I'm a public school teacher. I teach full time, then three to four days a week head to my second job at an afterschool program. Twice a week I tutor for an hour at a time. I try my best to use my prep periods and lunch periods to do my lesson plans because sometimes there's just not enough hours in a day to get it all done.
I can pay my bills (yay student loan debt since I needed a Masters to get a job), but forget about any vacations or anything fancy. I have to really fight with myself about buying anything aside from the basics (and by basics, I pretty much just mean food and bills- forget about new clothes/shoes/anything I really want but don't need. Even food is sometimes a struggle to convince myself I NEED to buy it). I don't really go out or socialize much (that costs money), and when the weather is nice enough I walk the two miles to work to save bus fare (it's driving me nuts that it's been too cold to walk).
And yet people still think we get paid too much.
Seriously. Pay teachers and give them back the respect they deserve - because make no mistake, especially in America, pay is a sign of esteem. There are places to cut the budget - like property tax breaks for major corporations - and there are places we need to spend money, and the people who actually do a LOT of the work of making sure we end up with competent adults sound like a good place to start spending.
I think it's the other way around. Teachers aren't being paid nearly enough. A teacher's responsibility is to educate children so they have the right mindset to be able to make a difference to the world. Yet for all that work, there is no way that what teachers are earning matches the effort they put in.
No, that's what I'm saying. In American culture, pay is a sign of respect, and teachers get shit for pay compared to what they should be making. You want to start cutting governmental budgets, the school equipment and the teachers' salaries are not the place to start. But they've *been* the place to start, or at least the place to block increases in spending, and that needs to change.
I'm a first year teacher and I can't afford to move away from home. On top of Student loan debts from my undergrad and credit card debt, it will not happen anytime soon. I get Union dues, retirement, and payments for my masters taken out of each paycheck. It sucks. Plus I am also a special ed teacher so I spend a lot of time outside of school working on IEPs since there isn't enough time during the school day to do that and lesson planning. I don't get paid for working on those at home even though it is something that the general ed teachers don't do and they will get the same salary as me
70k for working 9 months out of the year... I work 12 months out of the year defending our Nation and make less than most teachers... My humble opinion is that the starting wage needs to be higher for teachers, but the upper range salary range is plenty adequate for 9 months work...
70K after you've been teaching a considerable amount of time and have sunk a large amount of money into your education (in my state its 30 credits past your Masters). I make only 57K, and that's with 4 years experience, a Masters degree, and my salary being adjusted for NYC's COL. And it's not nine months of work- July is really the only month I can go without setting foot in a school, and I do anyway because I have to work a second job all summer to supplement my teaching income.
And I'm assuming you're implying you're military- my husband is active duty and in 12 months makes way more than me.
I've been a teacher for 13 years and make 53,000. And almost half my salary goes to insurance premiums. Also, we get paid for 9 months, the paycheck is just divided into 12. Back in the day you were able to choose whether you wanted your paycheck divided by 9 or 12. My mom chose 9 so the paycheck would be higher and work a full time job in the summer. AND don't think for one minute we don't work during the summer. There's professional development and getting a head start on the year to come.
Living paycheck to paycheck? I wish. We get paid once a month and I'm totally broke and usually in negative numbers 2 weeks before payday. That's why I had to get a 2nd job.
I can pay my bills (yay student loan debt since I needed a Masters to get a job), but forget about any vacations or anything fancy. I have to really fight with myself about buying anything aside from the basics (and by basics, I pretty much just mean food and bills- forget about new clothes/shoes/anything I really want but don't need. Even food is sometimes a struggle to convince myself I NEED to buy it). I don't really go out or socialize much (that costs money), and when the weather is nice enough I walk the two miles to work to save bus fare (it's driving me nuts that it's been too cold to walk).
And yet people still think we get paid too much.
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http://www1.salary.com/NY/Buffalo/Public-School-Teacher-salary.html
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http://www.payscale.com/research/US/All_K-12_Teachers/Salary
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Some data showing where you might fall on the national spectrum. The first one isn't entirely correct, I know teachers making 70k+ in that town.
And I'm assuming you're implying you're military- my husband is active duty and in 12 months makes way more than me.