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I asked several teachers about this, and they said that it was due to lots of pressure being placed on them to have a high percentage of their students be Hope Scholarship recipients.
And who places the pressure on someone?
I've refused to have a grade changed once...but grade was still changed. Why didn't I holler and complain? B/c my job was needed and there is no protection in GA.
I've refused to have a grade changed once...but grade was still changed. Why didn't I holler and complain? B/c my job was needed and there is no protection in GA.
I don't know, but I would imagine it's the usual suspects - administrators and parents.
They mostly make over $70K and even over $100K a year in the Pittsburgh region. Teachers are very well paid here and get entire summers off and every holiday including the Jewish ones even though there are only about 6% Jewish population. Anyway, getting a teaching job around here is TOUGH unless you know someone.
That's outstanding money for the Pittsburgh area considering the moderate cost of living. The average house there is only 100-125k. You can live great as a single and okay as a married person with a kid.
They mostly make over $70K and even over $100K a year in the Pittsburgh region.
I went to college in western PA and if accurate that does seem like a pretty good salary for the COL. Our salaries aren't quite that high here in suburban DC (start in the upper $40s) and an average, decent, older house is not that easy to find under $500k. One difference is our districts are hiring and don't have enough applicants. I know there is a push to try and improve our salaries partly due to difficulties in filling positions.
That's outstanding money for the Pittsburgh area considering the moderate cost of living. The average house there is only 100-125k. You can live great as a single and okay as a married person with a kid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tgbwc
I went to college in western PA and if accurate that does seem like a pretty good salary for the COL. Our salaries aren't quite that high here in suburban DC (start in the upper $40s) and an average, decent, older house is not that easy to find under $500k. One difference is our districts are hiring and don't have enough applicants. I know there is a push to try and improve our salaries partly due to difficulties in filling positions.
Pretty much. 3 weeks off for the Holidays, 3 months off for the summer... Let's say they get approximately 4 months off of work total per year: That's around $40/hr. That is FAR from low pay.
Agreed absolutely hogwash to think otherwise.
I find many teachers have an entitlement attitude as was pointed out earlier. I work as a Food Service Director at a skilled nursing facility, make 45k/ year, work without taking a break, work from home continuously, and am on call nearly every day of the year. They aren't getting any sympathy from me.
I don't think anyone is downplaying how difficult teaching can be.
It's just that the argument can be said about virtually any job.
I have to ensure that special calculations and thinking is done in a cost-effective fashion to ensure things don't explode and kill people or destroy large swaths of neighborhoods, and to generate revenue for a large company. It's not easy.
A nurse has to ensure that proper care is given to patients, including medication quantities, catheter insertions, hygienic care, etc., or else the patient dies.
A fast-food worker will argue that his/her job is extremely difficult due to having to stand over hot fryers and stoves all day while dealing with ungrateful customers all day.
None of these are easy. But we're giving teaching special attention here b/c:
1) it is the thread topic
2) that doesn't change how they put up with a lot, but still get the short end of the stick.
A Google search says the average salary is around $55,000/ However, that seems like a really good salary for what I've often heard called a low paying profession.
Are there any teachers who could speak from experience? With that $55,000 I'm thinking it might take a while to get to that point and the number is thrown off because most teachers have been at the job for a while. That's just wild speculation though. I'd love to hear some facts.
The popular narrative is that teachers make killer money and retire with a generous pension. While that may be true for the Boomers who have been in the system for 30+ years, that isn't true anymore.
At least for people of my generation, anybody teaching now has to pay 14% of their salary into the pension fund (and under at least two of the three retirement options the state matches less than 1:1 for those contributions).
As recently as five years ago, it was 10% you had to contribute - not 14%.
Worse still, due to the mandated step raises the teacher's unions have managed to force on the school boards, almost all of the salary overhead is loaded onto the older and less-qualified teachers who receive more simply because they've been there longer.
Meanwhile, a younger teacher with a master's degree in their late 20's makes peanuts - and still has to pay 14% of their salary into the pension.
The popular narrative is that teachers make killer money and retire with a generous pension. While that may be true for the Boomers who have been in the system for 30+ years, that isn't true anymore.
At least for people of my generation, anybody teaching now has to pay 14% of their salary into the pension fund (and under at least two of the three retirement options the state matches less than 1:1 for those contributions).
As recently as five years ago, it was 10% you had to contribute - not 14%.
Worse still, due to the mandated step raises the teacher's unions have managed to force on the school boards, almost all of the salary overhead is loaded onto the older and less-qualified teachers who receive more simply because they've been there longer.
Meanwhile, a younger teacher with a master's degree in their late 20's makes peanuts - and still has to pay 14% of their salary into the pension.
We see the same thing across the country. Until a few years ago, teachers in Virginia received a pension equivalent to 1.65% salary for each year worked without having to contribute a dime out of pocket. This was viewed as a benefit that helped offset the relatively low pay. Now all teachers must contribute 5% of salary each year, to pay for this benefit, but newer teachers only receive 1% of salary for each year worked (i.e., work 30 years and receive 30% of salary at retirement, plus Social Security). In addition, the State has imposed a minimum retirement age, meaning teachers are only eligible to receive payments starting at age 67.
Also, as others have noted, due to budgetary constraints, many states are no longer funding annual "step increases" (modest salary increases for each year worked) for teachers as they did in the past. Therefore, a teacher with 20 years of experience -- who has received 15 step increases -- might be making $75K while a teacher with 5 years experience - who has received 0 step increases due to the lack of funding -- might be making $40K/year. There are many teachers who entered the profession 5-10 years ago based on the expectation of receiving these annual step (salary) increases, because they'd always been awarded in the past, and now they find that they work year after year with no increase in pay, while the costs of healthcare, continuing education, etc. continue to rise.
Believe me, you do not want a state full of teachers without Master's degrees teaching your young'uns.
Can you go into detail on this? I was never able to ascertain why for a position that also heavily emphasized soft skills, social skills, etc. why this was a hard requirement.
I take it there are credentials in masters of education majors?
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