usually comes from Washington telling local school districts not to suspend or expel.
In NY State, the age limit was and might still be 21 for a kid to still be in HS. You had a bunch of 19,20 year olds just walking around buildings causing chaos and schools are powerless to get rid of them. ANd if they have a learning disability, forget it. Almost impossible to remove. Not to mention the law forces school to take kids that are coming right out of jail. They literally can turn your school upside down within weeks.
But other than that and some other ticky tack things....yeah, my group can be a bit whiny. Some teachers need to pick a new subject, grade level or just leave the profession. Plenty of upstarts down the pike that would to come in starting at 40-50K and leaving work while the sun is still out.
Just to clarify, not all teachers get free healthcare. I was in one of the eleven largest school systems in the nation, and I never got free health insurance. I didn't have to pay for it all myself, but I paid a good chunk of change every month, and in retirement still do.
Of your three, New York was the only one where strikes by teachers are legal. In neither Maryland, which recognizes teacher Associations for collective bargaining, nor Virginia which does not are teacher strikes legal.
Actually, in Maryland, teachers can strike "on their own", but unions can’t call a strike. There have been union calls for “work to rule” (which I used to ignore). And actually, when I first started teaching in Maryland, they could still strike, and Baltimore teachers id, for a month, in 1974, primarily over class sizes and working conditions.
But just to clarify for the other poster, strikes are illegal except in the following states:
California
Colorado
Idaho
Illinois
Louisiana
Minnesota
Montana
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Vermont
I pointed out in my post that Virginia was a right to work state.
Just to clarify, not all teachers get free healthcare.
Do any, these days?
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