$100,000+ Salaries for School Teachers?

I have zero sympathy for teachers who can barely teach in the classroom to get these kind of benefits. The numbers are hideous, consistent and staggering year over year.

Companies in the "real world" could not produce these kind of results and expect to be in business, why should they? Then to give them obscene benefits after they retire at the ripe age of 55? Meanwhile, back in the "real world" people are lucky to get 25cents to the dollar they put in their 401k which can be demolished at anytime. On top of that, hopefully your employer supports some kind of health care package for you, where you pay a staggering amount monthly for horrid benefits.

Am I so absolutely wrong here? Is this the way it should be? Should someone who teaches 1st grade make more than the majority of us who perform highly skilled or physically intensive jobs?

Average MPS Teacher Compensation Tops $100k/year [Milwaukee, Wisconsin] MacIver News Service – For the first time in history, the average annual compensation for a teacher in the Milwaukee Public School system will exceed $100,000. That staggering figure was revealed last night at a meeting of the MPS School Board. The average salary for an MPS teacher is $56,500. When fringe benefits are factored in, the annual compensation will be $100,005 in 2011. MacIver’s Bill Osmulski has more in this video report.

maciverinstitute.com... nsation-tops-100kyear/

Well, my mom is a second grade teacher and I think that all teachers deserve this pay. Teaching is a very tough and time consuming job and unless you've done it, or know someone who has done it, you never really know how much work goes into it. My mother is constantly working on lesson plans, grading papers, writing reports, coping with the stress factor that comes with the job.

I also believe that teaching is one of the most crucial jobs out there. Come on, what would you do without teachers? They deserve that salary.

By the way, teaching is a "highly skilled job".

reply to post by intelinside451


I agree that our educational system su---excuse me, is deplorable .It's just a system to storehouse children, teach them to sit down, shut up, and do as they are told to become salves to the system. What's going to happen when the majority of folks can't even read or write, much less have critical thinking skills, communication skills, etc? I believe this needs to be "adjusted". There is no other job as important as education, imho, and yes, I agree that 100K is definitely steep. How about raising what we expect from the teachers, rewarding them by using merit increases?

My son has a very high IQ, and public schools were failing him terribly. I worked a full-time job and a single mother, and I home schooled my son. I don't know how I did it, really. But it worked, and I am very grateful for that.

That option is not available to most people, and the answer seems to be stated above. What things would you like changed to improve the system? I really want to hear your thoughts about what we can do to improve the system.

reply to post by intelinside451


I SF'd you. I've taught. And while it is grueling, and time consuming, it is less so than a senior NCO fighting for his/her life in some foreign country.

But this is what unions do. They get the most for the least.

To those that say that teachers deserve this pay from the government I'd say fine, when soldiers get the same, then we can talk.

reply to post by intelinside451


GOOD DEITY!

I should have gone into teaching as I first planned instead of becoming a Lab Manager/ Certified Quality Engineer. (Salary $45-50K) and no pension.

The Union types are up in arms that people would dare bash the Union. How about firing ALL their rumps and replacing them with new hires at half the salary.

The average salary for teachers (not college) in the USA is $87,390.

As I have pointed out several times, the USA's largest employers after the government is Kelly Temp services, Wall mart and McDonalds.

This is what people in those industries earn:

All Occupations: 130,647,610 jobs, $15.95 Median Hourly, $20.90 Mean Hourly, $43,460 Mean Annual

Fast Food: $8.52Median Hourly, $8.76 Mean Hourly, $18,230 Mean Annual

Cashiers: $8.57 Median Hourly, $9.15 Mean Hourly, $19,030 Mean Annual

Office and Administrative Support Occupations:
$14.62 Median Hourly, $15.86 Mean Hourly, $32,990 Mean Annual
www.bls.gov...

And this is the great job those highly paid teachers are doing:

"For 10 years, William Schmidt, a statistics professor at Michigan State University, has looked at how U.S. students stack up against students in other countries in math and science. .... by 12th-grade, we're at the bottom of the heap, outperforming only two countries, Cyprus and South Africa." www.enterstageright.com...

This is what the rest of the Government Drones are earning:

...Federal employees earn higher average salaries than private-sector workers....

Overall, federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691.... The average pay for the same mix of jobs in the private sector was $60,046 in 2008, the most recent data available....

