Are You Sick of Highly Paid Teachers?
Posted: Wednesday, February 23, 2011
by Jean Horst
I have been an active volunteer in my children's public school classrooms ever since my firstborn went to Kindergarten. I will freely admit, I could not do what they do. Teaching is a gift, an art form if ever there was one. Being in the classroom with a gifted teacher is to see a master at work. They sculp lives, they paint character, they compose life skills. Recently I ran across a post from a dear friend of mine and she gave me her permission to share it with you. So in honor of all my dear teacher friends:
Are You Sick of Highly Paid Teachers?
Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit! We can get that for less than minimum wage.
That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours).
Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.
However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET'S SEE....
That's $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).
What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.
Wait a minute -- there's something wrong here! There sure is!
The average teacher's salary
(nation wide) is $50,000.
$50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student--a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!
Make a teacher smile; repost this to show appreciation for all educators.
By Kat Shamash
Note: This is an adaptation from a blog post... I think the link below is the original post:
http://www.marconews.com/blogs/he-is-that-guy/2011/feb/21/scott/?cid=Facebook
This Article has been viewed 2,100 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
More commentsWe all have those teachers who we'll remember for all the right reasons, and unfortunately those who stood out for all the wrong reasons too. Being married to a wonderful high school teacher, who really does want to make a difference in kids lives, I loved your article Jean! I will forward it to him for sure. All he ever hears is people complain about the time off he gets.Hmmm, yeah, those people who talk about all the time teachers get off... they need to take the proverbial mile walk in his shoes! Give your husband a hug & let him know he's got admirers!Will do Jean! :)
Give 'em a raise, and get rid of the politicians. I wouldn't let a politician change my child's soiled diapers. Nice post.Hear! Hear!
Excellent!!! Thanks for sharing Jean. It's pathetic that some people actually feel teachers are over paid and don't do anything. I suppose these people just woke up with knowledge. Dang, wish that would have happened to me, I could have spared many of my teachers some serious headaches!Thanks for commenting, Teresa! I know, of course, that there are teachers who really should not be teaching but my experience is that the majority of them are underpaid, overworked, undervalued, and generally unfairly scapegoated by all sides.That is true, but I agree, they are the minority. Working closely with Britt and J's teachers all through school, I can say only one of J's teachers had no business being a teacher. All the others - amazing, devoted, and yes, underpaid. Justin needed extra help from time to time. His teachers willingly were at school an hour before class and an hour after for the sole purpose of helping the kids who needed and wanted it. I'm forever grateful for these kinds of teachersI think we've had very similar experiences, T! My oldest is in college, my second son is finishing out his Sr. year and in both cases, in all those years, I think they've had one, maybe 2 teachers that should just have gotten out of the profession completely. Thanks for your wise input!It's amazing how similar are lives are in general - years we have been married, and children in college, and leaving home. Except for my eldest is now married!! Yikes!!! I will be writing about how successful J's experience has been at MMI. Just because traditional college wasn't for him, didn't mean he wasn't smart. He graduates in May!
Dear Jean,
Although things might be different in Europe than in the US I inherently disagree.
The fact that teachers 'only work 9-10 months' a year on paper does not mean that in
actual fact they don't work much more: meetings at school, meetings with parents, preparing classes,
preparing exams, marking papers, marking tests, marking exams, go with kids on trips.
And then there is the little overseen fact that it is VERY HARD to deal with a room full of kids
for several hours a day every day of the week, especially when hormones start to kick in.
In short being a teacher is a tough job to do well and reducing their salaries is very disrespectful
my 2 UK centsHi Alex,
Thank you for your 2UK cents, although, I think you may have misunderstood the article. It is making the same point you are. Teachers are underpaid - even IF - we only paid them for hours worked and not all the extra stuff, they are still underpaid. We completely agree!
hi jean,
i have always been on the committee to pass the school budget, even though it made our taxes go up. i believe if a teacher isn't good, tenure or not, good-bye. however, most teachers are wonderful and smart and creative and patient, and are with our kids for longer than we are. i believe nurses and teachers have always been underpaid, and i hope someday, that changes.
my best,
sueI agree, Sue! Thanks for reading and commenting.
Interesting statistics. I don't begrudge paying any teacher who does his/her job and teaches kids well. Now if we could just get rid of the administrators, their followers, and all the union people who cause that rate to skyrocket under the guise of "we're doing it for the children."Hmmmm, that might be a tad overstated. We have to have a certain number administrators and apparently the unions haven't gotten the teachers to be THAT highly paid. :)
And it's not really much about the money. My children attend one of the most efficient school districts in the country, our district is nationally rated for it's low cost per student, low numbers of administrative staff, etc. and it still manages to very effectively educate children but there's no recognition from the state. They continue to cut funding and cut and cut and cut. Yet our state has extremely low business tax rates. A very small increase in business taxes would solve the budget issues but the politicians refuse to do anything other than make cuts on the backs of the children and the poor.
I have a little one in school now and I am really thankful for the teachers. They do a great job and I really do think they are underpaid. They honestly do a lot and some teachers even go as far as going into their own pockets to help and educate students. Enjoyed the read.Thanks for your comment, Susan.
Hi, this article is written with passion and clearly gets its message across with an element of humour too....well written...Your comments are appreciated, Michael!
I applaud teachers. I think the curriculum needs an overhaul. What happened to all that lotto money? As I understand it. They took away money the schools were getting and merely replaced it with lotto money so that the schools don't actually get any more money than they did before. What a scam!Damn politicians. They play with words the way a child plays with building blocks. You never know what they are building until the very last block!You bring up some really good points, Jesus. I wonder what happened to the lotto money too - also, no one remembers that in conjunction with that, TX changed it's business tax structure which resulted in 1000's of businesses not having to pay ANY taxes in Texas. That is something that needs to be fixed as well.
I also believe there are curriculum problems - our state board of education doesn't seem to be capable of fixing that either. Maybe it's because the board is made up of politicians instead of educators. Thanks for your thoughts!
Two of my best friends spend most of their lives being teachers. I often helped one correct papers in the evening. Their day never ends and in this era of school violence and things changing minute by minute they need some backing. There are really some who do try to make a difference in a child's life and I applaud them.Hug your friends and thank them, Marijo!
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