Teacher Pay

[Politico]

I wish I could get paid and only work nine months out of the year.

Then become a teacher.

Well, if that is your only reason don't bother.

No thanks. I can do. I have no interest in teaching.

And Machaut. I am not going to waste bandwidth quoting your copy and paste nonsense. No one has hijacked anything. All the answers clearly indicate they don't need to be paid more.

 

[Indofred]

Teaching can be rather an interesting profession but you need a lot more than wanting a paid job to be any good at it.

A good teacher encourages the kids to think and be as creative as possible.
A good teacher spends as much time working at home as they do in class.
A good teacher gets a warm feeling when the kids do well.
A good teacher is far more interested in the kids than pretty much anything else.

A good teacher deserves a good salary; crap teachers do not.

 

[Disir]

Teaching can be rather an interesting profession but you need a lot more than wanting a paid job to be any good at it.

A good teacher encourages the kids to think and be as creative as possible.
A good teacher spends as much time working at home as they do in class.
A good teacher gets a warm feeling when the kids do well.
A good teacher is far more interested in the kids than pretty much anything else.

A good teacher deserves a good salary; crap teachers do not.

That's interesting. You define a good teacher for all the unpaid work that they should do. Further, "good" is ambiguous.

 

[WinterBorn]

The starting salary for a new grad is around US $262/month, rising to $437 for the better paid, more experienced staff.
I get rather a lot more than that.

Congrats. But I doubt any teachers chooses their profession based on the paycheck.

Sometimes other things are more valuable to a person.

Your knowledge of the world seems to be a little limited.
Are you a teacher?

If you are, I suggest a little extra education so you'll have a clue what you're talking about.

The quoted salaries are about average for an educated person in this area.

What have I said to suggest that my world knowledge is limited? That some people choose a career based on things other than salary? lol

I cannot see anything that I have posted that shows a limited knowledge of the world.

I do hold a degree in Secondary Ed, but I have never taught in schools. I was offered a better paying position and, being a single parent at the time, I took it.

 

[WinterBorn]

Teaching can be rather an interesting profession but you need a lot more than wanting a paid job to be any good at it.

A good teacher encourages the kids to think and be as creative as possible.
A good teacher spends as much time working at home as they do in class.
A good teacher gets a warm feeling when the kids do well.
A good teacher is far more interested in the kids than pretty much anything else.

A good teacher deserves a good salary; crap teachers do not.

Which of those attributes lends itself to teaching to the test?

 

[Indofred]

Teaching can be rather an interesting profession but you need a lot more than wanting a paid job to be any good at it.

A good teacher encourages the kids to think and be as creative as possible.
A good teacher spends as much time working at home as they do in class.
A good teacher gets a warm feeling when the kids do well.
A good teacher is far more interested in the kids than pretty much anything else.

A good teacher deserves a good salary; crap teachers do not.

That's interesting. You define a good teacher for all the unpaid work that they should do. Further, "good" is ambiguous.

In part, yes.
The "work 9 months" lot have no clue how much teachers do outside school - probably because they're too stupid to find out.
Good is easily defined, as is stupidity.
A good teacher gives up his spare time to give the kids a better chance.

 

[Indofred]

Teaching can be rather an interesting profession but you need a lot more than wanting a paid job to be any good at it.

A good teacher encourages the kids to think and be as creative as possible.
A good teacher spends as much time working at home as they do in class.
A good teacher gets a warm feeling when the kids do well.
A good teacher is far more interested in the kids than pretty much anything else.

A good teacher deserves a good salary; crap teachers do not.

Which of those attributes lends itself to teaching to the test?

All.

 

[Disir]

Teaching can be rather an interesting profession but you need a lot more than wanting a paid job to be any good at it.

A good teacher encourages the kids to think and be as creative as possible.
A good teacher spends as much time working at home as they do in class.
A good teacher gets a warm feeling when the kids do well.
A good teacher is far more interested in the kids than pretty much anything else.

A good teacher deserves a good salary; crap teachers do not.

That's interesting. You define a good teacher for all the unpaid work that they should do. Further, "good" is ambiguous.

In part, yes.
The "work 9 months" lot have no clue how much teachers do outside school - probably because they're too stupid to find out.
Good is easily defined, as is stupidity.
A good teacher gives up his spare time to give the kids a better chance.

Just so we are clear, you want people to work for free.