These salary figures do not include the value of health, pension and other benefits, which averaged $40,785 per federal employee in 2008 vs. $9,882 per private worker, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. www.usatoday.com...

I don't have a problem with a teacher making this amount of money if they are involved in research and are at the top of their field. If its for someone to show up and chaperon kids for 6 hours, have little educational background, and get several months off during the year then it is a ridiculous proposition.

Originally posted by PlanterZ
Well, my mom is a second grade teacher and I think that all teachers deserve this pay. Teaching is a very tough and time consuming job and unless you've done it, or know someone who has done it, you never really know how much work goes into it. My mother is constantly working on lesson plans, grading papers, writing reports, coping with the stress factor that comes with the job.

I also believe that teaching is one of the most crucial jobs out there. Come on, what would you do without teachers? They deserve that salary.

By the way, teaching is a "highly skilled job".

edit on 20-2-2011 by PlanterZ because: (no reason given)

I agree that the teaching profession does deserve all around higher salaries, but I'm very skeptical about just who gets those salaries, because there are a good amount of bad teachers out there who would be better off starting their own home schooling or tutoring programs. They may be hardworking, but sometimes their hard work does not always produce positive results, and that just cannot be accepted when you are working with minds. Yes, teachers should get 100,000$ salaries, and maybe even more, but there needs to be a system that makes the profession more competitive, or at least determines the better teachers from the lot besides looking at the average grades of their students. But of course, this should be left to the employer and the employee, and I hope not to hear anything from the government about this.

I have 2 realitives that went into teaching about 6 years ago in Michigan. They are both making over $65k a year and whining about having to put in 7 hour days. They would be part time employees in any other business.

Hmm.. That does seem excessive. I mean I can the "total cost per teacher" being differant...what with unemployment insurance, workman's comp, health care insurance, etc. But to have the cost of benifits almost exceed the pay of the teachers?

However, this does not necessarilly go hand in hand with the quality of education. Our school systems have been sabotaged by political deal making. Some teachers still remember what it means to actually teach. Most are not even trained for it anymore. The training is to "Pass the test".

In Texas, every parent/school meeting I have had was focused more on "are they able to pass the state test". It's thoroughly digusting.

Well I worked as a teachers assistant for Multi VE and let me tell you it's not an easy job. Teachers deserve more pay. Do you not know what a teacher really does? My mom is a teacher and has to work a second job just to survive so yes I think teachers are deserving of good pay.

You are complaining about teachers making 100k what about celebs who do absolutely nothing for society and make millions? Or sports people making the same. Now to me they don't deserve that at all. They aren't doing anything special!

The problem is the unions, the problem is the lack of forced retirement.

Some of these scumbag teachers are so entrenched in the system milking their mega salaries and stifling new blood from getting jobs.

There are young talented fresh teachers with their degrees begging to get work, but these scumbag hags just leech the system dry, invincible from the union system in place.

Young teachers make a pretty measly wage, the problem is how high the pay increases.

My mama's a retired LI, NY teacher --- 30 yrs. teaching first grade --- she rocked as a teacher and would probably have earned top dollar in any merit pay system.

She currently collects a $72,000 a year pension on top of health, vision coverage and gosh-willing will do so for the next 20 years. The last few years she taught she put in as much overtime as possible to rack up the higher pension numbers. She worked the system as many do and would have been dumb not to.

Here in FL, public employees can retire, collect a pension and be rehired to their old position at the same time.

On top of everything, down here, it seems that every retired public employee from the northeast has relocated and now is working part time so they won't be bored. This makes the job market insanely difficult.

Have a nice day.

reply to post by Tephra


You are right...I personally am around a teacher who could have retired already, this teacher does nothing but bitch about dealing with students..if you don't want to work then RETIRE!!! But no, this teacher stays around for the high payrate. Does as little as possible, etc.
It disgusts me to no end...I am not a teacher I make a low hourly pay.

reply to post by intelinside451


I could agree that they perhaps should earn more in the range 65-70k a year.

But 100k? They don't deserve nearly that much. Especially considering the sheer waste of tax dollars that is our public school system.

We could easily spend that money revamping the public school system to cost much less, and produce much better students.

reply to post by bertapearl

I really want to hear your thoughts about what we can do to improve the system.

