What state has the best teacher salaries and is private better thank public when it comes to pay?

Question

Unfortunately teacher salaries are at the low end of the pay scale in Florida so I wanted to find out where the salaries are better so I can continue my passion for teaching without sacrificing financially.

Answer 1

I was taking Education in college, but switched majors mainly for the reason of low salary.

One of my professors said that private schools pay so low that teachers usually have to get a second job. This equates to less time to grade homework, so private teachers would rarely assign challenging homework. That, to me, sounds like a poor education. I don't know how true it is, but I just thought I'd pass it along.

It depends on whether you have a BA or Masters, but if I were you, I'd pick a few places that I would like to live and see what the pay scale is by visiting CareerBuilder.com (see link below). To make the best informed decision, check out the city's cost of living. Just do a search for "cost of living" and a ton of sites appear. This will make a huge difference in how your salary will stretch out. Then once you have it narrowed down to a couple places, I would check in on specifics, like taxes. I know that in Ohio, for example, you don't have to get your car inspected (could be a good or bad thing), and you don't have to pay taxes on your car.

Being a person who lives in a very rural, small town, I think that it's best to teach as far away from a big city as possible. The draw back is that they don't pay very much, however, you could easily live - no, THRIVE - off of 28K a year. For example, the homes in my area going for 80K would be worth about 250K on Long Island NY. It just depends on your preferred lifestyle though.

Another benefit to teaching in a small town is that you generally have less problems, with parents, with unruly children, etc. You get to know the kids (and parents) better in a smaller average classroom size and I think that helps them respect and like you more.

I think no matter where you are, though, teachers never get paid what they really deserve. They work so hard and deal with some really tough situations. It's so unfortunate that they really don't get enough credit.

Answer 2

NC pays teachers well. Private is better for higher pay but you cant teach what you want in private sectors. sometimes teaching in regards to science and creation vary at private schools. Public schools include more holidays and activities with better benifit packages for insurance then private sectors. It depends on what you want.

Answer 3

The northeast pays well. Private schools normally pay $10,000 less per year than public (but the conditions in private tend to be better).

Answer 4

CT. pays good cause you will need it. this is not a cheap state for anything so the grass is always greener...