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I'm kind of surprised that no one has mentioned the growing teacher shortage nationwide. Undoubtedly there are areas with high pay (mostly in the Northeast), but if it is the gravy train that some of you keep suggesting, why are there so many unfilled classrooms?
Across Hawaii, for example, many classrooms are staffed by substitute teachers full-time. Last year it was reported that the state was short 1600 credentialed teachers. I know of classrooms right now that STILL don't have teachers 3 months into the school year. Many kids are playing video games while being proctored by an ever-changing series of adults. Some areas of extreme need now allow Substitutes who only have a high school diploma themselves.
This situation should not exist if teachers were paid living wages. If it is such a cushy deal, why isn't there a surplus instead of a teacher shortage? Why do more than half of new teachers, nationwide, leave the profession by year five?
BTW: In California and many other states, you HAVE to be 60 years old for full retirement. If you leave at 55 you get HALF as much. If you leave before 55 you don't get retirement at all.
Food for thought.
Just wanted to add, most of us retired teachers do NOT get health benefits. I earned Medicare in part-time jobs or I would have none after 32 years of teaching.
We only have a teacher shortage here in some subjects but there is a high drop out rate. One thing I have noticed among my former teaching colleagues is that very few of our own children have become teachers. Whereas my generation were lured into the profession by the availability of scholarships and guaranteed jobs, the relative ease of combining a career and family in that era of limited childcare and non-universal maternity leave, and a push from families into traditional female occupations. Mind you, many men our age were teachers too.
But many of the children of teachers were encouraged to do what they like and having been very familiar with the demands of the job, they have opted to almost anything else. The pay here starts at a higher level than many other entry level professions but it levels out quickly unless you are an executive in a top private school.
I think young people just have so many more options today even when the pay is reasonable.
I'm kind of surprised that no one has mentioned the growing teacher shortage nationwide. Undoubtedly there are areas with high pay (mostly in the Northeast), but if it is the gravy train that some of you keep suggesting, why are there so many unfilled classrooms?
Across Hawaii, for example, many classrooms are staffed by substitute teachers full-time. Last year it was reported that the state was short 1600 credentialed teachers. I know of classrooms right now that STILL don't have teachers 3 months into the school year. Many kids are playing video games while being proctored by an ever-changing series of adults. Some areas of extreme need now allow Substitutes who only have a high school diploma themselves.
This situation should not exist if teachers were paid living wages. If it is such a cushy deal, why isn't there a surplus instead of a teacher shortage? Why do more than half of new teachers, nationwide, leave the profession by year five?
BTW: In California and many other states, you HAVE to be 60 years old for full retirement. If you leave at 55 you get HALF as much. If you leave before 55 you don't get retirement at all.
Food for thought.
Just wanted to add, most of us retired teachers do NOT get health benefits. I earned Medicare in part-time jobs or I would have none after 32 years of teaching.
I for one have never said it’s a gravy train.
But JFC ... stop it with “it’s not a living wage” falsehood.
But JFC ... stop it with “it’s not a living wage” falsehood.
Quite a few teacher I know in Hawaii earn about 30k per year, yet live in one of the most expensive areas in the nation. Some live with parents because they can't afford to rent or buy. I know one full-time credentialed teacher who lives in his car and I knew others in California who did the same. Each of them was a man who had been through a divorce and paid child support.
All anecdotal, but shouldn't supply and demand fill these jobs if they were reasonably good?
Fairly soon I think this nation is going to have to abandon the traditional style of school and perhaps go to an on-line system with Khan Academy-style lessons done from home. We are simply running out of people who are willing to spend a career in Education.
Why don't people want to be teachers any more? Maybe it's not as great as you experts seem to think?
Last edited by Futuremauian; 10-04-2019 at 01:10 AM..
As a homeowner in Arizona, I received a recent tax breakdown regarding tax increases at the county/city level.
The recent tax raise was mostly tied it seems to Arizona's new 20% raise in public school salaries, the result of many strikes and walkouts in the last two years tied to the #RedforEd campaign.
A nearby neighbor complained recently about the tax increases. His truck still has the #RedforEd slogan across three sides. His wife is an elementary school teacher.
I'm kind of surprised that no one has mentioned the growing teacher shortage nationwide. Undoubtedly there are areas with high pay (mostly in the Northeast), but if it is the gravy train that some of you keep suggesting, why are there so many unfilled classrooms?
Across Hawaii, for example, many classrooms are staffed by substitute teachers full-time. Last year it was reported that the state was short 1600 credentialed teachers. I know of classrooms right now that STILL don't have teachers 3 months into the school year. Many kids are playing video games while being proctored by an ever-changing series of adults. Some areas of extreme need now allow Substitutes who only have a high school diploma themselves.
This situation should not exist if teachers were paid living wages. If it is such a cushy deal, why isn't there a surplus instead of a teacher shortage? Why do more than half of new teachers, nationwide, leave the profession by year five?
BTW: In California and many other states, you HAVE to be 60 years old for full retirement. If you leave at 55 you get HALF as much. If you leave before 55 you don't get retirement at all.
Food for thought.
Just wanted to add, most of us retired teachers do NOT get health benefits. I earned Medicare in part-time jobs or I would have none after 32 years of teaching.
Nobody suggested that. Introducing fake drama into your argument doesn't help your case.
Teachers in MA and RI make well over 100k per year, plus get summers off, every holiday off, along with vacations throughout the school year. After they retire, their pensions are 80% of what they made plus cost of living increases. Many also collect social security in retirement. Plus, if their married, they’ll have their spouses income. School principals in RI and MA make over 200k.
Takeaway.
1) Pay is HIGHLY dependent upon location.
2) Lots of "poor me" at one end and "I got mine go *********" at the other. Learned a few things about a few posters that were UNsurprising
Anecdote: In NJ now but grew up in OH. In the district I grew up in LOTS of teachers earning 60 to 70K. Not bad for a city you can live in and be reasonably safe and a decent house is 190K. Yea its a 1975 colonial, but it IS updated and 2200 SF.
Takeaway.
1) Pay is HIGHLY dependent upon location.
2) Lots of "poor me" at one end and "I got mine go *********" at the other. Learned a few things about a few posters that were UNsurprising
Anecdote: In NJ now but grew up in OH. In the district I grew up in LOTS of teachers earning 60 to 70K. Not bad for a city you can live in and be reasonably safe and a decent house is 190K. Yea its a 1975 colonial, but it IS updated and 2200 SF.
If you got that from my posts, then you totally missed the point.
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