Any FWISD teachers? Can you live on such a low salary! (Houston: student loan, home)

[DWong]

Originally Posted by Canine*Castle

AmberMarie said it in a nutshell. She has a passion, a passion for helping students, and yes, she will be very rich, rich in something that matters as in knowing she is instilling values, responsibilities, accountability, truth, knowledge, and hardwork in her classroom.

Students can make one's life richer than all the money you apparently have or wish you had, DWong. Just think, she'll even get two months or better off in the summer, two weeks at Christmas, a week for Spring Break, sometimes a week at Thanksgiving, and quite a few holidays to boot. She wants to spend time with her own children, imagine that ...... quite admirable I would say.

If someone can't raise a family on the amount you quoted above, he or she doesn't know how to manage money. I wish you all the best in the world, Amber-Marie, as you embark on one of the most rewarding professions life has to offer. May you always be an inspiration to your students and may the memories you make with them never be forgotten. You will never regret it.

"It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference." ~Tom Brokaw

Shalom my friend! My wife and about 20 of the inlaws are all Teacher's in throughout TX. Hey, schedule is great no argument there, but hey reality is having a rewarding profession never put food on the table and a roof over your head, but working for AIG will....

In all seriousness... it's a good profession for families, but making ends meet is damn tough to do. Lets be real, can you raise a family on $4000 a month minus mortgage health insurance and expenses? If you can... write a book on how to be frugal... you'd be very smart.

[Canine*Castle]

Originally Posted by DWong

Shalom my friend! My wife and about 20 of the inlaws are all Teacher's in throughout TX. Hey, schedule is great no argument there, but hey reality is having a rewarding profession never put food on the table and a roof over your head, but working for AIG will....

In all seriousness... it's a good profession for families, but making ends meet is damn tough to do. Lets be real, can you raise a family on $4000 a month minus mortgage health insurance and expenses? If you can... write a book on how to be frugal... you'd be very smart.

What do you teach? Please tell me it isn't grammar. Yes, one can raise a family on $4,000 a month and still pay his or her bills. It happens every day. Of course, frugality is part of the plan. People live way beyond their means and that's why many are in the mess they're in. That's a great idea, writing a book on how to be frugal, but I believe it's been done already.

[loves2read]

the fact is that most teachers are married and have husband/wife with income and probably better health insurance to use than that from the ISD...some teachers are married to other teachers but many of them have partners who move in admin to get higher salary...

does it pay great... NO--and if you figure in the after-hours time spent grading papers, calling parents after 6 pm, planning, attending school functions to show your support of students (like football and other sports or musical events or UIL competitions)...then teachers' salaries go down even more...

most people teach because they truly do find satisfaction in what they do--many of them do not have other skill sets to fall back on to transition to another type of work--they do like having roughly the same schedule as their children for summer/vacation time--they have managed to adjust to the stress/salary/demands of the job...so they are there for the duration...if they can last out the first 5 yrs which seem to be the wash-out period...
if you can't take the heat--stay out of the kitchen...

[AmberMarie]

Unfortunately, if teachers were paid tremendously, people may become teachers "just because" and then what kind of teachers would we have?

Thanks for the kind comments, everyone.

[DWong]

Originally Posted by AmberMarie

Unfortunately, if teachers were paid tremendously, people may become teachers "just because" and then what kind of teachers would we have?

Thanks for the kind comments, everyone.

Well... not to go into my thesis paper, but paying better gets more people to enter a certain field and those that can't hack it, won't enter it.

If jobs paid 100k a year, you'd have more selection to choose from.

If jobs paid $30k a year, you're hiring pool is going to be very small.

And if you required an MS to teach, your pool would even be smaller and more competitive = better teachers

[DWong]

Originally Posted by Canine*Castle

What do you teach? Please tell me it isn't grammar. Yes, one can raise a family on $4,000 a month and still pay his or her bills. It happens every day. Of course, frugality is part of the plan. People live way beyond their means and that's why many are in the mess they're in. That's a great idea, writing a book on how to be frugal, but I believe it's been done already.

Oh... I"m not the teacher anymore... math and science it was. Hey I'm not worried about spell checking on here so easy - I think most of y'all know what I"m trying to type

[TXGator]

It never works that way. You may have more selection, but not necessarily better teachers.

Originally Posted by DWong

If jobs paid 100k a year, you'd have more selection to choose from.

If jobs paid $30k a year, you're hiring pool is going to be very small.

And if you required an MS to teach, your pool would even be smaller and more competitive = better teachers

[DWong]

Originally Posted by TXGator

It never works that way. You may have more selection, but not necessarily better teachers.

If I"m not mistaken unlike other quasi socialist states like cA teachers in TX don't have tenure correct?

Believe me, paying more and making it NOT so easy to become a teacher you will get much better quality teachers.

For instance, take an economics/chemsitry/math major. You have the choice of
A) Working for a corporate institution. If you graduated from a top school you can be sure to make 60k + bonuses to start. IN twenty years, granted if you keep your head straight - in DFW you can make big dollars.

B) Teach and make $46k and count on $500 raises for the rest of your life.

And this rationale that has been studied, is one of the main causes for the low SAT/ACT scores in TX. In fact near the bottom.

[TXGator]

What's your point? I just don't get it. You are no more a teacher. How long you have been a teacher? 10 years? After how long did you realize you made a mistake? Why did you wait so long? You have family members as teachers. They know the reality. As we usually say to our graduate students, if you feel you do not belong here, run!

Originally Posted by DWong

If I"m not mistaken unlike other quasi socialist states like cA teachers in TX don't have tenure correct?

Believe me, paying more and making it NOT so easy to become a teacher you will get much better quality teachers.

For instance, take an economics/chemsitry/math major. You have the choice of
A) Working for a corporate institution. If you graduated from a top school you can be sure to make 60k + bonuses to start. IN twenty years, granted if you keep your head straight - in DFW you can make big dollars.

B) Teach and make $46k and count on $500 raises for the rest of your life.

And this rationale that has been studied, is one of the main causes for the low SAT/ACT scores in TX. In fact near the bottom.

[loves2read]

I don't understand why you keep beating this dead horse--
the TX legislature and the local tax base will never be in position financially or philosophically to have a pay scale like you envision...this is arguing about how many angels fit on the head of a pin...
did having astronomical salaries bring us better financial gurus on Wall Street or in the halls of Enron or the valley of silicon--don't think so--higher salaries do not axiomatically guarantee better quality or better caring ...whatever...check out the roster of the Dallas Cowboys or the Texas Rangers...