are teachers over paid.

[SRW]

A co-worker just e-mailed this to me



Teachers are paid too much!
Teachers and their

hefty salaries for only 9 months work!
What we need here is a little

perspective. We should pay teachers babysitting wages.


That's right. Instead of paying these outrageous taxes, I'd give them

$3.00 an hour. And, I'm only going to pay them for 5 hours, not

planning time. That would be $15.00 a day. Each parent should

pay $15.00 a day for these teachers to baby sit their children.
Even if they have more than one child, it's still cheaper than private

daycare.


Now how many children do they teach a day - maybe 20? That's

$15.00 x 20 = 300.00 a day. But remember, they only work 180

days a year! We're not going to pay them for all the vacations:

$300.00 x 180 =$54,000. a year for 9 months
(Just a minute my calculator must need batteries.)


What will teachers say about those who have 10 years of

experience and a master's degree?
Well, maybe (just to be fair) they could get the minimum wage.
We can round that off to about $6.00 an hour, times 5 hours, times 20
children.
$6.00 x 5 x 20.

That's $600 a day times 180 days. That's only $108,000/year .


Wait a minute- hold it. ! There is something wrong here...

 

[Luciana]

When I was a teacher, I earned x. Now, four years later, I earn 4x. Considering I was overpaid what does that make me now, a millionaire?

 

[SRW]

When I was a teacher, I earned x. Now, four years later, I earn 4x. Considering I was overpaid what does that make me now, a millionaire?

Well if you are a master teacher by the above scale, you would need a class of 100 kids to earn 1,000,000.

 

[Wile E. Coyote]

Shouldn't this be in the humor section?

 

[kittynh]

I'd take $15 a day for each kid.

Of course, they'd have to come to my house as the school wouldn't be able to afford the rent anymore.

what is does point out is that there is a great administrative level at most public schools that sucks up the money.

Private schools for the most part avoid that, and it saves money. Of course, the school I work at can fire a bad teacher without having a staff of attorneys.

teachers aren't paid too much, but I think if you told teachers "you can be paid more, but have to work year round" a lot of them would go for the summers off rather than a raise.

 

[SRW]

Shouldn't this be in the humor section?

I did not think it was that funny, I think the email is a good rebuttal to the question "are teachers overpaid?"

As someone who is currently working on my teaching credentials,
looking at the cut in pay, I will have to take, to go into the profession is depressing.

 

[Chaos]

I just wanted to add that teachers are doing one of the most stressfull and thankless jobs modern society has to offer. I would not want to be a teacher even if I got 1,000,000$ per year for it.

All you teachers (and former teachers, too) in this forum: my hat is off to you.


@kittynh:
Administrative level? How bad is it?
The schools I attended (in Germany) had no more than a housekeeper and one or two secretaries each, with IIRC 16 teachers for 400 kids (elementary school), ca. 60 teachers for 1,300 kids (secondary school) and 35 teachers for 400 students (high school), respectively. Is that in any way comparable to US schools?

BTW, schools here cannot fire teachers at all, they have a special public service status (like policemen or - yuck! - politicians) that makes it impossible to lay them off even for criminal misconduct short of a capital offense.

 

[cbish]

kittynh wrote:

Of course, the school I work at can fire a bad teacher without having a staff of attorneys.

Or they can fire a veteran teacher for a bad hair day and hire two young'ins for the same price.

I agree that tenure laws need to be revamped but there is a reason why they're there. Most labor laws have evolved because of abuses in the system.

 

[Thanz]

Teachers aren't paid too much, but I think if you told teachers "you can be paid more, but have to work year round" a lot of them would go for the summers off rather than a raise.

I think that you actually see this in practice. Teachers who teach summer school get paid more, but certainly not all of them do it, nor do all them even apply to do it.

 

[SRW]

I think that you actually see this in practice. Teachers who teach summer school get paid more, but certainly not all of them do it, nor do all them even apply to do it.

Our district recently (99) changed to a year round school, they have done away with the traditional summer break and have four shorter breaks through out the year. The Summer break is 5 weeks long to allow for summer school. The number of teaching days are the same just structured differently. When this was first put into place there was fear that good teachers would jump ship to one of the four other near by districts. However after four years the turnover rate was the same as prior to the change.

