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How many people think teachers "deserve" low pay? Teachers being forced to pay for own supplies is obviously a major, and common, issue and certainly needs to be fixed, but it wouldn't go over well with parents in many districts to inform them that the teacher is "going broke" with a middle class salary. Yes, I know it varies greatly by state and by school district, but overall in many places teaching is still pretty middle class. In MN, for example, the average starting teacher salary is $33,018; average teacher's salary in general in the state is $49,719. (MN is in the middle of the pack, both for cost of living and for teacher salaries) Now those salaries may be low when compared to certain non-teaching industries, but it's not exactly poverty-wage, either.
I've been told, repeatedly, that I'm paid low because I have the summers off and I can work the summers to make up for lower pay. As if someone will hire me for the 4-6 weeks during the summer that I'm not either finishing up lasty year or getting ready for next year and that they'd actually pay me a decent wage for those weeks.
What do your charter schools pay? Here, you do ok if you're in a district. Pay is a little higher, but if you don't get into a district, you start about 15% lower and stay there. The average pay for charter schools is the starting wage. The only raises are 2% COL raises every other year if you're lucky. My school is on year three with no raises and our budget for classroom supplies has been cut.
What's the real starting wage for your state and the real averge? What you quoted probably doesn't include teachers who don't get into districts. There are really to classes of teachers in Michigan. District teachers who are protected by a union who make a decent wage, have the supplies they need and job security and charter school teachers who have none of the above. Unfotunately, I'm one of the latter. If charter schools turn out to be my only option (and it may), I will have to leave teaching or face not being able to send my own kids to college or retire.
BTW, I'd be happy if I knew I could just get to $49K someday. It's much easier to weather lean times when you know they will end and better times are coming.
In MN beginning charter school teacher's salaries are $32,021, with average salary of charter teachers being $37,701. I don't have any personal experience with charters, and will readily acknowledge that there may be entirely different sets of issues facing charter school teachers versus district teachers. I will say, though, that the teachers in the city districts, at least, also lack money for supplies, or at least lack sufficient money. There are some district-wide educational foundations to help with costs of that sort (besides PTOs, etc., which of course are very school-specific) but it's a problem and reflects larger inequalities of school funding. As far as job security, it only goes so far; my mother had worked in the district for years, but still was laid off because of seniority rules. I know she had far more protections than she would have had at a charter school, though.
I know there are people who complain about teacher's salaries being too high; I guess I should clarify that I'd like to think that those people are a small but vocal minority, and that the vast majority of Americans realize that teachers work hard and shoulder a lot of responsibility in return for that money.
Now those salaries may be low when compared to certain non-teaching industries, but it's not exactly poverty-wage, either.
You hit the nail squarely on the head. Compared to some professions, teachers salaries are lower, but compared to the average American, teachers are well off. That is especially true in rural Colorado where I live. A teaching position is hard to find, because teachers are among the highest paid workers in the community.
Now those salaries may be low when compared to certain non-teaching industries, but it's not exactly poverty-wage, either.
You hit the nail squarely on the head. Compared to some professions, teachers salaries are lower, but compared to the average American, teachers are well off. That is especially true in rural Colorado where I live. A teaching position is hard to find, because teachers are among the highest paid workers in the community.
Being an average American doesn't have a minimum qualification of having a Bachelor's Degree with a substantial proportion of the population having a Master's or higher. A more valid comparison would be to compare teachers to similar groups with similar levels of education.
Being an average American doesn't have a minimum qualification of having a Bachelor's Degree with a substantial proportion of the population having a Master's or higher. A more valid comparison would be to compare teachers to similar groups with similar levels of education.
I agree. Why compare teachers to people with only a high school diploma? You need to compare us to other college grads. You also need to look at our continuing ed requirements and compare us to other fields where more education means higher salaries.
As an engineer, from the time I started until I finished my masters, I put 50% on my salary and it wasn't bad to begin with. My starting wage as a teacher with a masters degree, for comparison, is less than my starting wage was as an engineer with a bachelors degree 20 YEARS AGO.
