I don't like how teachers are paid so little.

[scared and alone]

It's just not right. For all they do, they deserve to get paid, A LOT. And no, i'm not a teacher or going to be, just an opinion of someone who admires teachers hard work.

[Batya33]

Yes, I tend to agree with you but at least in the U.S. there is an impression that since they don't work during the summers and there are many school holidays, and the school day ends at 3, it is fair. But when I was a teacher I worked many evenings on lesson plans (and weekends) and calling parents of kids who were having issues. I could sense that that the time spent on lesson plans would lessen as the years went on. During the day I found I had to be "on" all the time in a way that is typically not true of a typical corporate job where you have an office with a door.

 

I am in favor of merit pay increases but from what I have seen, most teachers are not.

[dont_know_what_2_say]

thank you! i completely agree

in my state there are a lot of strikes going on now because teachers didnt get a raise they were promised

 

and i'm going to be a teacher..

[melrich]

Yes I think teachers are unfortunately not paid as well as they should be. But I think the whole profession needs reform, not just the pay issue.

[bijoux27]

This doesn't sound like good news as I may become a teacher.

[Clementine orange]

It's partly the "pink collar ghetto" syndrome I'm afraid.

[Caterina]

It's partly the "pink collar ghetto" syndrome I'm afraid.

 

What is pink collar ghetto?

 

Teaching and pay is an interesting idea...its publicly funded so they can't pay teachers dollars like they could in a competitive corporate world...there are incentives for teachers on some level who perform better than others...

 

Overall, I think that teachers work very hard and deserve better pay. But they can do something else if they don't enjoy teaching, you know. Which is sometimes a problem. In certain locations, the educators aren't that educated if you know what I mean.

[CaptainPlanet]

I think they're paid fine at least in Australia where the starting salary is $51,000 per annum.

 

The thing about jobs like nursing, teaching and police is that you are choosing a life of servitude. You are provided with the means to have relative comfort but you will not become rich, well, some teachers do because you can work on your holidays and tutor for as much as $50 an hour or more.

 

I think when it comes to salary we should be looking at people employed in retail and hospitality and other low paid, low skilled workers who have seen their wagers go backwards for years now. The thing is, you attack the bottom, eventually the bottom becomes you. Same goes for teachers.

[CaptainPlanet]

What is pink collar ghetto?

 

 

Unskilled white collar work virtually, it is almost entirely women employed in those positions but I am not sure it so much applies as a ghetto anymore.

 

I saw an add for a payroll clerk the other day paying $40 an hour.

[bonneidee1017]

I completely agree. When I was in high school, I had a teacher who I was very good friends with, as well. One day, I brought up the fact that teachers get paid so little and he told me a little story.

 

At the beginning of that school year, the district gave the teachers a raise (or whoever's in charge of their salaries) which was great. Then, three months later, they all got letters in the mail saying that their insurance premiums had gone up--basically, their premiums went up the same amount as their raise.

 

So, in the end, they hadn't gotten a raise at all. Just screwed over, lol.

 

Classic. I really think that teachers, though, are severely under-paid. It's just not right. They literally hold the future of this nation in their hands (in the form of the education their delivering to students), yet we treat them as expendable. Lame.

 

And so many people gripe about how teachers aren't "that good" anyway. Well, maybe if teachers were paid more, schools could attract better quality educators--still, I have high respect and gratitude for anyone who commits themselves to work with children. It's a tough, tough job that most people take for granted.

[CaptainPlanet]

I'm really in two minds about that having been friends to this day with a number of young teachers I know they really do live a fairly lax life style. The attitude of them towards teaching is also rather appalling, and these are people who have never in their lives gotten their hands dirty. I think good teachers should be rewarded and paid well but not these spoiled sons and daughters who go off to University for four year straight after high school and then appear as teachers; for the benefits of above average salary and holidays. I find to be disgusting, however, good quality teachers should be well paid.

 

I think the minimum age to teach should be 26 and you should have to show some sort of work experience/career (even if ill defined) before becoming a teacher.I really think that a lot enter the system 'just because' and lets not kid ourselves into thinking it is not a comfortable and relatively well paid job - the salary maxes out at 75k after 8 years, my heart, is hardly bleeding for these people.

 

I've learned that as soon as people get on the 'underpaid' bandwagon it is almost never the truth. The underpaid people are usually the ones that the majority of people attack. So at this point I am cautious about the pay of teachers but they should definitely be given a lessened work load.

[thejigsup]

I have worked as many as three jobs while getting my degrees and credentials. I am not spoiled at all and most people who go to college work very hard. I am a teacher and during the summer I work two jobs to support myself and take summer classes. During the school year I work from 7:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. on a good day. After that, I head for my second job tutoring students one-on-one in a reading and math clinic. Then I go home fix dinner, do homework, and prepare lesson plans. Weekends I work at the clinic and go to school. I am not alone, many of us teachers keep similar schedules. Don't tell me we don't work hard. I love teaching and would not do anything else, ever. You have to love it because you don't sleep much.

[livefree]

I'm a senior in college and soon to become a teacher!

