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I could not read that paragraph. It was horrible, my personal opinion of course.
I believe that most teachers are overpaid in "rich" districts. And it is not fair to the taxpayer because some teachers are getting paid more than engineers or the scientists. And then when they retire they get 70% of their highest pay. However, if you are an engineer you will get less than 40 000. And the healthcare benefits are not any good. Being a teacher is a lot of responsibility but many teachers are just horrible and know nothing of what they are teaching.
I believe that most teachers are overpaid in "rich" districts. And it is not fair to the taxpayer because some teachers are getting paid more than engineers or the scientists. And then when they retire they get 70% of their highest pay. However, if you are an engineer you will get less than 40 000. And the healthcare benefits are not any good. Being a teacher is a lot of responsibility but many teachers are just horrible and know nothing of what they are teaching.
You don't build yourself up by tearing the other guy down.
I think the thing is that it is subjective to different areas of the country and school districts.
As BioMom said after 26 years she makes what a starting teacher makes where I am (upstate NY) with experienced classroom teachers very near $100,000 yr here (180 days); no upper cap and on par with what a local atty would make. This is far above what other new grads are offered ($42 vs $18-20) in our local economy that is ailing.
This is not the case in many places and is aggrevated by the escalated prices of homes in most areas of the country. Complaining by those underpaid in those instances should be taken seriously. It's when others as above insist on more that it becomes maddening. Many teachers are supporting non-teacher spouses as jobs have been driven away because of high taxes. Others not on a public financed payroll have simply had to move for that reason.
It can cause problems on either end of the spectrum, either pay that is too low or too high for a locale.
lets say they start at 30k but they only work 180 days thats half the year so really teachers start off making 60k. Experienced teachers make 50k thats six figures. Am I missing something?
Yes you are missing the fact that while most folks work 12 months a year they do not work every one of those days. A typical work schedule would be more like 245 days (5 days a week for 49 weeks, 3 weeks vacation). Teachers work MORE than the days students attend classes (180 days). Around here teachers work an additional 14 days for a total of 194 days.
So the math goes: $30,000/year * (245/194) which equates to about $38K per year, NOT $60K.
A teacher friend of mine was a little torqued that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published the salary of every teacher and administrator in the area at this Website:
JS Online: Public school employee salaries for 2006-'07 school year (http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=683257&appSession=792106492219632 - broken link)
Some teacher salaries top out over $80K. And most administrator salaries appear to be over $100K. What's more eye popping though is the value of the benefits. So, my opinion is that teachers are not overpaid but not exactly starving either. No, they don't make as much as doctors, lawyers, and investment bankers, but I don't know what they think the average cubicle jockey out there is making. These seem like very respectable salaries to me. I don't doubt that teaching can be a very difficult job. One thing I've learned over the years is that whatever your occupation is, the other guy's job always looks easier.
I see administrator salaries on this link, but not teacher salaries. I'll look again.
Last edited by tgbwc; 07-21-2008 at 03:06 PM..
Reason: spelling
I was never trying to imply teachers are overpaid. I'm just saying its not the life of poverty most people make it out to be.
It's also all relative to where teachers are living. For example, NYC teachers cannot afford to live where they teach, and I am not talking about Manhattan...
P.S. I teach Kindergarten and there is no reason grammar should be frowned upon when referring to a Kindergarten teacher-everything you need to know, you learned there
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