I can tell you from personal experience that there are other professions out there that require at least a BA, and more likely a MA, just to get a starting job that starts out at possibly less than $30,000, even in big cities. It obviously depends on what subject you teach, but a history/social studies teacher who wants a history-related job outside of teaching is going to start out making less, or maybe around the same, as he or she would teaching, despite the non-teaching job having the same minimum educational and experience requirements.
Obviously it's different in the sciences or other fields where there are more lucrative non-teaching jobs available. Science or math have more high-paying non-teaching jobs available. Does that mean science teachers should be paid more than social studies teachers?
I don't know what the answer is, but it's a more complicated issue than just teachers compared to all other Americans with advanced degrees.
it wouldn't go over well with parents in many districts to inform them that the teacher is "going broke" with a middle class salary.
No, it really doesn't.
In between getting my degree and teaching cert, and my current teaching post, I spent the better part of a decade in print journalism, primarily on the education beat. In particular, I covered contract negotiations and not one, not two, but THREE teachers' strikes in as many years in the same small community. The animosity between the striking educators and the community/parents was tremendous, because the wages and benefits the teachers were receiving (and what they were striking over) far exceeded the wages and benefits enjoyed by the majority of the small agricultural and manufacturing community. Truth be known, it was a solid middle class wage in an area where a very high percentage of their students and students' families were at or below the poverty line. Teachers are essentially something akin to white collar in an impoverished agricultural and agricultural manufacturing community. Hard to rake up sympathy that your insurance is going from free to a small copay when most of your students and their parents aren't insured at all. Especially when those parents have to take off work to be home with their children while you're striking.
I teach in CA and make a descent wage. My pay is what is actually keeping me in teaching for a few more years. I know starting over in another career I will start at a lot less. So I need to pay off all my student loans first before I can change careers. So wages for some are not the factors making teachers quit. Actually most teachers who last 10 years or so make a pretty good wage in CA and that is what keeps them around and their retirement plan. It's all the other stresses of the job that I didn't anticipate before hand that attribute to people leaving such as myself.
Being an average American doesn't have a minimum qualification of having a Bachelor's Degree with a substantial proportion of the population having a Master's or higher. A more valid comparison would be to compare teachers to similar groups with similar levels of education.
If you re-read my post you will see that I acknowledged that some teachers salaries are lower than some other professions. However, the point I'm making is this:
rather than comparing yourself to other professions, which leaves you feeling underpaid and resentful, instead compare yourself to the average American to realize that you have it pretty damn good.
Thiis simple shift of focus will pull you out of complaining mode and put you into a better feeling state, thus raising your level of effectiveness.
Being an average American doesn't have a minimum qualification of having a Bachelor's Degree with a substantial proportion of the population having a Master's or higher. A more valid comparison would be to compare teachers to similar groups with similar levels of education.
If you re-read my post you will see that I acknowledged that some teachers salaries are lower than some other professions. However, the point I'm making is this:
rather than comparing yourself to other professions, which leaves you feeling underpaid and resentful, instead compare yourself to the average American to realize that you have it pretty damn good.
Thiis simple shift of focus will pull you out of complaining mode and put you into a better feeling state, thus raising your level of effectiveness.
Why should I be happy to compare myself to the average American when I'm not average? I have spent over 10 years on higher education and you think it should make me happy that I make less than others who have done the same but more than a burger flipper?
No, I'm not happy about making more than the average high school graduate (BTW, I live next door to a high school grad who out earns me). To be happy about it would be to accept it. I'm not accepting it. If they don't want my epertise in teaching then I won't be in the classroom. When you treat teachers like cheap, easily replacable commodities, that's what you get.
As my husband often points out, I do not work for non profit organization. If I did, I could consider the low wages a charitable contribution. I don't though. I work, indirectly, for the government. I perform a service that shociety should value but doesn't. Fortunately, I can go back into industry and correct the wage situation.
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and that they'd actually pay me a decent wage for those weeks. 
