Why is there a teacher shortage?

[Anonymous]

The average salary in the us is in the 40s

Teacher salaries are know when people choose the career

Teachers love to complain

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average salary in the us is in the 40s

Teacher salaries are know when people choose the career

Teachers love to complain

Oh hello again misogyny. You always rear your head when female dominated professions try to get paid more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average salary in the us is in the 40s

Teacher salaries are know when people choose the career

Teachers love to complain

Maybe people should listen to them. This shortage will only get worse if districts don't listen to teachers. Soon there won't be anyone to complain and there won't be anyone to teach either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The average salary in the us is in the 40s

Teacher salaries are know when people choose the career

Teachers love to complain

Maybe people should listen to them. This shortage will only get worse if districts don't listen to teachers. Soon there won't be anyone to complain and there won't be anyone to teach either.

Columbus, Ohio, is learning that. 94% of their teachers went on strike at the beginning of the school year, forcing the district to move classes to a virtual format run by quickly-hired subs. I was told the virtual classes had 150-200 students each. It appears the school board recently agreed to teacher terms.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/08/22/columbus-teachers-strike/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average salary in the us is in the 40s

Teacher salaries are know when people choose the career

Teachers love to complain

Yes. I knew the salary scale and the benefits when I started 30 years ago. The pay compared to the COL has not kept pace. They have whittled away at the benefits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The average salary in the us is in the 40s

Teacher salaries are know when people choose the career

Teachers love to complain

Yes. I knew the salary scale and the benefits when I started 30 years ago. The pay compared to the COL has not kept pace. They have whittled away at the benefits.

Bingo! I’m paid much less now than I was even 5 years ago if I consider inflation and benefit reductions.

Also, sometimes there are legitimate reasons to complain. Teachers have legitimate reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But remember that 52 hours per week is only over 42 weeks of the year, as teachers get 10 weeks off in the summers.

Assuming 55 hours per week for 42 weeks, that's 2310 hours of work. For those that work 52 weeks per year, that compares to about 44.5 hours work per week. So you aren't working more total hours, but you have a compressed schedule where you have a much more concentrated schedule for 42 weeks, but have 10 weeks off each year.

Teacher here -- I want to say that I somewhat agree with you. I do feel I would be underpaid if I worked 52 hours a week as some of my colleagues do. But the summers off do make up for it somewhat.

However, right now with a MA and 15 years' teaching experience my salary is around $80,000. Even if I were to accept an 11 month or 12 month position, it would only rise to $89,000 or $97,000. That's a good salary for the teaching field, but it isn't what a lot of my similarly educated friends are making now with 15 years' experience.

Define “similarly educated.” $90-100k is pretty good for someone with a liberal arts degree. It’s not like you have an MS in a STEM field.

Regardless, schools reduce class load on teachers. I think spending more money on hiring more teachers, so they can add another hour of prep time each day, would be a better move than paying teachers more. A $10-20k bump wouldn't address burnout.

Got it so not just government workers are chumps anyone with a BA is less than because only STEM degrees are real
Degrees. How shortsighted for our society!

No, but there is a significant difference in pay between fields. And that’s something that a lot of people seem to ignore when comparing teacher pay to private sector pay. There isn’t much of a pay gap for teachers when you compare them to people with liberal arts degrees and jobs, include total compensation rather than just salary, and adjust for 10 versus 12 months.

Disagree with you here. (You also fail to realize that plenty of teachers have STEM degrees, especially in high school teaching. Many teachers have content-specific Masters degrees in addition to an Education BA. We are required to keep taking classes / earning degrees as part of our certification.)

I know plenty of people with BAs who make a ton more than I do. I know people without college degrees who make far more than I do. One works for an insurance company. He’s in his 4th or 5th year and makes twice my salary.

It’s far too simplistic to justify low teacher pay based on the fact that most teachers have liberal arts degrees. Again: not true and not an accurate reflection of the pay disparity between teaching and other fields. I would say the pay discrepancy is related to the fact that we expect teachers to martyr their pay, saying they are paid in some other form (“the impact you get to have on kids,” etc.).