Unfortunately the system is doing EXACTLY what it is SUPPOSED to do. Turn out dumb, illiterate "Team player" Socialists. Unfortunately the Fabians, ably helped by John Dewey, founding member of the American Fabians and Father of Progressive Education in the USA, have succeeded in their goal of dumbing down the masses to the point where they no longer can think.

College students lack scientific literacy, study finds

Ignoring Elites, Historians Are Missing a Major Factor in Politics and History

by 12th-grade, we're at the bottom of the heap, outperforming only two countries, Cyprus and South Africa

In 2000, 28 percent of all freshmen entering a degree-granting institution required remedial coursework

Think you could pass 8th grade in 1895? How Dumb are we now?

The elite of course send their children to places like Phillips Academy for a Classical Education

...The progressives were a new breed of educator that came on the scene around the turn of the century....

Dewey's philosophy had evolved from Hegelian idealism to socialist materialism, and the purpose of the school was to show how education could be changed to produce little socialists and collectivists instead of little capitalists and individualists. It was expected that these little socialists, when they became voting adults, would dutifully change the American economic system into a socialist one.

In order to do so he analyzed the traditional curriculum that sustained the capitalist, individualistic system and found what he believed was the sustaining linchpin -- that is, the key element that held the entire system together: high literacy. To Dewey, the greatest obstacle to socialism was the private mind that seeks knowledge in order to exercise its own private judgment and intellectual authority. High literacy gave the individual the means to seek knowledge independently. It gave individuals the means to stand on their own two feet and think for themselves. This was detrimental to the "social spirit" needed to bring about a collectivist society. Dewey wrote in Democracy and Education, published in 1916:

When knowledge is regarded as originating and developing within an individual, the ties which bind the mental life of one to that of his fellows are ignored and denied.

When the social quaility of individualized mental operations is denied, it becomes a problem to find connections which will unite an individual with his fellows. Moral individualism is set up by the conscious separation of different centers of life. It has its roots in the notion that the consciousness of each person is wholly private, a self-inclosed continent. intrinsically independent of the ideas, wishes, purposes of everybody else.

www.ordination.org...

See ATS thread: Beware The Fabian Society

reply to post by intelinside451


I hear people slam teachers all the time, saying they don't deserve the money they make. My ex is an elementary school teacher, and believe me it's not an easy job. First of all, to even get the job required a degree (2 years or more) plus a teaching certificate (another 18 months) and lots of patience. I would say this is a highly-skilled job.

Teachers are in effect managers: they must keep young children motivated and interested, while attempting to teach them important skills. With budget cuts, this can mean a classroom of 25 or 30 small children...at all levels of developmental maturity. Some of the children come to school on empty stomachs, or with fetal alcohol syndrome, or other signs of abuse. Many children arrive from foreign countries and don't speak English. Many children have ADHD or ADD or whatever the current term is for "badly behaved". The teacher is expected to perform a miracle and ensure all the children meet the performance criteria by the end of the school year.

Teachers are expected to prepare materials and mark assignments on their own time, which usually means an extra couple of hours each day. At report card time, the evaluations are done (again) on their own time.

Teachers are expected to keep a small in-class library of reading material, puzzles, games, etc. None of these are supplied by the school...all paid for out of the teachers' pocket.

As for the salary, OP you haven't been honest here...the article you quoted says the average salary is $56,500...not $100,000. Where I come from, a plumber or drywall installer can make much more than that in a year. It's not exactly top wages. And yet, teaching our children is a vitally important task, all the more so in an era where parents are never home and kids' family experiences are limited to watching TV and surfing the net.

My ex wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper, after a nasty editorial slamming teachers for being lazy and greedy, inviting him to sit in for a day in her classroom and see what goes on in a typical day. He declined her offer. I don't think most people would survive a day in the life of a second-grade teacher.

reply to post by avocadoshag


Secretaries have it just as bad...and we don't get paid much at all. No we don't have a 4 year degree but a lot of us have a 2 year degree...still don't make a third if not less than a teacher. We do a lot of work for little pay.

I absolutely think that teachers should get paid that much, BUT not just any teacher that's just in it for the money. A good teacher is rare! If schools were a bit more careful about the teachers they hired and actually picked teachers who genuinely had the students' best interest at heart and was passionate about the job and held to and met certain standards, then yes. Without teachers, we wouldn't have doctors, lawyers, and all of the other higher paid positions out there. Granted, those positions take a great deal of personal effort, but teachers are required to get them there.