 

My view:

Bad teachers are overpaid.

Good teachers are underpaid.

 

In my state there is little incentive for teachers to be effective, unless they're truly passionate about their profession.

 

On another note, teachers know what they're getting into beforehand. I know I won't live in a world of material wealth, but I absolutely love kids and contributing to their growth, and that's more than enough for me--as long as it's enough to survive, and enough for my family to survive happily, any paycheck will do.

 

But, yes, many teachers aren't paid much at all.

[Clementine orange]

What is pink collar ghetto?

 

.

 

I think someone else already answered this. I was refereing to the issue that when a career is overwhealmingly filled by females then it tends to pay less. There is a multitude of reasons for this. None of them good reasons.

[Parsley]

I've grown up in a family of teachers. My mum's a teacher, both her parents, my aunt, I think about 5 of their cousins, my brother and my dad does some teaching now and then at the hospital. The way that teachers are treated has changed dramatically since I was little. Back then, we left for school at about 8, and mum got back at around 5 (those who think teachers' work day end at 3 are idiots). Now, mum and dad leave at 7, and mum usually gets back around 7:30/8pm, and continues working throughout the evening and weekend. She is now the headteacher, but that has only been the last school year. Before then, the paperwork she had to fill out was ridiculous, and in no way benefited the children's learning. Ofsted inspectors can now come with only 3 days notice, and barely any of the inspectors have been teachers in the last 10 years, if at all. They have no idea what it is actually like for teachers, and never will.

 

My brother is an amazing teacher - every year he'd have the majority of his children's parents telling him what an amazing teacher he is (those that didn't are the kind of parents who think school is a nursery) and has recently received an email from a past pupil telling him he is still her favourite teacher ever, and her mum thought he was amazing. One parent of a bratty child once wrote a letter to a newspaper about him - complaining that her son hadn't taken the bear home yet that term (He used to have a bear, and every night a different child would take him home, the child that had worked particularly well that day kind of thing). Her complaint was that the naughtier children had taken him home before her son - no thought whatsoever to the idea of rewarding a naughty child when they had been really good that day.

 

Some parents have absolutely no idea of what a teacher must deal with every day, and the ones I hate the most are the ones who cannot comprehend that their little darling would ever ever be naughty, and if they were, they were clearly being led by someone else. I hate the attitude of some parents, it actually sickens me. I would personally give teachers a rise just for dealing with some of these - the school my mum works at is not in the best area in the world, and some of the actions and attitudes of the parents are despicable and worse than some children. They don't understand that a teacher doesn't work from 9-3.30. They probably work a lot harder than most other 9-5 jobs.

 

The only thing I've seen so far to cater to teachers, doctors, fire fighters etc., is the Key Worker Scheme. I don't know if they have it outside the uk, but here key workers can get help in buying a home, which I think is so important, especially in the current economic climate. The pillars of our society can get onto the property ladder.

[poloplayer]

It depends.

 

My high school district is one of the highest paid districts in the country. The majority of teachers make over $100,000.00 within 10 years, and upper administration officials make over $200,000.00.

 

Move away from this suburbia area to the major city not too far away and you'd be lucky to make $50,000.00 as a teacher after 10 years worth of work.

 

It's all about what people in the area pay in taxes.

 

I know that my state is battling with reform on this subject. There is a growing number of people who think that it is unacceptable and there are some very extreme cases, such as an art teacher at a high school that makes over $175,000.00 in one year. There are also some cases of administrators who make over $300,000.00 in a year.

 

Move away from the posh homes and you're grappling with a teacher that barely makes ends meat and has the trouble in dealing with students and parents that don't want to be hassled.

 

P.S. You can find all teacher salaries online as disclosure is required by law in the U.S. I found it interesting how a few of my old teachers made over $140,000.00 but were terrible teachers. But that's another issue where teachers are perfect until they obtain tenure and the curriculum goes downhill.

[GettingBetter]

Bad teachers are overpaid.

Good teachers are underpaid.

 

That's an excellent way to put it!

 

In high school, I had one teacher who was horrible. She went through, got her degree in business, couldn't cut it in the real world so fell back to teaching. She taught math, but forced us to memorize everything because she didn't understand it enough to explain it otherwise. And, with her last class every day she'd be standing at the door just like her students, ready to race out to her car and beat the traffic as soon as the bell rang.

 

Another teacher was just amazing. He taught drafting, and he was there every day from 7:00 to 5:00 or later. He would always offer his expertise wherever he could, and he'd sit down for hours and work with students. He even held "classes" on weekends and over summer for students who wanted to learn more than the high school had to offer. But this was all off-the-record, and he wasn't paid for that.

 

In fact, both of these teachers were paid the same. And furthermore, the administrators liked the first teacher more, because she was more organized. The school tried on many occasions to shut down the latter teacher's drafting department, but the parents in the local community were adamant that the drafting program continue. Truth be told, this drafting teacher made most other teachers look bad. (Although, there were a handful just as good.)

 

Yes, I believe school system needs to be almost completely reworked.