How much should teachers make, I want a dollar amount

[aus10]

So perhaps we should have a formula that would break a teachers salary down by days? Let's use a police officer (I used them because they are a very important part of society as well)...

Police Officer
Annual Salary divided by # of days worked = daily rate

Teacher
Annual Salary divided by # of days worked = daily rate

Which one is going to make more... and which one is more important?

Perhaps salary should be on a daily rate... would make more sense to me... The better the teacher and experience level, the better daily rate obviously... and a built in bonus (call it vacation if you will) of so many weeks pay during the summer, but not a whole two or three months of "summer" vacation.

I'm trying to think of any other career that has the income potential that a teacher does that only works 192 days (38 weeks) per year....

Please believe me, I understand the need for our good teachers to be paid more... but in order to do that... I believe you've got to be realistic about the total picture. And while painful as it sounds to say it, I'm sure that if you break it down on a daily basis there are some teachers who are being paid WAY more than their worth as well... That isn't fair to our good teachers, and it isn't fair to the taxpayers who ultimately are paying the salaries....

[North Beach Person]

Teacher salaries are already broken into a daily rate in a lot of places.

A comparison of teacher and law enforcement/emergency services salaries really isn't valid due to the fact that teachers are not eligible for overtime pay where the other employees are.

[le roi]

i would say it should be in the $25k-$60k range, in my area, depending on qualifications. this is about what teachers make, in my area.

[crone]

I think good teachers should make 50 -90K a year. We should get rid of all other teachers. If schools ran year round like most other jobs, teachers could have more realistic compensation. Between spring break and two weeks off for Christmas, teachers work 8 months a year.

Our schools are designed as factories. That needs to change. There are many learning styles.

We no longer need the summer off to work the farm.

Schools need to be year round. Working parents would appreciate not having to obtain childcare. Students could get more time for art, music, PE, consumerism, personal finance. All the things parents no longer bother with or have any knowledge of.

Locate schools close to employment centers so that parents could drive the commute with their children. That would give them more time together. Parents and teachers would have an easier time doing conferences, etc. Sprawling suburban campuses 20 miles away from parents is a waste of resources. Have them if you wish, but also give commuting parents more quality time with their kids.

[txgolfer130]

$19.50/day/kid. That's right, $19.50 per day...per kid...for starters.

follow along...

Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit!

We can get that for less than minimum wage.

That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours).


Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.

However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET'S SEE....
That's $585 X 180= $105,300
per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).
What about those special
education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an
hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.
Wait a minute -- there's
something wrong here! There sure is!


The average teacher's salary
(nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days
= $277.77/per day/30
students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student--a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!

[mimimomx3]

They should be paid twice as much as the highest paid administrator in their district.

[Skinny Puppy]

Originally Posted by noexcuseforignorance

This poll doesn't make sense given that people here live in all sorts of different places and teachers themselves have all sorts of different credentials. Teachers in high cost areas will have different salaries than those in low cost areas.

The poll says how much should the average teacher make in your area, doesn't ask about different places. Sounds pretty clear to me. In my own personal experience, my kid's teacher should make somewhere between 35-40 bucks an hour, with potential for bonus, which I'm sure she would easily earn. Her substitute teacher on the other hand deserves about $10 an hour and no bonus.

[eskercurve]

Originally Posted by Xanathos

To teach K-12, all you need is a Bachelor's Degree in....anything.

Therefore, the available pool of teachers is quite large. It's especially appealing to those who studied something useless in uni, like lib arts. A K-12 teacher should make no more than the median salary amongst the US or thereabouts. Depending on region, I would say anywhere from 40-65k per year, with a 401(k) instead of a pension, and benefits on par with the private sector, not the absurd union negotiated state worker benefits they receive.

A Community College professor requires a Master's Degree in the course they're teaching. Significantly smaller pool. However, you're dealing with fairly low-level stuff when it comes to what you're teaching. I would put their salaries in the 65-80k range.

A university professor requires a PhD in their given field, which creates a very small potential pool. However, most university professors are merely academics who have spent their lives in books, not putting what they've learned into practice. Therefore, a sliding scale would need to be developed in my idyllic scenario. Those who are merely academics and preach what they learned from a book with no actual expertise on whether it works or not should earn no more than $100,000 per year. Those who were successful in their fields and left to teach deserve more, probably in the $150K per year range along with university perks such as preferred admissions and free tuition for family. However, again, 401(k)'s, not pensions, and standard private sector benefits.

For those rare professors that actually generate revenue through grants that they obtain to further field research, and which brings the university prestige and income from boosters and donors, a higher salary is warranted, depending on just how useful the professor is. Truly "elite" professors (ie MIT, Harvard, Yale, etc.) obviously would command top dollar for their field, probably in the 300-400 range.

All in all, this would be attractive when one considers the fact they only work 75% of the year and get extended holidays throughout the year, as well as just about every individual holiday off.

I wholeheartedly agree with this assessment. There's a couple of tweaks I'd make, like K-12 teachers, truly outstanding ones that can invigorate learning, should make somewhere around 80k if in a wealthy area. Again, that'd depend on the area ... in the middle of nowhere that salary could drop to around 45k but if in NYC it'd be closer to 100k.