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The high cost of low teacher salaries

rjequalsmj

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/opinion/01eggers.html

some of my favorite excerpts:
WHEN we don’t get the results we want in our military endeavors, we don’t blame the soldiers. We don’t say, “It’s these lazy soldiers and their bloated benefits plans! That’s why we haven’t done better in Afghanistan!”

At the moment, the average teacher’s pay is on par with that of a toll taker or bartender. Teachers make 14 percent less than professionals in other occupations that require similar levels of education. In real terms, teachers’ salaries have declined for 30 years. The average starting salary is $39,000; the average ending salary — after 25 years in the profession — is $67,000. This prices teachers out of home ownership in 32 metropolitan areas. So how do teachers cope? Sixty-two percent work outside the classroom to make ends meet.

So every year 20 percent of teachers in urban districts quit. Nationwide, 46 percent of teachers quit before their fifth year. The turnover costs the United States $7.34 billion yearly.
 
Teacher Pay

Both of my brother's and one Sister in Law are teachers. I love my brothers, and I'd trust them with my son 1-1, but when they talk about the books, tools, etc in the system, it's crazy. Not to mention adding in what people do or don't want in terms of "civics/how to be a good American" training. No way you get universal agreement on what a "market rate" for a teacher would be..
 
What is crazy to me is that they somehow continue to get many competent and qualified people to agree to become career teachers. Amazing...

Due to the retirement system, many of them in North Carolina leave promptly on getting in their thirty years, and start a new career making greater income and building a new retirement for another fifteen years or twenty years. There is no incentive in the retirement system for most state employees to remain beyond 30 years.

I think retirement for principals and administrators is computed differently (based on last five years comp), but still in western North Carolina it is not uncommon for principals to get in their 30 years in North Carolina, retire, and promptly move to a SC job as a principal there building a new retirement.
 
Government employment is a damn joke at all levels and across all professions. With the way priorities are skewed and completely unrelated to job importance, it is amazing that anyone would think government control of healthcare will be helpful. I can't wait for the healthcare unions to begin to take hold.
 
Teachers should be paid more. Pretty simple really. But there isn't even money right now to pay the teachers we have. Right now there are many who will take (temporary) pay cuts just to keep their job. I'm one exam away from having my M.Ed but doubt I'll have a full-time job next year. And if I have a job, I probably won't get paid the extra money that goes to masters level teachers. It sucks, rant over.
 
teachers work 3/4ths of a year and get paid for a full year, just as if they only worked 3/4ths of the year.
 
I think the point is that a teacher working for 3/4 of the year is more valuable to society than a DMV clerk or tollbooth collector working a full year, and therefore society should pay the teacher more.
 
teachers work 3/4ths of a year and get paid for a full year, just as if they only worked 3/4ths of the year.

lol. 10/12 is not 3/4. Good try though. Try being a teacher for a day and see if they are paid a fair salary.
 
It is not just teachers, either. I have been told by several folks who purport to have some genuine expertise in economics that in terms of buying power both teachers and police officers were paid, compared to many other careers, a lot more in the 1960s than they are now.
 
teachers work 3/4ths of a year and get paid for a full year, just as if they only worked 3/4ths of the year.

Teachers work all year long, they just don't have students for two months in the summer (kids are on summer break from mid June to mid August). During those summer months, teachers are busy prepping their rooms, buying supplies (often with their own money), prepping lesson plans, learning whatever (usually unnecessary) changes have been made to the curriculum and adjusting their lessons and handouts accordingly, attending meetings and seminars, and the list goes on and on.

To say they only work 3/4ths of the year is just flat out incorrect.
 
Pretty sure that isle was joking on the common complaint of teachers only working 3/4 of a year. He's saying that they only get paid like they work 3/4 of a year (i.e., he agrees they don't get paid enough). It took me a few readings, but I think that's what he meant.

Word your jokes better, isle.
 
When teaching threads came up on the old boards (or even in discussions in real life), there was always someone who claimed that teachers were paid enough since they got so much "vacation" time and got to get off work at 4 every day. They were usually serious about it.
 
When teaching threads came up on the old boards (or even in discussions in real life), there was always someone who claimed that teachers were paid enough since they got so much "vacation" time and got to get off work at 4 every day. They were usually serious about it.

oh I definitely remember that and those people are morons. I just think in this case isle was not doing that.

I could be reading it wrong though.
 
yeah the article said that south korean teachers are paid 250% better than american teachers in terms of purchasing power, they also are 2nd on all the standardized tests. Also, over 60% of teachers have a second job.
 
Teachers I know work far more than 8 hours in day.

The idea that teachers work 3/4 a year is just a silly argument to justify a flawed belief.
 
hmm got a negrep from someone with less than 50 posts that said "eat it you self-serving babysitter." awesome plus im not even a teacher anymore. now all i do is sit on a computer being miserably bored all day. SWEET!!!!!!!!
 
I think we could gut school mid-level administration, increase teacher salaries, recruit at a higher professional level, increase high school class sizes, and provide a much better education product than we're doing now much more efficiently. It wouldn't take much to make teaching positions year round and improve summer learning programs and teacher training during the summer.

One of the interesting findings out there about the racial achievement gap is that school helps bridge those gaps but the gaps widen during the summer.
 
A lot of the poorer schools in my county had gone to year round calendars, for precisely that reason ph. however, when the economy tanked we got rid of that because it was too expensive.
 
The consulting firm McKinsey recently examined how we might attract and retain a talented teaching force. The study compared the treatment of teachers here and in the three countries that perform best on standardized tests: Finland, Singapore and South Korea.

I don't deny something needs to be done, but these sorts of comparisons drive me crazy. Finland and Singapore have a combined population smaller than many of our largest cities' metropolitan areas. And Finland and South Korea are ethnically homogenous. I'm a bit skeptical the kids in "inner city" Helsinki or Seoul are attending schools even remotely similar to those in LA or Chicago where de facto segregration still continues.

And they don't answer how we're supposed to increase pay to attract a more talented pool unless you think making teachers federal employees is a viable solution.
 
I think we could gut school mid-level administration, increase teacher salaries, recruit at a higher professional level, increase high school class sizes, and provide a much better education product than we're doing now much more efficiently. It wouldn't take much to make teaching positions year round and improve summer learning programs and teacher training during the summer.

One of the interesting findings out there about the racial achievement gap is that school helps bridge those gaps but the gaps widen during the summer.

This is the key - class sizes must, unfortunately, get larger. Probably starting around 5th grade though, and not high school. The number of teachers must be cut, and the pay for the ones who are worth keeping must be increased.
 
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