 

[Machaut]

Two questions:

1. Do you believe that public school teacher pay in your state should be raised, lowered, or stay the same?

2. How much is a first-year teacher paid as an employee of the school district in your area?

I think there are many misconceptions about teacher's pay and about their workload. I do not know what they make in my area, but some of the comments I have have bordered on ridiculous.

Thank you for your response. To avoid breaking the "no hijacking" rule for this forum, I will assist you in answering the second question. What county or municipality do you live in?

 

[bodecea]

I'm a Tory and I hold to that when talking about pay and conditions.

How about performance related pay?

If the kids get good results, the teachers concerned get a bonus but, if the exam results are rubbish, the teacher gets paid less the following year.

Seems fair to me.

Thank you for your response. However, you have failed to answer either question. To avoid breaking the "no hijacking" rule for this forum, please answer the questions. Feel free to express your views on how much of a bonus or pay dock teachers should get in your local school district after you have provided answers to the two questions I posed.

I have answered.
I believe teachers should be paid what they're worth.
If good, they get a rise; if crap, take a cut (or the sack).

What isn't fair about that?

How do you measure "good" with teachers? They aren't building widgets, you know.

 

[Machaut]

My wife is a teacher. The pay scale is publicly displayed on the web.

1st year. 25,600

The scale is low. Even someone with an advanced degree can't make over $60,000.

I'm curious, what state do you live in? Can you give me the name of your local school district? $25,600 a year seems rather low in comparison to other states, even for a starting rate.

 

[bodecea]

I have answered.
I believe teachers should be paid what they're worth.
If good, they get a rise; if crap, take a cut (or the sack).

What isn't fair about that?

You are continuing to break the "no hijacking" rule for the Clean Debate Zone. Answer the questions posed in the original post. I will reiterate them for your benefit.

1. Do you believe that public school teacher pay in your state should be raised, lowered, or stay the same?

2. How much is a first-year teacher paid as an employee of the school district in your area?

For an example of how a correct answer looks, look to the very first response to this thread. I will quote it here for your benefit.

1 - a teacher's pay should be raised if they get good results; lowered if their students do badly.

2 - The starting wage for a new teacher should be the current average (adjusted for inflation over the years) for the school district, more if they can show a history of good results.
A fresh of of collage bod would receive less than the average, as they have no experience and have yet to prove themselves.
No one will hire a failing teacher so that doesn't matter.

Is that answer clear enough or do I need to use shorter words or type slowly?
I'm trying to work out why I'm breaking any "no hijacking" rule as I've answered your questions as I believe is the correct way to deal with teachers' salary.

You may not like it, but I don't believe teachers should get uniform pay.
That's not hijacking; that's answering truthfully.

As for the first response to the thread, I believe this fails because it doesn't take into account the teacher's performance.
Simple numbers don't always work, even for a maths teacher.
That system is the norm in my school and I agree with it.

In fairness, I should be honest - I get ten times the salary of the lowest paid teacher so I'm likely to agree with the system.

How does one measure "good results"?

 

[WinterBorn]

Two questions:

1. Do you believe that public school teacher pay in your state should be raised, lowered, or stay the same?

2. How much is a first-year teacher paid as an employee of the school district in your area?

I think there are many misconceptions about teacher's pay and about their workload. I do not know what they make in my area, but some of the comments I have have bordered on ridiculous.

Thank you for your response. To avoid breaking the "no hijacking" rule for this forum, I will assist you in answering the second question. What county or municipality do you live in?

I am not hijacking this thread. Every post I have made, with the exception of this one, has addressed the topic and the issues raised by other posters.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

http://www.katyisd.org/dept/hr/Documents/Pay Scales - Teacher Salary Schedule.pdf

And I would say they make more then fair money considering they get a three month vacation.

And I get tired of hearing them whine about spending their own money on supplies.
There are plenty of jobs out there that require you to spend some of your own money if you want to excel.

 

[Machaut]

1. Teacher pay for my state is a bit too high. The minimum wage for most people is $7.25 per hour; the minimum wage for public school teachers in my state is $14.80 per hour, or $30,800 per year.

2. A first-year teacher in my local school district is paid $33,880 annually, which works out to $16.28 per hour.

Everyone in my state whines about how we need to pay teachers more, but teaching is already the single most lucrative profession in the area for someone fresh out of college. No one under the age of 30 in my area who isn't a teacher makes anywhere near $16 an hour. Pay for administrators, counselors, etc. is even higher; pay for such auxiliary staff needs to be cut down to at least what teachers make, if not lower.

