The Myth of Low Teacher Pay

[jeremy]

WOW, and you learned to read and be able to display some reasoning skills and can use punctuation and form sentences and.....YOU DO THIS DESPITE GOING TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS. it never ceases to amaze me how many decry the wasteland of public schools but won't go into teaching, developed their intelligence despite a public education and still send their children off to the "gubmint" school every day. I cry Bull****!....if you feel so strongly about the school system you would put your children over your job and teach them yourself OR spend some of that money you make from a job you got, in part, because of what you learned in PUBLIC SCHOOLS, and pay for private or parochial school. Put up or shut up.

Actually My Brother and I attended School already having learned the 3 R's... School was for my Parents a Daycare Service Our father worked six 18 hour days a week and Our Mother worked a Factory Job also. When we were not in School we were at Our Grandparents who TAUGHT us.

Public School for the most part is a wasteland. I will not even begin to express my feelings on post-secondary facilities and certification programs either...

 

[M88A1]

These stats are for Colorado Springs, but they hold up more or less for the rest of the nation, though some places they will be lower, some higher of course.

The median teacher salary in Colorado Springs is about 52K. Fifty percent of teachers here make between 41K and 61K. Twenty-five percent are above 61K, and 25% are below 41K.

That doesn't tell the whole story, though. Teachers don't contribute to Social Security in this state, they contribute to PERA, which will pay them as much as 100% of their salary when they retire, depending on their years.

Also, the numbers don't tell the whole story because teachers only work 9 months of the year. To arrive at the real figures, you have to divide by 9, then multiply by 12. When you do that, the real median salary is 69K.

Combined with a much better retirement package than anyone in the private sector, I laugh when I hear about teachers being underpaid.

The part about SS is true, I dont know how they arranged to be free of SS taxes but I have a good friend whos wife was ateacher in CO last year. I lean to the right, he leans to left, we argue great

 

[Flintlock]

Also, the numbers don't tell the whole story because teachers only work 9 months of the year. To arrive at the real figures, you have to divide by 9, then multiply by 12. When you do that, the real median salary is 69K.

I'm not going to waste my evening reading through all of the posts in this thread to see if this has been disputed, but this is wrong. Teachers receive a salary which they can chose to receive over a 9 month period or a 12 month period. Less money is received if payments are given over 12 months, but that way they receive money during summer when they are "not" working. Your math is flawed as they receive a fixed salary. Whether or not they receive it over 12 months or 9 months is simply up to them.

Also, applying stats from Colorado Springs to Indiana does not work. If you want to complain about the way things are in Indiana, do your research on Indiana.

 

[ATOMonkey]

Yes, but you don't figure labor costs per year.

You figure labor cost per productive hour.

I could care less how much a public school teacher makes in a year. They can do whatever they want to make money in their off time. I only care about how much it's costing me.

 

[dross]

I'm not going to waste my evening reading through all of the posts in this thread to see if this has been disputed, but this is wrong. Teachers receive a salary which they can chose to receive over a 9 month period or a 12 month period. Less money is received if payments are given over 12 months, but that way they receive money during summer when they are "not" working. Your math is flawed as they receive a fixed salary. Whether or not they receive it over 12 months or 9 months is simply up to them.

Also, applying stats from Colorado Springs to Indiana does not work. If you want to complain about the way things are in Indiana, do your research on Indiana.

Two things. It doesn't matter whether they pay a teacher something for 9 months or something for 12 months. The point is that teachers only work for 9 months. Those three months off have a value.

As I posted upthread, Indianapolis median teacher pay is slightly ABOVE Colorado Springs. IN retirement isn't quite as nasty, however, though I haven't been able to find exact numbers for that program.

Also, what's this "complain"? I'm ANSWERING a complaint, not making one.

 

[Lex Concord]

Let's face it, society could not move forward without tax-funded education. We should listen to their whine and double their requests.

You've heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?

Yes...

Morons! They didn't have tax-funded education!

 

[Ramen]

Let's face it, society could not move forward without tax-funded education. We should listen to their whine and double their requests.

You've heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?

Yes...

Morons! They didn't have tax-funded education!

Government education is not about teaching the exceptional.

It is about bringing the masses to the same level, regardless of the direction that takes each individual.

It creates a quagmire of mediocrity.

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

I'm a "scab" teacher. I homeschool.

My payoff is how well and how much my son learns. I wish more could or would do what I do. My son and I just finished 4 hours of history, covering 1773 - 1789. It is awesome to see the spark in his eyes when he understands US history and is able to compare and contrast the information with current events.

 

[eatsnopaste]

This is the non-sequitor to me...

People grow up knowing that teaching is hard and doesn't pay well. In fact, most people hated the vast majority of their teachers. Then they decide to go to college, pay a **** load of money for an education degree, for a job they know is hard and doesn't pay well. In fact, so many people do this that we have a surplus of teachers.

Then some place along the road, they decide that they'd like their job to pay well and be less difficult. Instead of getting a new job, they just charge the customer more for less.

Fascinating really... A study in human nature.

Yes they knew going in that the pay wasn't that great. But to help augment the low pay...PENSION...now guess what? All those years of taking less pay but getting some benefits as far as retirement goes were a waste, because one administration wants to make it look like it is trying to save a few dollars.

 

[jmiller676]

I'm a "scab" teacher. I homeschool.

