Is it your impression that public school teachers are generally underpaid?

Question

It would also be beneficial if the debate touched on the correlation between teacher pay and actual results. To wit, higher teacher pay seems to have no effect on raising student achievement. Metropolitan areas with higher teacher pay do not graduate a higher percentage of their students than areas with lower teacher pay.

In fact, the urban areas with the highest teacher pay are famous for their abysmal outcomes. Metro Detroit leads the nation, paying its public school teachers, on average, $47.28 per hour. That's 61% more than the average white-collar worker in the Detroit area and 36% more than the average professional worker. In metro New York, public school teachers make $45.79 per hour, 20% more than the average professional worker in that area. And in Los Angeles teachers earn $44.03 per hour, 23% higher than other professionals in the area.

http://opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009612

Answer 1

Honestly, it depends on which part of the country you are in. Traditionally, teachers have been generally underpaid until recently.

However, one would need to consider the number of days a teacher contract is (in Texas 187) and divide that by the salary. If you figure that by the hour, it is comparable with most other salaries with a 4-year college degree.

When you throw in benefits and days off, the salary isn't that bad. Some school districts offer free health care.

In the end, one should say that teachers are more under appreciated than under paid.

Answer 2

I'm a 3rd year teacher and don't find that I'm underpaid. I live comfortably. Don't get me wrong, it'd be nice to be paid like a rock star, but the only way I can fill up a classroom is by mandatory attendance. Rock stars fill up stadiums because people WANT to be there. I understand the seeming discrepancy between such occupations.
I think if teachers were given pay increases based on performance rather than just existing, we'd see a difference. Unfortunately, it's hard to put a price on showing student growth. It's also hard to pinpoint the reason for the student growth since there are obviously so many factors that go into it. So we're stuck. Great teachers don't get paid any more than bad teachers, and bad teachers don't get paid any less than good teachers. We still get paid though.

Answer 3

As a teacher, I have to agree with the above poster who writes "Do I feel underpaid? Not usually, until someone tells me I'm not."

Teaching is the hardest job in the universe--and having come later in life to the profession, I know what I'm talking about. You truly, truly cannot understand how difficult it is unless you've done it.

Yes, teachers make a living wage. But if the real question is, "Are teachers fairly compensated for the amount and type of work they do?" then the answer is an unequivocal NO. Workers in other jobs with comparably insane stress levels, unbelievably long hours, and which require such highly skilled labor make much more than we do.

I will also say that many of us teachers think about "pay" not just as a monetary issue. As in any job, we are compensated for our work in many ways--through the respect we're given in the public eye, through the joy we get from helping students, through the ways that parents interact with us. We get pats on the back from colleagues and administrators. We get health insurance and other benefits. We get a sense of our importance and value in this world from the buildings we work in and and from the resources we're provided...and from the vast amounts of legislation that determines how we will spend our day.

When these "goodies" run low--and for too many good teachers, they're missing altogether--then that's when we start to feel ignored and unappreciated. Pay is just one piece of that pie.

Answer 4

I teach Middle SChool kids with special needs. I have been teaching for 6 years, and barely make $34,000, I have a Bachelor's degree and 1/2 of my Master's.

I plan for 14 different things in that happen in my room in 6 class periods. My students range from down sydrome (very low IQ) to behavior disordered (significantly above average IQ) I work from I am at school at 7:20 until 4-5 in the evenings with tutoring (no extra payment) sponsoring clubs (no extra payment) or meeting/ calling parents (no extra payment) when I get home, I record grades and start planning again for another hour to two. depending how much quality time I want with my own family.

I spend a lot of my personal money in my classroom for incentives, manipulatives, birthdays, $ for extra activities that parents can't afford to pay for, but I think is beneficial for my student. I know I don't have to do this, but it makes me a better more effective teacher when I do.

I realize not all teachers do this, but many of us do, and is the compensation fair when there are athletes making tons more money? I don't think so. Is it fair when my friends graduate with a chemical engineering degree and start off making double my initial salary. I dont' think so.
Do teachers really get the summers off? I go to classes, workshops, and actually get to parent my own children, because I don't get that quality time with them during the school year.

YES, I am underpaid. Do i make a big deal about it? Only when someone tries to tell me I'm not. I make my ends meet, barely. I do not have a college fund set up for my children, they don't always get to participate in sports because I can't always find the money to pay it. But as my boys tell me, We are rich with love.
So with saying that, shame i can't make house payments with love because that is what I truly get from teaching.

Answer 5

depending on the area, hell yes!! my best friend is a high school band director in north carolina. she puts in 12 hours a day easily, and all day saturday. true, she is happy and loves what she does, but she only makes 33k a year. decent money, but still...teachers who do less can make the same thing by just showing up.

inner city school need to pay a lot more. anybody should be compensated for dealing with the violence and drug use by todays children.

Answer 6

Its 50/50. Teachers in general are underpaid. However, some teachers, depending on their school discrict, are paid in an excessive amounts. Also, private school teachers generally tend to make less then the public schools teachers.

Answer 7

Absolutely! Teachers are expected to not only teach, but be a physician, mom, psychologist, janitor, and mediator, to name a few things that aren't on the "job description". Also, many people think teaching must be easy because we get weekends and summers off, and "get to leave at 3:00". NO teacher leaves at 3:00. If they do, they bring all their work home with them and work until 5 or 6 at home. And it's a job that you cannot leave at the job. Teachers are always thinking about their students (if they are a good teacher who cares about their job), and what they can do to get through to each one. It's one of the most difficult jobs in the world. I do it because I love it, not for the money (because we don't get any!).

Answer 8

Yes, but it's the teacher's unions fault, not the government... If the teacher's union would allow the school's to fire crappy teachers, the good teachers would be able to handle much larger classroom sizes, and their would be more money to spread around. Instead, everybody thinks we need to throw more money at the schools.

Consider this...

The United States gives more money per student to public schools than any other country in the world... Yet we continue to turn out the dumbest students in the world... What's the problem?

Answer 9

Not where I come from. My step mother is a spanish teacher at an inner city high school and makes 70+k a yr. My step sister is a middle school spanish teacher w/only 2 years school and 2 years experience and makes 45k A YR.

Answer 10

No . I think 40 K is a nice income. My grandma is a retired(since 1983) school teacher and she lives well. My brother makes 10 an hour and works as a full sub. with mentallly challeged kids . I think he's under paid.