Conversely, long-term teachers are the ones getting screwed over. My state mandates a small raise for teachers each year; as a result, a public school teacher won't make $40,000 per year until their 11th year of teaching. I think that year-to-year raises should be increased and the starting rate decreased. Continued employment should be based on performance, with tenure removed as an option from public schools.

 

[Machaut]

I think there are many misconceptions about teacher's pay and about their workload. I do not know what they make in my area, but some of the comments I have have bordered on ridiculous.

Thank you for your response. To avoid breaking the "no hijacking" rule for this forum, I will assist you in answering the second question. What county or municipality do you live in?

I am not hijacking this thread. Every post I have made, with the exception of this one, has addressed the topic and the issues raised by other posters.

Thank you for your response. You have only partially addressed the topic, and most of your responses to other posters have been a continuation of their attempted hijacking after their failure to address the thread's topic.

To avoid breaking the "no hijacking" rule for this forum, I will assist you in answering the second question. What county or municipality do you live in? Alternatively, can you tell me the name of the school district for your area?

 

[bodecea]

http://www.katyisd.org/dept/hr/Documents/Pay Scales - Teacher Salary Schedule.pdf

And I would say they make more then fair money considering they get a three month vacation.

And I get tired of hearing them whine about spending their own money on supplies.
There are plenty of jobs out there that require you to spend some of your own money if you want to excel.

What teachers get a three month vacation? Here the school year is from mid-June to mid-August (that being for the students). Teachers stay later and start earlier. And that summer time off is non-paid. How does that translate to 3 months?

 

[WinterBorn]

Thank you for your response. To avoid breaking the "no hijacking" rule for this forum, I will assist you in answering the second question. What county or municipality do you live in?

I am not hijacking this thread. Every post I have made, with the exception of this one, has addressed the topic and the issues raised by other posters.

Thank you for your response. You have only partially addressed the topic, and most of your responses to other posters have been a continuation of their attempted hijacking after their failure to address the thread's topic.

To avoid breaking the "no hijacking" rule for this forum, I will assist you in answering the second question. What county or municipality do you live in? Alternatively, can you tell me the name of the school district for your area?

Without some baseline of incomes for comparison, simple dollar amounts for pay does not address an issue of whether teachers are paid enough. What will support a family in one area would be considered poverty level in another.

The fact that I do not answer questions posed does not mean I am hijacking a thread. There are points raised concerning teachers and their pay. I address those points. Just because every post does not follow an extremely narrow focus does not mean the thread has been hijacked.

Also, what do teachers spend for supplies? How much does further education cost versus how much their pay increases? These are also questions that should be answered to get a better idea of the overall issue.

 

[Machaut]

http://www.katyisd.org/dept/hr/Documents/Pay Scales - Teacher Salary Schedule.pdf

And I would say they make more then fair money considering they get a three month vacation.

And I get tired of hearing them whine about spending their own money on supplies.
There are plenty of jobs out there that require you to spend some of your own money if you want to excel.

I've heard this as well. What exactly do they spend their own money on? The only thing that my school district doesn't provide for them is tissues. Every teacher offers extra credit to anyone who brings in a box of tissues at the beginning of the year. Apart from that, literally everything else is provided.

I suppose this is the equivalent of a lawyer whining about how he has to spend his own money on suits to show up in court in, or an accountant complaining about having to buy his own accounting software. It seems a bit petty, especially when--with one exception--the lowest-paid teachers in every school district mentioned in this thread thus far make at least double minimum wage, if not triple or more.

 

[WinterBorn]

http://www.katyisd.org/dept/hr/Documents/Pay Scales - Teacher Salary Schedule.pdf

And I would say they make more then fair money considering they get a three month vacation.

And I get tired of hearing them whine about spending their own money on supplies.
There are plenty of jobs out there that require you to spend some of your own money if you want to excel.

I've heard this as well. What exactly do they spend their own money on? The only thing that my school district doesn't provide for them is tissues. Every teacher offers extra credit to anyone who brings in a box of tissues at the beginning of the year. Apart from that, literally everything else is provided.

I suppose this is the equivalent of a lawyer whining about how he has to spend his own money on suits to show up in court in, or an accountant complaining about having to buy his own accounting software. It seems a bit petty, especially when--with one exception--the lowest-paid teachers in every school district mentioned in this thread thus far make at least double minimum wage, if not triple or more.

I know quite a few teachers. Each of them has to spend money every years on some basic school supplies that some children either do not bring or their families cannot afford. Also, much of the room decoration and prep is out of the teacher's pocket. Perhaps not in every school district, but in enough of them that it is a common practice.