81–90 of 410 posts
My first “real” job after college (2013) I started at $60k. It was more than my mom, an elementary school teacher, ever made. It felt embarrassing. Teachers are at least as valuable as software developers (probably more), given their impact on society. Why do they make so little?
Of course, the USA would have to bootstrap the first "cohort" of this.
Otherwise, the point is simple - good teachers don't get paid more, because there's nothing you can point at to justify giving them more money, because the money that comes from the municipality (to fund the school and consequently the teacher) has nothing to do with the outcome.
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It's sad that the "privatize school", or "school voucher" discussion has become so corrupted by politics. Regardless of whether or not you agree with it, or not, it's worth critically thinking about and whether the implications of that kind of change are good or bad, and why.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
teachers still have to exist in society all year round though
Then they get a summer job. I remember an elementary school teacher from when I was a kid who was a park ranger in the summer.
I'm in NJ where we value public education, for the most part. According to National Center for Education Statistics our average teacher pay was $77,489 in 2022. This is excluding benefits/pension. Well worth it.
Teachers don’t work year round. So that 60k salary if adjusted to days worked + pension benefits is equivalent to six figures in the private sector.
Not American, so a couple of questions: 1. Is it normal for teachers to have alternative income for the days they don't work? 2. Sounds like the term "six figures" has a special meaning other than just being in the range 100.000 - 999.999? It appears like there is a connotation that it is a special things to achieve in your life. 3. Taking inflation into account, shouldn't it soon be normal to earn that amount (when…
I'm in NJ where we value public education, for the most part. According to National Center for Education Statistics our average teacher pay was $77,489 in 2022. This is excluding benefits/pension. Well worth it.
If you value education, why does your state have unions that force pay based on seniority and not outcome?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Teachers do more work outside of their standard hours than most other professions. I dated a teacher for a long time and she worked much harder for her public school salary (waking up at 6am, prepping, lesson planning, grading, chasing up kids who aren't making it to school, dealing with social workers, etc.), than I do for my cushy six-figure tech job salary. Besides, why shouldn't teachers make six-figures? Why are…
Teachers should make six figures, the best ones should make seven like couches do now. And it should be very easy to fire bad ones. Basically should be at will employment with school district.
This is thorny, because it gets into the problems tenure was created to combat: school administration's goals aren't always student success.
Especially now, they can be myopically assessment-focused or political.
Subordinating teachers to the whim of administration wouldn't help this. Jury-of-their-peers is slightly better, but has its own issues.