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They are willing to take lower pay because the work circumstances are so much better. Many of the parts of teaching that make the job stressful are not there - special ed, lack of parental involvement, poverty, onerous standardized testing, discipline issues, and others. Many, if not most, private school teachers think they have made a great trade-off.
If I could afford it I would. The teachers I know who can afford to work for private schools are quite happy with their jobs. They get more support and have fewer hassles.
I'm surprised how many people want to pay more based on subject matter. My subject was history, which I went to grad school for. At the graduate level, history is much more labor intensive than math/science. Go to any university library and the history theses and dissertations are at least 100 pages longer than most of the science ones. Our research process is much more involved.
I taught 4th grade for a year (before grad school but after undergrad). I think teachers should make about $10K more per year than they do in most districts, at least. By Oregon cost of living standards, I think they should start around $48K and max out around $90K.
In Oregon starting teacher pay is right at $40K per year -some districts still pay in the mid-30s per year for starting teachers. Seriously, I made more than that working as an Asst. Manager at Wal-Mart, a position I got after 3.5 years with no college degree.
Yes, teachers have some more off time - but their on time is more intense than most jobs. You're on the stage every work day - something that doesn't happen in every job. The kind of intensity that goes on most of the school year for each day you're at school is similar to the intensity I had at WM during the holiday season and subsequent sales. However, that doesn't last forever - you have down time, sometimes for weeks at a time, where things are pretty steady and not that stressful. With teaching there was a constant level of stress every second of the school year. I never felt like I had done enough - always felt like I needed to do more.
People who have never been teachers don't realize how much work goes home with them. Grading is extremely onerous. The creative part of teaching - the prep and execution often doesn't feel like work - it can be very rewarding. But grading student work... that takes hours, every day, on top of whatever preparation time you need for the next day's class and your actual in-school working hours.
Last edited by redguard57; 11-16-2014 at 07:59 PM..
People who have never been teachers don't realize how much work goes home with them. Grading is extremely onerous. The creative part of teaching - the prep and execution often doesn't feel like work - it can be very rewarding. But grading student work... that takes hours, every day, on top of whatever preparation time you need for the next day's class and your actual in-school working hours.
Agree.
Lets shut down all schools for three or four months and let parents deal with responsibility of educating their kids.
Will see very quickly just how valuable teachers are.
Supply and demand,,,,
If you offer to little no one takes the job..Considering that it's taxpayer money the lowest pay and benefits that will fill the positions and keep them filled..
Pay shouldn't be decided by strikes. Day one you put out job openings and if the slots are filled you fire the strikers,,if not your paying to little....
The proper method is binding arbitration,,,where other schools in different districts of similar means are compensated. Frankly the teachers union in the USA should be disbanded, what was once called negotiations became votes for pay and that's frankly a scum pool that union teaches like to swim in.....
Seniority shouldn't affect pay. Teacher is a job. It should pay a certain amount. COLA raises yearly. School boards and administration should back the teachers more than they do now, which usually isn't much.
I never agreed that a raise should be given if they get a masters. In most occupations you have to take on a position of added responsibility to get a raise, not get a masters and continue to teach 2nd grade. Move to guidance, curriculum, or asst. principal for the increase in pay.
Spoken like someone who never worked in education. Those jobs aren't added responsibility, they're just different responsibility.
I left teaching because of the low pay. As a nurse, we get paid more when we add certifications, we get raises just about yearly, we get overtime, we get on call pay, and I work fewer days than I did as a teacher. I also get more days off (1 a month, as opposed to 5 a year in teaching) Also, in my first year of nursing (!) I will make about $10,000 more than I did as a teacher after 5 years of working. Best of all, the public doesn't *%&^ and moan about what a selfish slob I am for wanting to have a decent, middle class lifestyle.
If you want smart, capable people to teach your children, you need to pay up. If not, enjoy the bottom of the barrel.
