Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Fed up with low pay and nearly meaningless salary bumps, an Arizona teacher posted her salary to Facebook alongside an exasperated message, according to multiple reports this week. Whispering Wind Academy teacher Elisabeth Milich wrote her pay was not a living wage.
To answer her question, teacher salary is so low because, crudely put, teachers are a dime a dozen. Now personally I think teacher pay should be tied to the field of study. IE if the market for a physics degree holder starts at $50K for a new grad, then the pay scale for a physics teacher with a physics degree should be in that ball park to be competitive with market and encourage good people to enter teaching. (Problem is that only roughly a third have in field degrees granted by the major department).
What this would mean though is that not all teaching jobs would be created equal. They would still be driven by the market, so those who went into the harder fields would earn more whereas the dime a dozen effect would still be in play for many.
Assuming full time 40hr week, that salary comes out to a little more than $17/hr. My engineering interns make $20/hr.
Quit teaching and go do something else that pays more.
That's a horrible answer. Why? Because if every teacher took that advice, who would be left to teach our children?? This is a situation where the system DOES need to be changed, or we're just going to keep losing the good teachers... same as what's happening here in the Bay Area, as evidenced by my own desire to "cut and run" to a cheaper region (since I have no interest in changing careers). Eventually almost all of us public "servants" will do the same, either choosing another career, or moving to the few regions where salaries are more balanced with COL. Then what? How is a society going to survive without teachers, librarians, cops, social workers, etc? This is a serious problem, and telling them to find another job is NOT the solution.
In the meantime (while I'm still working and living here), I am doing my best to advocate for salary realignments within my own union. Our contract is about to expire, and I've already volunteered to serve on the negotiations committee if realignment is being considered. That is how we make changes happen, and hopefully keep the good workers from bailing.
Why not? It's all public info. Anyone can look up any public sector employee's pay.
Yep. I freely share my salary (if/when it's relevant) because anyone can look it up anyway. We even have a site called "Transparent California" which lists every public worker BY NAME, and how much they earned + benefits for the previous year... each position's salary scale is also on our county and city websites, so it's hardly a big secret.
To answer her question, teacher salary is so low because, crudely put, teachers are a dime a dozen. Now personally I think teacher pay should be tied to the field of study. IE if the market for a physics degree holder starts at $50K for a new grad, then the pay scale for a physics teacher with a physics degree should be in that ball park to be competitive with market and encourage good people to enter teaching. (Problem is that only roughly a third have in field degrees granted by the major department).
What this would mean though is that not all teaching jobs would be created equal. They would still be driven by the market, so those who went into the harder fields would earn more whereas the dime a dozen effect would still be in play for many.
I don't want poorly qualified, poorly compensated teachers responsible for my pre-school children.
My main question is, what are the other districts in the area paying? Could she just move to another district? The district I live in pays less than the suburban districts and we lose teachers yearly to their higher salary. Salaries are also connected to state budgets and funding schemes.
In Texas the educational system is broken due to recapture or what others call "Robin Hood" where property tax rich districts send extra money to property poor districts. This means districts with money from oil or areas like Austin or other metros that have pockets of very rich and very poor send back all that rich money back to the state to send to the more rural districts instead of investing it in their "very poor" students within district or helping increase salary. While I'm not advocating to keep all the property rich funds, I am advocating for a better system. I wish I knew the answer to that, but, I don't.
Mixed responses, teachers don't seem to get a lot of sympathy when it comes to salary.
I read through some of the comments, and it was the typical uninformed fare... like those who think teachers only work 6 hours/day and 9 months/year, which ANY teacher would tell you is false. During the academic year they're also working before and after school hours, in order to create lesson plans, grade papers/tests, attend meetings, help with extracurriculars, and so forth. They also work past the end of the year, and come back at least a few weeks early to prepare - not to mention summer school, which many teachers do for very little if any extra pay. Tired old tropes, which you'd think people would know by now were untrue.
Oh, but I think my favorite comment was one saying "What's she complaining about? That's way more than I make on disability!" Well, duh. Nothing against those who are legitimately unable to work, but she is working and should be earning more than public benefits pay. Otherwise why even bother?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
