Why are Teachers paid so darned MUCH?

Question

Public Education is a disaster. Far too often we see high school graduates who can't read, write or do math. Throwing money at the problem isn't working. If you ran an business in the same manner as Public Education, you'd lose your shirt. Rewarding employees (teachers) who turn out a miserable product is counterintutive.

When education policy discussions occur, liberals quickly jump to point out how "public school teachers are poorly paid". Clearly, this is a talking-point provided courtesy of the thugs in Big Labor.

Typically absent in these discussions, however, is any reference to systematic data on how much public school teachers are actually paid.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):

-The average public school teacher in the United States earned $34.06 per hour in 2005.

-The average public school teacher was paid 36% more per hour than the average non-sales white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional and technical worker.

-Full-time public school teachers work on average 36.5 hours per week during weeks that they are working. By comparison, white-collar workers (excluding sales) work 39.4 hours, and professional specialty and technical workers work 39.0 hours per week. Private school teachers work 38.3 hours per week.

-Compared with public school teachers, editors and reporters earn 24% less; architects, 11% less; psychologists, 9% less; chemists, 5% less; mechanical engineers, 6% less; and economists, 1% less.

-Compared with public school teachers, airplane pilots earn 186% more; physicians, 80% more; lawyers, 49% more; nuclear engineers, 17% more; actuaries, 9% more; and physicists, 3% more.

-Public school teachers are paid 61% more per hour than private school teachers, on average nationwide.

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_50_t1.htm

Answer 1

I totally agree with you, it's a joke. It's because of the unions. Teachers have VERY strong unions.

Unions aren't necessarily bad things, so long as they actually serve their purpose. But far too often (as in the case of teachers) the unions are just concerned about "winning". Since their employers are governments, and governments usually stress education to try to sucker some votes, they simply do just that throw money at the problem. No one wants teachers to strike because that's seen far too often as a government failure.

I think it's ridiculous man, and the Teachers unions should start doing their job as opposed to suckering out as much as they can like leeches.

Answer 2

There is a huge inequality between teachers. Many good ones spent hours grading papers at home. When they read your book report for example, they write many helpful observations so you can write better next time.

However, some teachers do the absolute minimum. That is why they like T-F, and multiple choice tests that they don't have to read, or have math tests where they must check your calculations as well as your final answer.

Some teachers have a job made in heaven, where the subject matter never has to change. I had a social studies teacher who gave the same quizzes and tests year after year after year. She never had to pick up a book; nothing ever changed. Compare this with a teacher who instructs in the computer field, which changes about 70% every four years. If you teach a discipline in the computer field, after four years it is often obsolete and replaced with something else, or it has significantly changed. These teachers have to constantly be upgrading their knowledge.

How about a High School Spanish teacher? Talk about an easy job. The language never changes, and High School students are always at a similar level, so there is no reason for the teacher to improve his or her skills.

Throwing money is NOT the answer. My dad was taught grades 1-7 in the proverbial "one room schoolhouse".... literally, in rural Wisconsin. However, the teachers made sure the students learned all the basics, and remembered them. Hence, my dad (who was not some especially gifted student) was able to enroll in Crane Tech High School when his family moved to Chicago because he tested so well.

Compare this to the 75% of black students in the Baltimore public school system who do not graduate from High School. Watch the movie, "The Boys of Baraka" to see this interesting documentary, in which they send students to Kenya, Africa in order to improve scholastically. Yeah, that's right. They sent students to a third-world country where they received a better education, probably at a fraction of the price.

Initially, raising teacher salaries was a way to attract more qualified people into the teaching profession. However, the lure of a better salary only works a small percentage of the time, and it also attracts the dregs too. I will never forget how, back in the 1970's, the public school teachers in Chicago constantly seemed to be on strike. They claimed they deserved better salaries. However, it was noted by many that so many of their protest signs were MISSPELLED.