My payoff is how well and how much my son learns. I wish more could or would do what I do. My son and I just finished 4 hours of history, covering 1773 - 1789. It is awesome to see the spark in his eyes when he understands US history and is able to compare and contrast the information with current events.

repped

 

[bobzilla]

My wife will make double my salary this year. She's a teacher. I don't make bad money. Just sayin'...... plus her benefits are half the cost of mine, with twice the coverage. I know she works seriously long hours for 9 months a year.... but it's not the same as working 50 weeks every year for 10-11 hours a day, 5-days a week.

 

[jmiller676]

My wife will make double my salary this year. She's a teacher. I don't make bad money. Just sayin'...... plus her benefits are half the cost of mine, with twice the coverage. I know she works seriously long hours for 9 months a year.... but it's not the same as working 50 weeks every year for 10-11 hours a day, 5-days a week.

...repped...again

 

[dross]

Yes they knew going in that the pay wasn't that great. But to help augment the low pay...PENSION...now guess what? All those years of taking less pay but getting some benefits as far as retirement goes were a waste, because one administration wants to make it look like it is trying to save a few dollars.

What do you consider low pay?

 

[hornadylnl]

What do you consider low pay?

People used to salary sometimes aren't in touch with what the average person makes. $40k a year doesn't sound like much but when you break it down, that's $20 an hour. Tell a guy making $10 an hour that your $20 is low pay.

 

[dross]

People used to salary sometimes aren't in touch with what the average person makes. $40k a year doesn't sound like much but when you break it down, that's $20 an hour. Tell a guy making $10 an hour that your $20 is low pay.

My question was more to do with his stating again as if it's fact that teachers have low pay, when this entire thread was my argument dispelling this myth. No counter evidence just yet again a bald assertion that teachers have low pay as if it's established fact. So annoying.

 

[Hkindiana]

People used to salary sometimes aren't in touch with what the average person makes. $40k a year doesn't sound like much but when you break it down, that's $20 an hour. Tell a guy making $10 an hour that your $20 is low pay.

Your math is flawed. I don't know of any salaried jobs that are 40 hours per week. It's more like 60 hours, which would translate to just over $13 an hour.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

WOW, and you learned to read and be able to display some reasoning skills and can use punctuation and form sentences and.....YOU DO THIS DESPITE GOING TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS. it never ceases to amaze me how many decry the wasteland of public schools but won't go into teaching, developed their intelligence despite a public education and still send their children off to the "gubmint" school every day. I cry Bull****!....if you feel so strongly about the school system you would put your children over your job and teach them yourself OR spend some of that money you make from a job you got, in part, because of what you learned in PUBLIC SCHOOLS, and pay for private or parochial school. Put up or shut up.

Actually after the 6th grade school became nothing more than a place of torment for me (you see, I was the small kid that moved there from somewhere he wanted to stay and was just never accepted by the others and didn't much care). That's when I just began sleeping through the day waking up only to go to the next class. Sure, I took all the tests and screwed the curve up for the kids that had no idea what was going on but since all I did was sleep and never turned in my assignments I barely passed (I suspect the teachers just didn't want to try to challenge me as they were paid to do so they just pushed me through). After school I would take the transit to the public library and engage in my own independent study for about 3-5 hours until my mother was off work, then she would pick me up and take me home. We lived about 40 minutes from town and the school bus ride was closer to an hour and 45 minutes, first one on, last one off man did that suck! No, I really hate public schools and everything they stand for with every ounce of my being. I was educated DESPITE public school, not BY public school.

Did I mention that when in the second grade they sent me to the fifth grade class daily for reading and math? Or that when they wanted to skip me right from the fourth grade to the eighth my mother wouldn't let them due to lacking social skills of the eighth grade level? I'm not telling you this because I was "smart" but rather because the system was failing the others and ultimately as a result failed me.

 

[eatsnopaste]

Well since each will be a privately owned business, I would suggest a board of directors or perhaps human resources department would choose who to hire. You really seem to be having trouble wrapping your head around getting the government out of education. The parent of a child will choose where the child goes to school and the market will set the price/pay. I won't be forced to send my kids to the worst school in the county just because it's the closest.......or in the district that happens to surround my home....And your suggestion of making sure the teachers you want are paid higher than the ones at my school is EXACTLY how the free market works. It is how the best teachers will earn the best pay and if I want to pay the tuition at "your" school, my kids can go there!

they pretty much do that in the Texas school districts....some districts pay more because taxes are higher but htere is a base. The educational system down there is worse than the one in Indiana.

 

[hornadylnl]

Your math is flawed. I don't know of any salaried jobs that are 40 hours per week. It's more like 60 hours, which would translate to just over $13 an hour.

Are theresalaried pepole who work over 40 hours a week? Yes. Are there salaried people who work less than 40 hours a week? Yes. Most managers put in fewer hours as they work their way up the ladder.

I think these teachers should have to go door to door of every house in their district and look the residents in the eye. Tell them what ungrateful ****s they are for wanting to keep more of their tax dollars.

 

[IncendiaryGunner]

I know I make a lot more money than a teacher...

I highly doubt my job is any harder, or that I "work harder"...

If they were not employed by the government they would not even be in the crosshairs...

Teachers do not make drastically more than any field with similar education...

In 2003 the average income for someone with a bachelors degree was $68,728

In the same year, those with a masters degree would average $78,541

The overall median this year, including people from all educational backgrounds, was $45,016

In Indiana in 2009, the average teacher made $46,640.00

The average teacher does not make much more than the average American... and generally those on the higher end of the pay scale do have a masters degree.

Do teachers get paid extremely low? No... but their jobs are a lot harder than I believe most people can truly imagine.

If teachers make so much, and have it so great... why aren't more people becoming teachers? If teachers have it so great... go be a teacher...