The Truth About Teacher Pay
Are teachers really under paid? While I consider myself an advocate of public education, I also get tired of hearing the NEA whine about pay. If that is why a person became a public school teacher then they need to find another job.
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Numbers.
The average pay of teachers in Maryland was just over $50,000 in 2003-4. The median income of Marylanders in 2001 was $55,000, third highest in the Nation.
Taken as a normal 2000 hour per year job, and not as a ten month pursuit, the average pay for a Maryland teacher is $25 per hour. In Wicomico County, the average teacher wage is $47742, or $23.87. Starting salary in Wicomico County, at $33000, yields an hourly wage of $16.50 for a 2000 hour year.
For a ten month period (1667 hours), the numbers are: $29.99 (average, Maryland teachers), $28.64 (average, Wicomico teachers), and $19.79 (Wicomico starting salary).
Benefits, such as health and retirement are not included in these numbers.
Percentage By Which Average Teacher’s State Wages Exceeded Average Worker’s Wages: Maryland 41.3 (14th in the Nation)
Even if taken as a normal 2000 hour per year job, and not as a nine month pursuit, the average pay for a Maryland teacher is $25 per hour. In Wicomico County, the average teacher wage is $47742, or $23.87. Starting salary in Wicomico County, at $33000 yields an hourly wage of $16.50.
You’re wrong on this one, teacher salaries are a MAJOR issue.
Better Salaries help bring in more qualified teachers. As it stands now, teachers can’t afford to live in many of the counties they teach in. Their children go to completely different school systems. In Baltimore City, many of the teachers come from Pennsylvania, which has a lower cost of living. Teachers are required to continue their education (though i have issues with this because they usually have to take classes in education, and not in their field), but their salary makes paying for college difficult, even when the school system contributes, because most teachers have kids to support etc. If we want the best teachers to educate our students, we have to be willing to pay them more than wages that are hovering over poverty level. Theres a difference between complaining about pay because of greed, and complaining about pay because you can barely stretch a teacher’s salary.
I am the NEA and teacher in Worcester County. I do not whine as you say. I am an advocate for my profession that will see over 50% of teachers with 5 years or less leaving for a better profession. Better meaning more pay, better benefits a decent pension and respect from the bosses, parents and students. As well as being able to live in comfort with a livable wage. Todays teacher from out of state is finding it impossible to find affordable housing to rent or buy while they repay their college loans.
I work summers to supplement my income- teaching teachers how to be a better teacher and manage the requirements in the field today. Those include No Child Left Behind and Maryland State requirements for professional development, High School Assessments, School Improvement and Accrediation for Growth. Once this is completed I then need to turn to my own lesson plans that need to be developed for the individual child, many who I teach have an individual education plan requied under the special education act of the federal government.
This month past (March) I have spent 15 days in activites that extend past the school day. I am still required to come to work the next day and meet the individual needs of 64 students. Lets not even speak of the needs at home or my own personal needs. Each student I teach must pass as a graduation requirement- a High Stakes Test in their subject area, reguardless of their economic condition, learning disabilities, or home life. Today a 14 year old child told me I had no right to ask them to be quiet while I was teaching, that they were not the only one talking. I had asked the child to be quiet because I had 30 minutes to teach a 90 minute class, due to a fog delay. This was a good day!
Take my job and its trials and tribulations. Eat your lunch in 26 minutes, answer your mail and complete reports and grade papers, call parents with concerns and kudos and run off papers in 45 minutes allowed each day. Don’t ask to go to the bathroom without someone coming to your class to cover for you.
I love what I do and I would not do anything else. I am not in it for the money, though money is nice. The students I touch each year and the success they have in life and their futures are magical. I am am glad to be a part of their lives. It burns me though, when I do all I can do and more and I am told I whine too much, have the summers off and if I don’t like it go somewhere else. Todays teachers who are entering the field are hearing you. Soon people in the community will be asking who is going to teach their kids? Hmmmmm sound like whining to me!
