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Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)
The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries
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AngryTeacher
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Anonymous
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I think that Montgomery County school teachers get paid pretty well, actually. THe salaries that grads said they would teach for in the article are pretty much in line with what MOCO salaries are. Granted they are not on par with the lawyers around, but I think they are fair for a BA or MA in teaching. Of course, I am a social worker so my standards aren't that high for salaries. & the pub school benefits tack on thousands more--they are awesome benefits.
salary schedule: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/ersc/employees/pay/schedules/salary_schedule_mcea_current.pdf |
Anonymous
| and those salaries are with summers off |
Anonymous
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How could you miss the lead when it obviously wasn't buried?
See below, as I've included it in my response. While money is an incentive for attracting the best and the brightest - AS MENTIONED IN THE ARTICLE - we, as teachers, complain most about lack of respect. Who comes to us for policy decisions? And yet, when scores (which mean nothing in my book) are low and schools are labeled as underperforming, we're the first ones to be blamed. *to blame teachers for poor test scores when those behind the scenes - WITHOUT EDUCATION DEGREES - are making policy decisions *to expect teachers to level the playing field in the classroom when so many with attendance issues, language barriers, and unstable home lives fill the same room *to so ignorantly state that teachers are "lucky to have summers off" when MOST are working second jobs *to claim how wonderful Mo Co salaries are when many can't even afford to live in this very expensive county and travel from Frederick and AA counties and WVA by train We are losing some of the most promising young people to early burn out. These are gifted, talented, creative and passionate teachers who are leaving en masse to pursue more lucrative fields. And yet the public just doesn't get it. It sickens me. from the article (the lead)****WHEN we don’t get the results we want in our military endeavors, we don’t blame the soldiers. We don’t say, “It’s these lazy soldiers and their bloated benefits plans! That’s why we haven’t done better in Afghanistan!” No, if the results aren’t there, we blame the planners. We blame the generals, the secretary of defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. No one contemplates blaming the men and women fighting every day in the trenches for little pay and scant recognition.***** |
AngryTeacher
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And let me claim this post as mine! Apparently DCUM has a log in time limit.
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Anonymous
Really?! I started 6 years ago with a BA making about $43,000. Since then I have gotten an MA and taken a TON of classes(spending a lot of money) to reach the level of MA + 60 credits, and do you know what I earn? $59,922. Yeah, I'm still paid at the level of a 4th year teacher since we haven't had raises in 2 years and I'm still sub $60K. I'm as far as I can get until we start getting step increases again. Yes, I get 2 months off in the summer, but if I want to be paid I have to go out and find a job and I'm not making anywhere near what I get paid during the rest of the year, so it's hardly worth it. I can't take time off when I want, I get 3 personal days and 10 sick days per year. That's it. Oh, my husband is going to Hawaii on business and I can go too? Oh wait, no I can't. Before someone chimes in with this, yes, I did choose this profession and knew this going in. I also love it and wouldn't want to do anything else. It just gets really frustrating to hear about how much I make and how I'm overpaid when I would not be able to have a decent lifestyle if my husband didn't have a well-paying job. I'm not going to lie, I hope to have a decent pension when I retire. That also went into my planning for this career, so please don't try to take it away. I knew I was never going to be making tons by teaching, but at least I could bank on my pension in the future. |
Anonymous
| I think that a nation is very sick when it doesn't make properly rearing the nation's children its top priority. I really don't understand what is happening in the U.S. now. Our values are upside down. |
Anonymous
| You had me up to the point that you indicated that you could not afford to live in the county. My guess is that you can afford to live in the county but choose not to because you can afford a nicer house, better school and better living somewhere else. It is the same trade-off that we all make, live in an apt., condo, small home or move away and buy something bigger. I here people complain about not being able to live in certain counties all of the time but in general they are unwilling to live in the neighborhood or house that is in their price range in their desired county. Obviously there are families living there, choosing to live there. |
Anonymous
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Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........
