How do teachers live in SF Bay area? (San Jose, San Francisco: real estate market, homes)

[smashystyle]

Originally Posted by shooting4life

When qualified teachers can no longer be found then wages will increase. Just like every other profession.

This assumes that governmental budgets can respond quickly to market forces to increase salaries when there are teacher vacancies. But even more importantly, it assumes that all you're interested in is finding teachers that meet the minimum qualifications. If you want better teachers than simply those meeting the minimum qualifications, supply and demand would say that you need to raise salaries. That would draw and retain smarter and more talented people to the profession. The policy question society needs to answer is how much are we willing to pay to get better teachers and at what point do we say that the teachers are good enough and we'll cap salaries. That's the more interesting -- and more difficult question -- than simply what is the minimum salary you can pay to find the minimum number of licensed teachers to fill your classroom. Countries where teachers are paid commensurately to other professionals tend to have better educational outcomes. In the US, we pay teachers relatively poorly and end up with, on average, teachers that were among the weaker students in their own college classes: Do teachers really come from the ‘bottom third’ of college graduates? - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

[04kL4nD]

Nah, let's continue the current outdated, ineffective model of education in America. Who cares if we're lagging behind most of the developed world? Teachers clearly make way too much and are living high off the hog.

[Ultrarunner]

Teaching is different in many respects.

I have several credentialed teachers in the family... for some, there is no other career and others, for lack of a better term, they are burnt out.

One found her niche leaving Public Education and going Private to a local Catholic School which also meant a pay and benefit cut... so it is not always about the money.

It's been 7 years and loves where she works... loves the parent support and involvement and loves the commitment of the staff and faculty.

One of my friends started as a new teacher in Oakland Unified bright and optimistic... quit and left the profession permanently after only a few months... he said there was no amount of money that would make it worthwhile to go back...

My brother had considered becoming a full time DVC teacher... he's been teaching one night class for about 12 years and loves the balance.

[04kL4nD]

Regardless of what some people think, teaching does require some ability and talent, so it's not for everyone. Personally, I love teaching and I'm quite happy with my career at this point, but to suggest that I'm overpaid for how hard I work is pretty insulting.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by 04kL4nD

Regardless of what some people think, teaching does require some ability and talent, so it's not for everyone. Personally, I love teaching and I'm quite happy with my career at this point, but to suggest that I'm overpaid for how hard I work is pretty insulting.

GO, 04kL4nD!


Did you see the French film, "The Class"? If so, I wonder what you thought of it.

[08grad]

I am a teacher in the East Bay. I make around $60k/year in a base salary. I have a Master's Degree. I can't afford a house in the neighborhood I teach, and my school is 95% free/reduced lunch.

I can afford living here because I moved here in 2011 when the market was near the bottom. I got a great deal on a condo rental, $1600 for a 2 bed 2 bath with garage/dishwasher/washer/dryer.

There's 6 teachers in my department. 4 of them are below 35 and single, all of whom rent and have roommates. The other 2 bought for under 300k in inexpensive parts of the East Bay where the schools are awful and there's high crime.

I see very few teachers who have families at my school. It's almost as if a generation was skipped, as either you're nearing retirement, or you're new to teaching. We have very few 5-20 year experience teachers at our school.

[2sleepy]

Great article here: 5 uncomfortable truths about living in San Francisco

From the article:
"A new report from the data company Priceonomics found that the median rental price of a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco, as of June 2014, was $3,120, totaling to a yearly housing price of $37,440. The average starting salary for a San Francisco Unified School District teacher is $47,000."

[Malloric]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

Here's some 'real world' for you. A teacher in SF makes about the same as a teacher anywhere else in Northern California. Why would a teacher accept your 'suck it up life is tough' philosophy and commute from Vacaville so that they can teach there when they can get a job in Vacaville and walk to work? There will, at some time in the not too distant future, come a time when San Francisco will run out of local residents with teaching degrees- they only exist now because they rented or bought before the run up in prices. When you have to "import" teachers (or any public employees) you have to either offer them enough money to offset the commute, or subsidize housing in the community.

Apparently not as there's not really a shortage of teachers in the Bay Area that I know of. San Francisco does offer some preferential placement for welfare housing, but I'm not sure of how useful that actually is.

[2sleepy]

I don't know about statewide, but this article claims there is a shortage (at least in the Sacramento area) New teachers scarce after state funding cuts | The Sacramento Bee The Sacramento Bee

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by eudo

So I was reading an article about how there were literally zero homes in San Francisco affordable on a SF teacher salary here:

http://www.redfin.com/research/repor...-teachers.html

And I was wondering, how do they do it? So I'm wondering if there are any K-12 teachers out there, would you be willing to explain how you do it?

Where do you teach? Where do you live? Does your spouse make much more than you? Do you have roommates? etc

CA in general, and San Francisco, in particular have given up on public school education. So no one cares if they can't hire good teachers or what the teachers are paid. SF is meant for hipsters who can live in dumpsters and the filthy rich who can live anywhere. Things like public education and anything that serves families with kids etc are too uncool for SF/bay area.