First I want to emphasize that I did not accuse you of whining. I will also admit that whining was a poor word choice. Now to your other points -
Hopefully you are not the NEA. If you endorse every crackpot scheme that they have come up with over the years then I am thankful that you are not teaching any of my children. Remember, I said if you endorse. I am not accusing you of anything. The NEA is a union, plain and simple. Like the other large unions they take positions that most of their rank and file do not endorse. They are able to do this because they also continually harp on issues that are important to its membership, namely pay, benefits and work rules.
I seldom hear a teacher whine about pay. I do hear the NEA complain about it all of the time. I also hear politicians complain about it. Should teachers have the ability to earn more? Yes. Should every teacher earn more? No.
Here lies the problem. I would love to see competent teachers have the ability to earn more. I would also love to see an end to teacher tenure. I would also love to see true school choice in Maryland and the other 49 states. That means charter schools, choice among public schools and the dreaded “V†word – vouchers.
In the private sector there is no guaranteed raise next year, unless you have a union contract that requires it. That is one of the reasons that so many heavily unionized companies are failing today. Not because of the workers, but because of the managers who have capitulated time and again to labor bosses. The same applies to public education. What is the incentive to be the best teacher that you can possibly be? It certainly isn’t money because the incompetent teacher down the hall will get paid the same as you because she started the same year you did.
America is blessed to have a great many wonderful teachers. Unfortunately it is the few bad apples that spoil it for the others. Does the NEA help school systems to weed out poor or underperforming teachers? No. Does the NEA work with school systems to reward, both financially and in other ways, the truly excellent teachers? No. I have actually seen one of the NEA’s past presidents argue that all public school teachers are excellent. Excellence is a relative term. Therefore it is impossible for all teachers to be excellent unless the bar is lowered to the point of being meaningless.
Don’t take it personal. If you have suggestions as to how we can improve our public schools I would love to hear them. Truly. However, if your solution is more money without more accountability or more money without higher standards for existing teachers as well those entering the profession then we will have to agree to disagree. Competition in some form will force schools to be better. It will make the best teachers want to stay and the worst teachers to seek another calling.
As far as an hourly wage, you must be kidding. Using your numbers, you figure a 38-hour week. (2000 hours / 52 weeks = 38.46 hours, yes?)
That’s simply not realistic.
I won’t go into detail ad nauseum about time spent on lesson plans, parental contacts and grading assignments. But the last time I spent fewer than 40 hours in a week was Christmas break.
Don’t forget - teachers in MD are required to get a Master’s degree or its equivilency within 10 years of starting teaching, and must take another 6 hours every five years. To compare us to a hourly wage job (as insinuated by the wage-per-hour numbers) is a false comparison. Compare us to CPAs or architects - it’s a much closer comparison than construction workers or Wal-Mart cashiers.
And it’s a good thing you’re not counting our pension benefits - they are the 49th worst in the nation, pending legislation in the General Assembly to undo some of the damage. I’d do better at retirement as a truck driver for Perdue, Inc.
You are trying to compare apples and oranges. You probably work less than 2000 hours per year. While you work over 40 hours per week during the school year, you only work 9 months of the year.
Kurt is not comparing you to a construction worker. Lawyers and CPA’s bill by the hour.
Yes, you have to take work home with you. So do lawyers, accountants, architects and managers. Most of the time you are not paid for this “homework”. It comes with the job. This also applies to continuing education requirements. Personally, I believe that requiring a Masters degree is not productive. This seems to be an attempt by the NEA and university Ed departments to help plump up pay numbers while also driving dollars to Ed schools.
Again, if money is what motivates you then you need to find a career that provides you with more money. If you are passionate about teaching then money should not be a factor. If you want to be paid like the private sector, then agree to adopt private sector work rules. This means no tenure and acceptance of competition in the marketplace.
Please remember that this is not a personal attack on you or teachers as a whole. My concern is with your union, and that is what the NEA is. It is no more of a professional association than the Teamsters. I will believe that the NEA has the best interest of my children at heart when they endorse most forms of school choice.