I think teachers out here were paid well prior to all the budget cuts these recent years . They started at 50k or higher and topped out around 100k. I have absolutely no issue with teachers being paid well for what they do. However, I think it should be easier to fire them (sore subject) than it is here.
Yes, in some areas it's easy to fire teachers, but that isn't the case here. Once a teacher gets tenure (automatic after two years teaching), it's virtually impossible to fire them. With job security like that, there is an issue with the higher end of the pay scale.
The teachers' union in this state is much too politically powerful, and fewer people would take issue with teachers being paid good salaries if it didn't take 3-5 years and a ridiculous amount of money for districts to fire child molesters.
Teaching AP chemistry or pre-calculus is much harder and requires more education than teaching the alphabet and times tables. I don't think all HS teachers should make more, but those with higher levels of education teaching college preparatory classes should be rewarded accordingly.
Spoken like someone with no experience in ed. Those AP teachers are rewarded with easy students who probably want to learn, or at least want to do well. They shouldn't be paid more as well.
And what about special ed? I spent one day subbing in a pre-k sped. That was the most exhausting day of my life. I would never do that job if it paid $100,000 a year. Similarly, I had subs who were retired high school teacher who said they'd never teach my first graders again, and they thought elementary teachers should get paid more because of the extreme energy that is needed to teach 20 6 year olds.
I think teachers out here were paid well prior to all the budget cuts these recent years . They started at 50k or higher and topped out around 100k. I have absolutely no issue with teachers being paid well for what they do. However, I think it should be easier to fire them (sore subject) than it is here.
Yes, in some areas it's easy to fire teachers, but that isn't the case here. Once a teacher gets tenure (automatic after two years teaching), it's virtually impossible to fire them. With job security like that, there is an issue with the higher end of the pay scale.
The teachers' union in this state is much too politically powerful, and fewer people would take issue with teachers being paid good salaries if it didn't take 3-5 years and a ridiculous amount of money for districts to fire child molesters.
Trust me, most teachers have an issue with that too. If someone has been accused of child abuse/molestation they should automatically be moved to a position that has no contact with children. If they have been formally charged, indicted, and are headed to court with any type of child molestation/porn charges they should be put on unpaid leave. Additionally, the minute they are convicted they should automatically be fired and their teaching licence yanked. That some unions even suggest doing otherwise is ludicrous.
But, that has little to do with the vast majority of teachers, who everyone thinks are underworked and overpaid. And aren't.
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I agree that the type of teaching one does, and experience level, should have an influence on salary. I know many university teachers with PhDs who are paid less than elementary school teachers and that's just not right. Not to say any qualified, dedicated teacher at any level should be poorly paid. It's a job that requires a college degree, continuing education, and many duties beyond classroom instruction. Teachers are among the people with the most influence in a human's life. They should be honored by their communities and paid well. Not to say there aren't some bad teachers. I had more than few in my life. But they can be dealt with in ways other than lowering everyone's pay and denigrating every teacher's efforts.
One final thing: I get very tired of hearing people say teachers "have the whole summer off." They do not. They have to go to meetings, prepare for the coming school year, they stay after the kids leave and come in before they arrive. Some teach summer school. Many college instructors teach year around. When I taught at a university, I can say the time I spent in a classroom didn't account for 25% of the time I spent on my job. I had to hold office hours for my students, work with advisees. participate in university committees, help plan and execute department events. grade papers (which was VERY time consuming given that I taught writing), prepare lesson plans that varied greatly as I taught different classes each semester, and prepare and mark tests. I know teachers who have to buy things their students need in the classroom out of their salaries.
If teaching is such an easy, over-paid job, people would be knocking themselves out to become teachers. And in most places they are not. I traded in my teaching job for a professional position with a Fortune 100 corporation that paid TWICE as much. And even when my job involved heavy travel, I didn't as a rule spend nearly as many hours a day working as I did when I taught college classes.
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