 

[Thanz]

Our district recently (99) changed to a year round school, they have done away with the traditional summer break and have four shorter breaks through out the year. The Summer break is 5 weeks long to allow for summer school. The number of teaching days are the same just structured differently. When this was first put into place there was fear that good teachers would jump ship to one of the four other near by districts. However after four years the turnover rate was the same as prior to the change.

I am not surprised that there wasn't more turnover. 5 weeks in the summer is still a nice long break, and the greater numbre of breaks throughout the year would give them more time to recharge their batteries, so to speak. I would imagine that, once teachers experienced the practice, they may actually prefer spreading out the days off rather than bunching them all up at once.

 

[SRW]

I am not surprised that there wasn't more turnover. 5 weeks in the summer is still a nice long break, and the greater numbre of breaks throughout the year would give them more time to recharge their batteries, so to speak. I would imagine that, once teachers experienced the practice, they may actually prefer spreading out the days off rather than bunching them all up at once.

As a parent I love it, ever been on vacation in the fall? You get great discounts, and no lines to wait in. The success of the program surprised many people. However none of the other four districts have switched. So I always wonder if there isn't some other disincentive, besides long summers that, stops them from doing the same.

 

[cbish]

We have a Fall Break. We went to Disney World one year. Half the rides were closed for maintainance. We went to Washington D.C. It was closed. To accomodate this, we start mid-August. It just seems weird starting school when there is no football on and it's 105 F outside. I think it affects the kids as well. Some are still in summer mode and don't kick it in until mid-September. By then, they're a month behind.

The Fall Break is OK, but like long breaks, it disrupts the flow of a class. I have to spend a couple of days reteaching. Personally, I'd like to take the five days and spread them out to five three-day weekends. I think this would be more effective in "recharging the battery".

 

[kittynh]

well, in the local public school there is a principal and an assistant principal and behavior specialist and school nurse, and three secretaires, and a part time receptionist, and two reading specialists (who are paid even if they aren't needed every year to work full time as it isn't fair to them to have a job they can't count on), a full time librarian and a part time helper, about 10 special ed helpers, and the usual art, gym, music and language teachers. There is also a full time staff memeber known as a "community coordinator" but no one is sure what he does. But on the next level up there is a whole chain of command and several buildings serving the district that has half the number of employees as all the schools combined! (teachers and admin staff). That's a lot of people who aren't in daily contact with children. The school here is about 300 kids.

My private school has about 215 kids and has a school head, an assistant and a secretary. There is a gym, music and art teacher, plus a part time sign language instructor. The student teacher ratio is less than half the public schools. To fire a teacher, it takes the school board to do it, and it is made up of parents. They tend to want to keep really good teachers, and as the school is non profit costs aren't too much of a problem.

I would say the local public school is great, it just has teachers that are underpaid, and overworked. This year my neighbors kid has a class size of 35, and only one teacher. I think that's unfair to the teacher.

 

[ManfredVonRichthoffen]

well, in the local public school there is a principal and an assistant principal and behavior specialist and school nurse, and three secretaires, and a part time receptionist, and two reading specialists (who are paid even if they aren't needed every year to work full time as it isn't fair to them to have a job they can't count on), a full time librarian and a part time helper, about 10 special ed helpers, and the usual art, gym, music and language teachers. There is also a full time staff memeber known as a "community coordinator" but no one is sure what he does. But on the next level up there is a whole chain of command and several buildings serving the district that has half the number of employees as all the schools combined! (teachers and admin staff). That's a lot of people who aren't in daily contact with children. The school here is about 300 kids.

My private school has about 215 kids and has a school head, an assistant and a secretary. There is a gym, music and art teacher, plus a part time sign language instructor. The student teacher ratio is less than half the public schools. To fire a teacher, it takes the school board to do it, and it is made up of parents. They tend to want to keep really good teachers, and as the school is non profit costs aren't too much of a problem.

I would say the local public school is great, it just has teachers that are underpaid, and overworked. This year my neighbors kid has a class size of 35, and only one teacher. I think that's unfair to the teacher.

You forgot the guy who throws sawdust on the barf.

 

[kittynh]

I work with three year olds, I throw the sawdust. Acutally Vermont has state guidelines that must be followed for cleaning up barf and pee and that other solid waste product (which is sometimes runny). You throw this special stuff that the state makes you buy and then follow the 10 step guideline. Disposable rubber gloves are involved.

Teachers of three year olds are SO not paid enough!