That would be analogous to a doctor whose patients have a suspiciously high mortality rate claiming his patients should pay him more.

Answer 3

As a former teacher and a man married to a 3rd/4th Grade teacher I have to disagree with you.

First of all, your pay scale is skewed significantly. The average pay for a teacher in KY is much less than $34 an hour. Not to mention that teacher's in KY are forced to get a Masters Degree with little to no compensation. That being said, teachering is the lowest paid career field with the amount of required education.

Second, I'm not sure where you get your work hours but let me take you through a day in the life of a teacher...

0730hrs- morning duty (bus duty/cafeteria duty/etc)
0800hrs- class begins
1000hrs-planning (this is supposed to be for planning but is usually taken up with meetings, parent conferences, or other duties as assigned by the prinicpal)
1100hrs- lunch (20 minutes whether you need it or not)
1500hrs-after school duty
1530hrs- typically there is a meeting of somekind
1630hrs- leave school

At some point during that evening, there are papers to grade, reports to read, and about twice to three times a week there are PTO meetings, council meetings, school board meetings and in the case of my job as Band Director, there are practices, ball games, contests, performances and other booster meetings. My wife will start grading papers about 1900hrs and come to bed about 2200hrs, taking time away from our own kids, sometimes.

Public education is in shambles but lets look at another possible reason for this. Parents have done less and less to support the teachers at school or prepare their children for the education process. This is an alarming trend. Parents are treating school as a babysitting service. I can't tell you how many times a parent has stated that it is the teacher's job to make sure their child gets an education. Bottom line is that the parent is the primary teacher for the child prior to the age of 6. That's not happening, anymore. Children are not getting the background today that we used to get when we were kids.

I'm not saying that there aren't bad schools or bad teachers, but I am saying that it's not all the teacer's fault.

Answer 4

Throwing money at the problem is not working would be an in correct statement!! Living in a city Rules state, my city is responsible for setting the teachers salaries. The teachers here are the highest paid teachers in the area. What happens when they are the highest paid teachers, we get the best of the best.
There are hundreds of students in the surrounding communities who are not able to graduate because of falling below on the Graduation State test. Every single one of the students in this city passed the test. This school has also won awards ect from corporations due to their academic excellence. Last year they won an Blue Ribbon award from IBM for being one of the top 20 public school in that nation.

Answer 5

They are paid so damn much because teaching is one of the most important jobs to society. Without teachers, we would be a pack of barbarians and humanity would collapse on its own stupidity (which, by the way, you provide a prime example for).

The "bad product" you speak of does not represent society as a whole, so its pretty much an unsupported argument. There will always be a few bad apples in a barrel of thousands but college entrance rates have never been higher. If their teaching is really horrible then can you explain to me why college acceptance is getting increasingly competitive? Using your logic, it should be relatively easy getting to any college as most people can't read or "do math".

$34 per hour is not enough considering the experiences teachers have to go through (rowdy children, people with limited thinking such as yourself.) How would you like to spend a day trying to teach a bunch of delinquents?

Teaching is also hard work. Take grading papers for instance. A teacher with 5 classes, an average of 30 students per class would have 150 assignments to grade of one night's homework (assuming everybody did the assignment). That takes time and perseverance.

I suggest you see through the eyes of a teacher before you make blanket arguments of concepts far above your mental capacity.

Answer 6

You are out of line on this one. Teachers are paid LESS than almost everyone with similar education.

As for "passing" students with failing skills---that is now mandated by the states which want to move the students thru' the system.

Teachers have to teach for tests now--they have no time to get into discussions, go off on tangents (where a lot of rea learning takes place), teach students "how" to learn, to look things up, etc. etc. They have to teach the children how to pass MEAP tests, so that their school systems can continue to get the money needed to run!! It is not the teachers' faults!