Some teaching areas are unpaid compared to other workers with similar education. As you suggested, the STEM fields are probably the best example of that. But you’re grouping them together with the liberal arts and education majors, who generally wouldn’t be expected to make significantly more, particularly when factoring in the schedule and benefits. Similarly, you don’t seem to be distinguishing someone that has a Master of Science postgraduate degree on a STEM field from someone with a Master of Education degree.

Pay isn't the problem-- the hours are. Though pay is more of a problem for STEM and SPED positions, where recruiting is particularly hard.

I’m not grouping them together. Teaching pay scales do that. The Science teacher at my school with a PhD makes the same pay as the rest of us.

The idea of STEM and SPED being harder to recruit, and therefore needing higher pay to attract, is an outdated argument. We struggled to find Social Studies and English teachers this year. We know why. Teachers, even with these degrees you undervalue above, are finding more lucrative opportunities elsewhere. A former coworker of mine, with a “mere” English BA and a teaching certification, just got hired by a major defense firm to do editing for a lot more pay.

It’s not an outdated argument given that those positions remain the hardest positions to fill based on state and national surveys of school districts. The longer that teachers in other fields attempt to hide or distract from that fact the longer it will take to address the problem.

MOST positions are hard to fill right now. That’s the point of this particular thread.

You are suggesting that there is an army of teachers attempting to keep their science and math counterparts underpaid. I have never, in 20 years of teaching, heard that argument at the school or district level. That being said, I value my discipline (English) and I am aware of its value to society. Writing is a critical skill and strong writers/communicators are hard to find. If another teacher gets a higher salary than me simply because of their discipline, I will find another district. I am aware that this teacher shortage is giving me a tremendous amount of job security. There are openings everywhere, even in English, and it would not be hard to transfer to a place that would value me more. I can also follow the example of former colleagues and transfer out of education. I have 2 degrees (neither are Education) and 20 successful years of managing people and data. I’ll be fine.

Another option, and the one that would support our students, would be to raise salaries and reduce workloads across the board. We need to do both to reduce teacher burnout and to improve teacher morale.

Again, you’re kidding yourself if you think all position areas are equally hard to fill. And you alluded to the exact problem: the teachers unions would never allow the most difficult position areas (e.g., STEM, SPED, ESL) to be paid on a different scale. Just look at what MCEA did when MCPS tried to give bonuses to new SPED teachers. We're going to continue to have severe shortages until we float teacher salaries based on the difficulty of recruiting and retaining teachers. But the unions aren't interested in addressing the root causes- they just want to do whatever they think will benefit most current teachers. And since elementary, english, and social studies teachers seem to be worried their market value is not equal to these other areas, they're going to fight floating or
separated pay scales as long as possible. Eventually the system will collapse as more districts are forced to turn to contractors who wouldn't be limited by the unions.

[Anonymous]

They just need to raise all salaries. Easy peasy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average salary in the us is in the 40s

Teacher salaries are know when people choose the career

Teachers love to complain

Yes, we all know that teachers are underpaid. Time to fix it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average salary in the us is in the 40s

Teacher salaries are know when people choose the career

Teachers love to complain

The average salary for college-educated people? How about master's degree?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But remember that 52 hours per week is only over 42 weeks of the year, as teachers get 10 weeks off in the summers.

Assuming 55 hours per week for 42 weeks, that's 2310 hours of work. For those that work 52 weeks per year, that compares to about 44.5 hours work per week. So you aren't working more total hours, but you have a compressed schedule where you have a much more concentrated schedule for 42 weeks, but have 10 weeks off each year.

Teacher here -- I want to say that I somewhat agree with you. I do feel I would be underpaid if I worked 52 hours a week as some of my colleagues do. But the summers off do make up for it somewhat.

However, right now with a MA and 15 years' teaching experience my salary is around $80,000. Even if I were to accept an 11 month or 12 month position, it would only rise to $89,000 or $97,000. That's a good salary for the teaching field, but it isn't what a lot of my similarly educated friends are making now with 15 years' experience.

