Any public school teachers out there? (apartment, rent, loan)

[Lovetheoutdoors]

Are there any public school teachers out there? If so, how do you make ends meet in this expensive town? I'm a math teacher and have been recruited for the LAUSD but I'm thinking of turning it down as I really don't think I can live there. Please give me your thoughts and experiences. Thanks!

[the one]

i have several teaher friends in LAUSD, LAUSD charters, and local districts. they all seem to make it fine with the money they get. home owners. renters. vacationers. etc. the emotional stress is another topic. thats what you really got to worry about in LAUSD. its tuff being a teacher.

[Green Irish Eyes]

What's your educational background? If you're just starting out and/or have only a B.A. then, yes, it might be rough going. I'll be teaching for a neighboring district this Fall, earning a salary comparable to what I've been earning in NYC, and I expect that it'll be fine. Of course, I'm coming in with five years' experience and a Masters' Degree .....

[RPV2NC]

I just left LAUSD after seven years as an English teacher. The pay is fine as long as you don't want to buy a single family home in a good school district. The benefits are good, the hourly rate is good, and there are opportunities to work extra hours if need be. My advice is to find a school with a good administration and a positive work environment.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by RPV2NC

My advice is to find a school with a good administration and a positive work environment.

What would be the process for doing that?

Ho would someone measure these things?

[MisterDuke]

I left teaching after 8 years. It was ok when I was in my 20s, but as I got older I became more concerned with it's long-term impact on my finances and retirement. I never expected to get rich as a teacher, but I also didn't want to get to be 75 years old and find out I needed to take a job at Walmart.

You can survive teaching in LA if you rent and you don't have too many kids. The big issue is if you want to buy a home. You might be priced out because of your teaching salary. The teachers I knew, who didn't worry about money, fell into a couple different categories:

1) They have a spouse or significant other with a higher paying job.

2) They inherited money or property

3) They have a parent who owns property and is willing to co-sign a home loan.

4) They were older teachers who started their careers and bought their houses in the 60s & 70s when the prices were much lower, and by now they've reached the top of the pay scale.

A lot of teachers in the LA area get by doing the following:

1) Earn an MA and take additional courses to move up the pay chart.

2) Take on additional work in the district, like coaching sports and summer school.

3) Second job. Of the people in my department, one had a business selling second hand cloths on ebay, one had a vending machine route, one worked weekends in a liquor store, and one delivered papers for the LA Times. I supplemented my income by teaching art classes to adults through the parks departments at some of the local cities.

[Lovetheoutdoors]

Thanks for the replies! Very much appreciated. Someone contacted me again yesterday so I'll meet with them one more time. I should have gone on this forum first. Thanks again.

[RPV2NC]

Originally Posted by Charles

What would be the process for doing that?

Ho would someone measure these things?

If you're already teaching you can find out through word of mouth. Someone who knows someone, etc. If you're not yet teaching, subbing is a good way to into the system and get an idea of which schools are good to work for and which aren't.

Other indicators are staff turnover. When you interview you can take a walk through the halls. Do you like what you see? Check out the student restrooms. Look at the library. Take a walk by the teacher lunch room. Mention you're interviewing and ask them some open ended questions. Go to the school at the beginning or end of the day and act like you're a parent considering send your kid there. Ask other parents what they think.

[skreem2]

I've been teaching English in LAUSD for nine years. I've survived financially. I live in a one bedroom apartment in Hollywood, and use public transportation. My problems have all been other than financial. (Benefits are great.)

The problems I've encountered with teaching often have more to do with adults you encounter rather than the high school kids. Here's a sampling of what I'm talking about - inept, yet power-mongering administrators who are most often simple P.E. teachers who took rinky-dink night school classes; unworkable and idiotic pedagogical theory to which district personnel have religious commitments (e.g. "cooperative learning" what a joke!); lazy classified employees who don't bother to do their jobs or do them right; THE PAPER WORK - oh how I hate grading essays when you see the same mistakes over and over again; kiss-up fellow teachers who will lie and rat on you just to work their way into administrative graces.

Yes, the student population is largely unmotivated, and used to being pampered and coddled and told that they're doing great things when they're working at elementary school levels. These students could be dealt with if genuine negative consequences were in place rather than "intersession" or "adult school" - the free tickets out of academic effort which keep graduation rates artificially higher.

Well, you get the idea. There are so many other things to consider before you jump into inner city school teaching.

[fastfilm]

As the spouse of a public elementary school teacher, I second everything in the posts of mister duke and skreem. Teachers in L.A. have to be ultra-dedicated for two hidden reasons as well. First, the high school drop out rate is 46%, a preposterously high figure that correlates to the high number of kids in the classrooms and lack of continuity due to most of the children not speaking English at home. Secondly, the Open Court system of scripted teaching is a travesty that hurts kids and burns out teachers. No teacher wants to do wrong by the kids, and Open Court mandates same with its "one size fits all."