Lots of people with MA make the same amount of money. Lots of people in non-for-profits are changing the world and making the same amount of money. Lots of us can't go to Hawaii with our husbands on business because 1.)we can't afford it 2.) we can't get time off of work -- and we still don't get a pension. Lots of us haven't gotten raises in two years. Either you want to do it or you don't. Your choice. But once you make that choice, don't complain about it! |
Anonymous
| Supply and demand. |
Anonymous
A 40% increase in salary in 6 years -- especially when 2 of those years have been part of the worst recession our country has seen since the Great Depression -- sounds pretty incredible to me. I'm in government too (not teaching), and we haven't gotten those types of raises. Granted, I'm further along in my career than you, and most of the biggest advances are when you first start out. But it really is all relative. Most private sector people I know took 20-40% cuts in salary since 2008 because of the recession....if they kept their jobs at all. |
Anonymous
This is one of the parts of teaching that I never thought about before getting into it. Yes, having summers off is great, but during the school year there is little to no flexibility to do anything. My son has two field trips coming up in the next month and I would love to be a chaperone on one of them, but I can't because I've already taken my 3 personal days. It is also hard to attend anything at my sons' schools because I can't leave my own school during the school day. Last month my son was in a play with his K class at 9:00 am, and I had to get another teacher to cover my class so I could run out for an hour and a half to see it. This is one of the things I miss about having a more flexible office-type job. Everyone says that teaching is family friendly and it is during the summer and on school breaks, but during the school year, not so much! |
AngryTeacher
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Here's another good one:
Commentary This Teacher Is 'Mad as Hell' By Angela Beeley I am a public school teacher and a member of a union. Contrary to popular political rhetoric at play in Wisconsin and elsewhere, I am not, however, a leech on society, nor am I a lazy incompetent who shows up to collect a paycheck, not caring whether my students learn. I am a teacher and, in the words of Howard Beale in the film "Network": "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" I am an English teacher who wakes up in the middle of the night, puzzling over how to engage 37 students in my third-period in an upcoming lesson. I am a teacher who gives up part of almost every evening and weekend to grade the never-ending deluge of papers. I am a teacher whose job performance is judged on scores from a test that counts for nothing for the students and their parents. I am a teacher of children who have been coldly molested, beaten, ignored, neglected, left hungry, and might not know where they are going to sleep that night. I am a teacher who cries at the end of every school year because, as they leave me, I am reminded of the basic goodness of the students I teach. I am also a mother, a mother who shops for her family's clothes, including her own, at Target. I have a coupon file that embarrasses my older daughter. I drive a 10-year-old car that my parents helped me purchase. We coexist with termites eating away at the foundation of our house because we don't have the thousands of dollars it would take to rid ourselves of them. My husband and I aren't wearing Prada sunglasses or jetting to St. Tropez on this outrageous salary my union has negotiated for me. This misdirected anger at unions and public employees is a sad, cynical manipulation. Are there waste and hypocrisy in unions and public administration? Of course there are! Please name for me one sector of society that doesn't have these problems. These are human failings, not union failings. And can states spend money they don't have? No, they can't and shouldn't, and hard times call for sacrifice from all in both the public and private sectors. We must contribute, but we must never give up the right of the American worker to bargain collectively. The outcry against unions and collective bargaining is a complete red herring. The unspoken message is: Let's make the average American forget that Wall Street crooks set up our economy for a meltdown and that, not only are they not in jail, they made money on the deal. Let's make them forget that the richest 400 people in the United States make more than the entire bottom half of all earners. Let's hide the fact that CEOs today make several hundred times what their employees make, rather than the 20 to 30 times more they used to earn. Let's snicker as the workers rip each other's throats out, scrabbling for the privilege of going to the doctor when they're sick. I have a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, a master's degree from the Claremont Graduate University, and I am a National Board Certified Teacher. I am a professional. And I don't think it's too much to ask to make a salary commensurate with my education, to be able to take my daughters to the doctor, and to retire with a small measure of security after choosing to devote my life to educating America's children. I love my students, but who on earth does the public-which is accepting these political shenanigans-think will choose to become a teacher now? No one in his or her right mind would go into this profession. After seeing teachers beaten up in the media for our society's failings and being portrayed by our elected officials as lazy fat cats when we are working our butts off to having to "teach" to a test, no student with two brain cells to rub together is going to want to become a teacher. I would challenge anyone-including Wisconsin's governor-who thinks that teaching requires little effort, no summer break, or no decent salary to spend a year in the classroom. Get in there, Governor Walker. You wouldn't last a week. Angela Beeley has taught at Alta Loma (Calif.) High School for 18 years. She currently teaches 10th grade English. She earned certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards for the first time in 1999 and for the second time in 2009. |
Anonymous
| It's 1:36, AT. Shouldn't you be teaching? |
Anonymous
I'm PT. So I can do what I want when I'm off the clock! I start at 7 am and end at 12 something. Today, however, I returned to attend a faculty meeting. So I put in extra hours! Are you happy with my answer? Your tax dollars during that time are hard at work, as I rarely mess around during my planning. (We all slack off from time to time; I'll admit that. But I'm usually pretty good!) |