Define “similarly educated.” $90-100k is pretty good for someone with a liberal arts degree. It’s not like you have an MS in a STEM field.

Regardless, schools reduce class load on teachers. I think spending more money on hiring more teachers, so they can add another hour of prep time each day, would be a better move than paying teachers more. A $10-20k bump wouldn't address burnout.

Got it so not just government workers are chumps anyone with a BA is less than because only STEM degrees are real
Degrees. How shortsighted for our society!

No, but there is a significant difference in pay between fields. And that’s something that a lot of people seem to ignore when comparing teacher pay to private sector pay. There isn’t much of a pay gap for teachers when you compare them to people with liberal arts degrees and jobs, include total compensation rather than just salary, and adjust for 10 versus 12 months.

Disagree with you here. (You also fail to realize that plenty of teachers have STEM degrees, especially in high school teaching. Many teachers have content-specific Masters degrees in addition to an Education BA. We are required to keep taking classes / earning degrees as part of our certification.)

I know plenty of people with BAs who make a ton more than I do. I know people without college degrees who make far more than I do. One works for an insurance company. He’s in his 4th or 5th year and makes twice my salary.

It’s far too simplistic to justify low teacher pay based on the fact that most teachers have liberal arts degrees. Again: not true and not an accurate reflection of the pay disparity between teaching and other fields. I would say the pay discrepancy is related to the fact that we expect teachers to martyr their pay, saying they are paid in some other form (“the impact you get to have on kids,” etc.).

Some teaching areas are unpaid compared to other workers with similar education. As you suggested, the STEM fields are probably the best example of that. But you’re grouping them together with the liberal arts and education majors, who generally wouldn’t be expected to make significantly more, particularly when factoring in the schedule and benefits. Similarly, you don’t seem to be distinguishing someone that has a Master of Science postgraduate degree on a STEM field from someone with a Master of Education degree.

Pay isn't the problem-- the hours are. Though pay is more of a problem for STEM and SPED positions, where recruiting is particularly hard.

I’m not grouping them together. Teaching pay scales do that. The Science teacher at my school with a PhD makes the same pay as the rest of us.

The idea of STEM and SPED being harder to recruit, and therefore needing higher pay to attract, is an outdated argument. We struggled to find Social Studies and English teachers this year. We know why. Teachers, even with these degrees you undervalue above, are finding more lucrative opportunities elsewhere. A former coworker of mine, with a “mere” English BA and a teaching certification, just got hired by a major defense firm to do editing for a lot more pay.

It’s not an outdated argument given that those positions remain the hardest positions to fill based on state and national surveys of school districts. The longer that teachers in other fields attempt to hide or distract from that fact the longer it will take to address the problem.

MOST positions are hard to fill right now. That’s the point of this particular thread.

You are suggesting that there is an army of teachers attempting to keep their science and math counterparts underpaid. I have never, in 20 years of teaching, heard that argument at the school or district level. That being said, I value my discipline (English) and I am aware of its value to society. Writing is a critical skill and strong writers/communicators are hard to find. If another teacher gets a higher salary than me simply because of their discipline, I will find another district. I am aware that this teacher shortage is giving me a tremendous amount of job security. There are openings everywhere, even in English, and it would not be hard to transfer to a place that would value me more. I can also follow the example of former colleagues and transfer out of education. I have 2 degrees (neither are Education) and 20 successful years of managing people and data. I’ll be fine.

Another option, and the one that would support our students, would be to raise salaries and reduce workloads across the board. We need to do both to reduce teacher burnout and to improve teacher morale.

Again, you’re kidding yourself if you think all position areas are equally hard to fill. And you alluded to the exact problem: the teachers unions would never allow the most difficult position areas (e.g., STEM, SPED, ESL) to be paid on a different scale. Just look at what MCEA did when MCPS tried to give bonuses to new SPED teachers. We're going to continue to have severe shortages until we float teacher salaries based on the difficulty of recruiting and retaining teachers. But the unions aren't interested in addressing the root causes- they just want to do whatever they think will benefit most current teachers. And since elementary, english, and social studies teachers seem to be worried their market value is not equal to these other areas, they're going to fight floating or
separated pay scales as long as possible. Eventually the system will collapse as more districts are forced to turn to contractors who wouldn't be limited by the unions.

