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My point was not that we should all be in a "race to the bottom." My point is when teacher salaries are higher than average private sector salaries of a certain area, AND you hear teachers whining and complaining about it, that breeds hostility from the public. My sister-in-law lives in PA and she says teachers there were demanding very high raises just a few years ago (during this recession). You don't get in the public eye and demand an 8% raise when families all around are losing their homes and jobs. Of course, you also have to compare apples to apples. You can't say teachers are overpaid when the position requires a BA or even a Master's degree, but most of the local jobs don't even require a college degree. Sure, all teachers are going to seem overpaid when the average worker in your area makes $10/hr cleaning motel rooms! If you want to get decent quality teachers, you can't offer 'rock bottom' pay *as long as teachers can find better jobs in a different state or industry*. If teaching is so easy and such a gravy train salary wise, we should be attracting the best and brightest college grads into the field year after year. We all know this is not happening. Pay is one factor. Lack of advancement and terrible working conditions are other factors. In addition, these days, lack of job security is a HUGE factor. Who wants to take on $30,000+ debt for an education degree and always be the "last hired, first fired" person, OR know that the only open jobs these days are at the "high needs" Title I schools where the deck is stacked against you to the extreme. (yes, there are poor students who show up eager to learn and really need a positive role model, but there are also poor students who lack any kind of self-control or motivation, and your job depends on getting that 8 year old to pass a standardized test given during one week of the year, and he shows up in your 3rd grade class only reading at a kindergarten level, and then is absent or tardy 30+ days per marking period!) If he doesn't pass, not only are you fired, but your teaching certificate in the state of FL could be revoked. You are deemed "ineffective" on our new (and unverified/ unpiloted) evaluation system, and your career is thereby over before it even got off the ground. (because there is a line around the block of other 21-year olds who can do you job even better, LOL.)
For teachers in the Northeast (even places like New Hampshire), medical benefit plans also tend to be much better than what is offered in the private sector. I used to work in corporate benefits. I doubt you could find any company now that offers family coverage for less than $100 a month and with zero co-pays for a lot of services. This is unheard of now, but teachers in NJ had this until recently with Christie's reforms. "Cadillac" health insurance plans like that with very low employee contribution are a big factor in driving up the local property taxes. Yet you heard teachers up in arms about it because they had NO clue what it is like in the "real world."
Last edited by MovedfromFL; 03-13-2012 at 02:20 PM..
If my taxes supported your salary sure you could look it up. The last time I checked my school taxes and proerty taxes didn't pay any salaries except teachers..
in California, where our governer Mr. Brown can't go without raising taxes this year
open position for
Assistant principal
[SIZE=3]Work Year
[/SIZE][SIZE=2]Twelve months: 220 work days, 15 scheduled holidays, and 21 vacation days.
[/SIZE][SIZE=3]Salary Range
[/SIZE][SIZE=2]Administrative Salary Schedule Range III: $120,345-$139,563 and $1,806 for a doctorate, plus fringe benefits with District-paid premiums valued at approximately $23,385/yr. (family medical, dental, vision. Life, EAP, and long term disability).
[/SIZE]
I often wonder about teacher's issues with salary. I worked 184 days a year, 7 hours 10 minutes a day. I made $37 an hour. And my benefits were awesome. Dental, medical for about $30 a month.
I have left teaching, make roughly same hourly rate, but based on 2080 hours a year. So...I make more money....I also work more.
I often wonder about teacher's issues with salary. I worked 184 days a year, 7 hours 10 minutes a day. I made $37 an hour. And my benefits were awesome. Dental, medical for about $30 a month.
I have left teaching, make roughly same hourly rate, but based on 2080 hours a year. So...I make more money....I also work more.
If you want higher pay....work more hours.
sadly the only part of my income that encourages me to work more hours is my school bus driving. which i only made about $1,500 doing this past school year. roughly 3% of my income. i could drive more hours but thats tough when you coach 3 sports at the same time. i could quit coaching and replace that with more driving hours but at 10 dollars at hour for driving i'm still gonna need to drive 150 hours a season to replace the lost income from coaching.
i WISH i could get paid based on hours to be honest as my coaching especially essentially requires me to be doing stuff in the summer for hours on end.
the public sector downfall has and will always be that regardless of how hard one works they can only make so much money.
Partially what I quoted below. Also, while there are a lot of high salary districts in PA there are also a lot of low paid, mostly rural, ones.
Not to be insulting but you're in the South (as I am, but MD generally pays well) and most Southern states have historically paid lower wages across the board for everything.
the same issue applies in Ohio where I'm from. I remember interviewing back home for jobs that started at 25,000 a year and then another that started at 35,000 a year. In SC I will say that for the most part regardless of where you are geographically you get paid the same. There's about a grand difference between Charleston and Greenville but only b/c the Charleston COL is higher when it comes to housing.
p.s. I would not count MD as the south. In fact most people from Virginia that I've met don't consider even NOVA to be part of Virginia let alone the state next door, Maryland :-).
the same issue applies in Ohio where I'm from. I remember interviewing back home for jobs that started at 25,000 a year and then another that started at 35,000 a year. In SC I will say that for the most part regardless of where you are geographically you get paid the same. There's about a grand difference between Charleston and Greenville but only b/c the Charleston COL is higher when it comes to housing.
p.s. I would not count MD as the south. In fact most people from Virginia that I've met don't consider even NOVA to be part of Virginia let alone the state next door, Maryland
Please don't start that here. There's a 1000 post thread over on the Maryland forum already.
What I think you've seen here, and most of the self-proclaimed experts don't know, don't want to know and will never accept, is that teacher salaries/benefits are all over the map in most states.
Last edited by toobusytoday; 06-10-2012 at 04:11 PM..
I often wonder about teacher's issues with salary. I worked 184 days a year, 7 hours 10 minutes a day. I made $37 an hour. And my benefits were awesome. Dental, medical for about $30 a month.
I have left teaching, make roughly same hourly rate, but based on 2080 hours a year. So...I make more money....I also work more.
If you want higher pay....work more hours.
I have never seen a teacher actually claim they are underpaid, and the vast majority of us only ever defend what we do make. What usually happens is someone posts how OVER paid we are and make claims about how we only work part time and have "cadillac" benefits. Then we defend ourselves, and someone then says if we want more money we should get real jobs.
There is a real difference between claiming to be underpaid and defending the money we actually do make.
I have never seen a teacher actually claim they are underpaid, and the vast majority of us only ever defend what we do make. What usually happens is someone posts how OVER paid we are and make claims about how we only work part time and have "cadillac" benefits. Then we defend ourselves, and someone then says if we want more money we should get real jobs.
There is a real difference between claiming to be underpaid and defending the money we actually do make.
Exactly. How many times have you heard, "You knew the salary going in" followed up by a comment of how your benefits should be cut?
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How many times have you heard, "You knew the salary going in" followed up by a comment of how your benefits should be cut?