The whole public school educational system needs an overhaul, but DO NOT BLAME THE TEACHERS!!!! I subbed for a year in a major metropolitan area's public schools, and the teachers HAD to spend so much time going to stupid meetings, group discussions, etc., that every Friday was a half day! The meetings were ridiculous, and had nothing to do with what was actually being done in the classrooms. All of it was to "prove" to the school board that progress was being made. The school boards are corrupt, as are many of the Board of Ed. workers, and they pocket money that should go to the schools. (People who moved "furniture" for the Board here in my city, were clearing over $700.00 per week, 15 years ago.)

Let teachers teach, and let them fail the students that need to be failed! And pay them for the job that they do. Nothing can possibly be more important than educating our children!

(Teachers, on average, make less than 30,000 per year, and they DO NOT get paid during the summer months, nor can they collect Unemployment during that time. Often they have to take college courses on their own time, with their own money in order to keep up their certification!)

Answer 7

1st they have a very strong union, then their P,R campaign is very effective and make so many people feel guilty if they don't get the raise they say they deserve, and the people are reluctant to stand against them as they feel the teacher may make it hard on their kids just to get even, we live in a screwed up world , where nothing seems to be as it should be, teachers are a very important segment of our society, but, some times they as many others go to far, also while we are discussing wages etc, why are our politicians paid so much ? they work very little and what they do is most often not what they are paid to do, as we don't pay them to take bribes or be controlled by a out side political lobby or some foreign power, and that is exactly how so many of our politicians are voting today , for the one with the deepest pockets,

Answer 8

First off there are NO strong unions left in America. They went by the way-side when Ronnie Baby offed the"traffic-controllers" actually they were already on their way out(unions)
The Rep.'s and their cronies(big business) had been hacking at them for years.Ronnie just nailed the coffin shut, well if you remember he nailed alot of coffins shut.(airline accidents)
under new controllers.
Teacher's, not sure who cooked-up those stats. are not paid well at all. Especially with the crap they put up with. You nor
myself for that matter would last like a "Fart in a Whirlwind"
Trying to keep order, I would start by kicking the sh** out of
a couple just to get their attention. Oh Yeah, you can't do that!
If all the money went to education that was ear-marked for
that purpose we would not even be having this conversation.
Dear God, we have plenty wrong leave the Teachers alone.
Before they quit, actually that might not be a bad idea. Then
"little george" could do like Ronnie bring in high-school
drop outs to teach our kids. Look at the money we could save.
NOT! "WAKE UP AMERICA'

Answer 9

Those are the reasons that I support the school voucher idea. Children should not be forced to attend bad schools just because they live in the bad school's district. A little bit of competition might do our education system some good. Just look at the Sylvan Learning Institute. They are very expensive, but they get results that the public schools can't even come close to.

Answer 10

Claiming the teachers are the only ones to blame is unfair. The basic fact fo the matter is that STUDENTS are as much to blame, if not more. I am a student, in year twelve in Australia - and, yes, while our education system is not as messed up as some of the stuff I have heard about the American one, there are similar problems.

Half the students I know are simply not interested in learning, lack dicipline outside school, or think they are cool and rebellious by not learning. Furthermore, the teachers I have been lucky enough to have - well most of them - deserve to be paid much more in my opinion. My english techer. for example, has days in the holidays for exam revision, and even gave out his e-mail adress so we could send him essays and stuff for him to read. So many of them go above and beyond the call of duty, and put in extra hours outside of school, and for you to blame the failure of the system on the only people holding it together frankley makes me sick.

If you are so concerned about it, try and make a difference instead of unjustly levelling blame on the people who are doing the right thing.

Answer 11

I see your point, but can we blame teachers for students who don't want to learn and fall asleep in class? A teacher can lay out everything a child/teenager needs, but it's up to them to grasp the knowledge. Is it a teacher's fault that a child is unwilling to learn? But again, I see your point.
And, teachers deserve every penny of what they get, if not more. My mom is a teacher and is always at the school working. You can't put work into hours. Some people sit in an office doing work while teachers are trying to cram information into rowdy kid's minds.