You’re kidding yourself if you think there has been any talk between elementary, English, and Social Studies teachers AT ALL about floating pay scales. Seriously, where are you getting this idea? It exists only here on DCUM. We’re too busy working 60 hour weeks, grading essays, and covering each others’ classes. We don’t have time to plan some attack against STEM teachers.

I don’t see where you read “worry” into my post. I’m not worried that my market value is less than a STEM or SPED teacher. I’m not worried because I know it isn’t. I am very confident my experience and expertise can’t be easily replaced. I’m very confident there isn’t a line of IB and AP certified teachers knocking on county doors. Here we are in the midst of a teacher shortage, and you continue to undervalue ALL teachers.

I agree we are heading toward collapse, but it isn’t because we don’t have some floating pay scale. I am likely harder to replace than other teachers, but I’m not calling for more money. I know that would dismantle the system because I would be telling other teachers that their work is less valuable than mine. (I don’t care if this is a supply/demand issue. That’s how they would take it and they would be correct.) If we want to fix education, value ALL. The idea of turning teachers against each other is unsettling. (Should the unsatisfactory Bio teacher be paid more than the 2nd grade educator? See where this is going?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The average salary in the us is in the 40s

Teacher salaries are know when people choose the career

Teachers love to complain

The average salary for college-educated people? How about master's degree?

Except an M.Ed isn’t equivalent to an M.S. Compare apples to apples. What do you think the average English major makes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But remember that 52 hours per week is only over 42 weeks of the year, as teachers get 10 weeks off in the summers.

Assuming 55 hours per week for 42 weeks, that's 2310 hours of work. For those that work 52 weeks per year, that compares to about 44.5 hours work per week. So you aren't working more total hours, but you have a compressed schedule where you have a much more concentrated schedule for 42 weeks, but have 10 weeks off each year.

Teacher here -- I want to say that I somewhat agree with you. I do feel I would be underpaid if I worked 52 hours a week as some of my colleagues do. But the summers off do make up for it somewhat.

However, right now with a MA and 15 years' teaching experience my salary is around $80,000. Even if I were to accept an 11 month or 12 month position, it would only rise to $89,000 or $97,000. That's a good salary for the teaching field, but it isn't what a lot of my similarly educated friends are making now with 15 years' experience.

Define “similarly educated.” $90-100k is pretty good for someone with a liberal arts degree. It’s not like you have an MS in a STEM field.

Regardless, schools reduce class load on teachers. I think spending more money on hiring more teachers, so they can add another hour of prep time each day, would be a better move than paying teachers more. A $10-20k bump wouldn't address burnout.

Got it so not just government workers are chumps anyone with a BA is less than because only STEM degrees are real
Degrees. How shortsighted for our society!

No, but there is a significant difference in pay between fields. And that’s something that a lot of people seem to ignore when comparing teacher pay to private sector pay. There isn’t much of a pay gap for teachers when you compare them to people with liberal arts degrees and jobs, include total compensation rather than just salary, and adjust for 10 versus 12 months.

Disagree with you here. (You also fail to realize that plenty of teachers have STEM degrees, especially in high school teaching. Many teachers have content-specific Masters degrees in addition to an Education BA. We are required to keep taking classes / earning degrees as part of our certification.)

I know plenty of people with BAs who make a ton more than I do. I know people without college degrees who make far more than I do. One works for an insurance company. He’s in his 4th or 5th year and makes twice my salary.

It’s far too simplistic to justify low teacher pay based on the fact that most teachers have liberal arts degrees. Again: not true and not an accurate reflection of the pay disparity between teaching and other fields. I would say the pay discrepancy is related to the fact that we expect teachers to martyr their pay, saying they are paid in some other form (“the impact you get to have on kids,” etc.).