Now, as for those teachers who just come in to school, bitch and gripe at the students, and do little as possible just to get through the day, they don't even deserve to be a teacher, IMO. As a mother of children who are in public schools, I've seen my fair share of bad teachers and have no problem calling them out, whether it's because of something said or done to my own children or someone else's. Some people just don't deserve to be teachers.

I realize that there would have to be some kind of reform in order to accomplish what I'm describing here, but truly good teachers who have the patience to deal with students, strive to make sure that each student performs to his or her best ability, and just generally do an outstanding job, should get paid well. As for the "teachers" who are basically just a waste of tax money and space... they need to go elsewhere. I don't think there's any room at all in our school systems for so-called teachers who obviously don't want to be there. It takes more than a degree to make a good teacher.

Your thread title is a LIE.

There is a huge difference between SALARY and COMPENSATION. Were you being deliberately misleading, or are you just anxious to bash teachers?

The video states that the average teachers salary is $56.500, not $100,000 plus.

To go in the sequence of the video:

The average per capita income in 2006-2008, note here that he is comparing data from 3 years ago to present time, in Milwaukee was $19,092. Further note that by placing a per capita (single person, including not just earners but everyone figure first, it sticks more in the viewer's mid when compared to 100K. This is a shift in comparison designed to confuse the issue. To be a proper comparison, you'd need to divide the total of teacher salaries by the number of pepole in teachers families. For instance a married teacher with a spouse and two children would have a per capita income of $14,105, so the teachers are actually making less per capita than the average.

The median family income, not the average, is next presented as a throwaway line before moving on quickly. Turns out the median

In probability theory and statistics, a median is described as the numeric value separating the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half. The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the observations from lowest value to highest value and picking the middle one. If there is an even number of observations, then there is no single middle value; the median is then usually defined to be the mean of the two middle values.[1][2]

income for the area was $42,950. Comparing the median to the average

An average is a single value that is meant to typify a list of values. If all the numbers in the list are the same, then this number should be used. If the numbers are not the same, the average is calculated by combining the values from the set in a specific way and computing a single number as being the average of the set. The most common method is the arithmetic mean but there are many other types of central tendency, such as median (which is used most often when the distribution of the values is skewed with some small numbers of very high values, as seen with house prices or incomes)

is usually used when you don't want a clear comparison. But still, $56,500 compares well with $42,950 as not excessive for the amount invested in schooling, degrees, and ongoing training.

Next is salary plus benefits: $100,005 in 2011, falling to $95,316 next year. Sounds like teachers are already giving back.

Performance issues are complex, but economic distress always effects children's abilities to focus due to hunger, stress, and anxiety. Kids aren't oblivious to the world around them. Graduation rates have more to do with disillusionment than anything else. Think about it for minute:

If you were a freshaman is high school or college in 2007, how many of your freinds are now working in a good job? What are the chances you have a job? What are the chances that most of the people you went to school with have never been able to find steady work?

This mess isn't due to excessive teacher pay or teacher incompetence.

It is about business failure and incompetence. Businessmen ran for office with narrow objectives, ignorant of the larger view, unwilling to learn, determined to "run government like a business", and have run every damn one of them into the ground, just like most businesses. That's what comes of a culture who is used to building their businesses with other people's money rather than their own savings and earnings. People who walk away golden from failure after failure, blaming "market conditions", labor, anything but their own incompetence.

I have as much faith in the business class as I do the priestly one: guilty of fraud at least til proven innocent.

reply to post by avocadoshag

First of all, to even get the job required a degree (2 years or more) plus a teaching certificate (another 18 months)....

At school I went for a teaching certificate AND a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. My BS in Chem required a LOT more courses than those required for teaching Chemistry AND general science.

All that extra study got me is a job making barely more than minimum wage. The blasted janitor earned more than I did.

The information on teachers from the 2009 official STATS are:
Occupation Title............................... Mean Annual...... Mean RSE (Relative Standard Error)
Elementary School Teachers......... $53,150................... 0.7 %

This is where the confusion comes in, BEFORE teachers this is listed: A quick glance at the table can fool you as it did me:
Occupation Title............................... Mean Annual....... Mean RSE
Education Administrators,................$87,390................. 0.6 %
Elementary and Secondary School

Source: www.bls.gov...