Some teaching areas are unpaid compared to other workers with similar education. As you suggested, the STEM fields are probably the best example of that. But you’re grouping them together with the liberal arts and education majors, who generally wouldn’t be expected to make significantly more, particularly when factoring in the schedule and benefits. Similarly, you don’t seem to be distinguishing someone that has a Master of Science postgraduate degree on a STEM field from someone with a Master of Education degree.

Pay isn't the problem-- the hours are. Though pay is more of a problem for STEM and SPED positions, where recruiting is particularly hard.

I’m not grouping them together. Teaching pay scales do that. The Science teacher at my school with a PhD makes the same pay as the rest of us.

The idea of STEM and SPED being harder to recruit, and therefore needing higher pay to attract, is an outdated argument. We struggled to find Social Studies and English teachers this year. We know why. Teachers, even with these degrees you undervalue above, are finding more lucrative opportunities elsewhere. A former coworker of mine, with a “mere” English BA and a teaching certification, just got hired by a major defense firm to do editing for a lot more pay.

It’s not an outdated argument given that those positions remain the hardest positions to fill based on state and national surveys of school districts. The longer that teachers in other fields attempt to hide or distract from that fact the longer it will take to address the problem.

MOST positions are hard to fill right now. That’s the point of this particular thread.

You are suggesting that there is an army of teachers attempting to keep their science and math counterparts underpaid. I have never, in 20 years of teaching, heard that argument at the school or district level. That being said, I value my discipline (English) and I am aware of its value to society. Writing is a critical skill and strong writers/communicators are hard to find. If another teacher gets a higher salary than me simply because of their discipline, I will find another district. I am aware that this teacher shortage is giving me a tremendous amount of job security. There are openings everywhere, even in English, and it would not be hard to transfer to a place that would value me more. I can also follow the example of former colleagues and transfer out of education. I have 2 degrees (neither are Education) and 20 successful years of managing people and data. I’ll be fine.

Another option, and the one that would support our students, would be to raise salaries and reduce workloads across the board. We need to do both to reduce teacher burnout and to improve teacher morale.

Again, you’re kidding yourself if you think all position areas are equally hard to fill. And you alluded to the exact problem: the teachers unions would never allow the most difficult position areas (e.g., STEM, SPED, ESL) to be paid on a different scale. Just look at what MCEA did when MCPS tried to give bonuses to new SPED teachers. We're going to continue to have severe shortages until we float teacher salaries based on the difficulty of recruiting and retaining teachers. But the unions aren't interested in addressing the root causes- they just want to do whatever they think will benefit most current teachers. And since elementary, english, and social studies teachers seem to be worried their market value is not equal to these other areas, they're going to fight floating or
separated pay scales as long as possible. Eventually the system will collapse as more districts are forced to turn to contractors who wouldn't be limited by the unions.

You’re kidding yourself if you think there has been any talk between elementary, English, and Social Studies teachers AT ALL about floating pay scales. Seriously, where are you getting this idea? It exists only here on DCUM. We’re too busy working 60 hour weeks, grading essays, and covering each others’ classes. We don’t have time to plan some attack against STEM teachers.

I don’t see where you read “worry” into my post. I’m not worried that my market value is less than a STEM or SPED teacher. I’m not worried because I know it isn’t. I am very confident my experience and expertise can’t be easily replaced. I’m very confident there isn’t a line of IB and AP certified teachers knocking on county doors. Here we are in the midst of a teacher shortage, and you continue to undervalue ALL teachers.

I agree we are heading toward collapse, but it isn’t because we don’t have some floating pay scale. I am likely harder to replace than other teachers, but I’m not calling for more money. I know that would dismantle the system because I would be telling other teachers that their work is less valuable than mine. (I don’t care if this is a supply/demand issue. That’s how they would take it and they would be correct.) If we want to fix education, value ALL. The idea of turning teachers against each other is unsettling. (Should the unsatisfactory Bio teacher be paid more than the 2nd grade educator? See where this is going?)

Whether you’re talking about it isn’t the point— your union is. We just saw this happen in MCPS with SPED positions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But remember that 52 hours per week is only over 42 weeks of the year, as teachers get 10 weeks off in the summers.

Assuming 55 hours per week for 42 weeks, that's 2310 hours of work. For those that work 52 weeks per year, that compares to about 44.5 hours work per week. So you aren't working more total hours, but you have a compressed schedule where you have a much more concentrated schedule for 42 weeks, but have 10 weeks off each year.

Teacher here -- I want to say that I somewhat agree with you. I do feel I would be underpaid if I worked 52 hours a week as some of my colleagues do. But the summers off do make up for it somewhat.

However, right now with a MA and 15 years' teaching experience my salary is around $80,000. Even if I were to accept an 11 month or 12 month position, it would only rise to $89,000 or $97,000. That's a good salary for the teaching field, but it isn't what a lot of my similarly educated friends are making now with 15 years' experience.

Define “similarly educated.” $90-100k is pretty good for someone with a liberal arts degree. It’s not like you have an MS in a STEM field.

Regardless, schools reduce class load on teachers. I think spending more money on hiring more teachers, so they can add another hour of prep time each day, would be a better move than paying teachers more. A $10-20k bump wouldn't address burnout.

Got it so not just government workers are chumps anyone with a BA is less than because only STEM degrees are real
Degrees. How shortsighted for our society!

No, but there is a significant difference in pay between fields. And that’s something that a lot of people seem to ignore when comparing teacher pay to private sector pay. There isn’t much of a pay gap for teachers when you compare them to people with liberal arts degrees and jobs, include total compensation rather than just salary, and adjust for 10 versus 12 months.

Disagree with you here. (You also fail to realize that plenty of teachers have STEM degrees, especially in high school teaching. Many teachers have content-specific Masters degrees in addition to an Education BA. We are required to keep taking classes / earning degrees as part of our certification.)

I know plenty of people with BAs who make a ton more than I do. I know people without college degrees who make far more than I do. One works for an insurance company. He’s in his 4th or 5th year and makes twice my salary.

It’s far too simplistic to justify low teacher pay based on the fact that most teachers have liberal arts degrees. Again: not true and not an accurate reflection of the pay disparity between teaching and other fields. I would say the pay discrepancy is related to the fact that we expect teachers to martyr their pay, saying they are paid in some other form (“the impact you get to have on kids,” etc.).

Some teaching areas are unpaid compared to other workers with similar education. As you suggested, the STEM fields are probably the best example of that. But you’re grouping them together with the liberal arts and education majors, who generally wouldn’t be expected to make significantly more, particularly when factoring in the schedule and benefits. Similarly, you don’t seem to be distinguishing someone that has a Master of Science postgraduate degree on a STEM field from someone with a Master of Education degree.

Pay isn't the problem-- the hours are. Though pay is more of a problem for STEM and SPED positions, where recruiting is particularly hard.

I’m not grouping them together. Teaching pay scales do that. The Science teacher at my school with a PhD makes the same pay as the rest of us.

The idea of STEM and SPED being harder to recruit, and therefore needing higher pay to attract, is an outdated argument. We struggled to find Social Studies and English teachers this year. We know why. Teachers, even with these degrees you undervalue above, are finding more lucrative opportunities elsewhere. A former coworker of mine, with a “mere” English BA and a teaching certification, just got hired by a major defense firm to do editing for a lot more pay.

It’s not an outdated argument given that those positions remain the hardest positions to fill based on state and national surveys of school districts. The longer that teachers in other fields attempt to hide or distract from that fact the longer it will take to address the problem.

MOST positions are hard to fill right now. That’s the point of this particular thread.

You are suggesting that there is an army of teachers attempting to keep their science and math counterparts underpaid. I have never, in 20 years of teaching, heard that argument at the school or district level. That being said, I value my discipline (English) and I am aware of its value to society. Writing is a critical skill and strong writers/communicators are hard to find. If another teacher gets a higher salary than me simply because of their discipline, I will find another district. I am aware that this teacher shortage is giving me a tremendous amount of job security. There are openings everywhere, even in English, and it would not be hard to transfer to a place that would value me more. I can also follow the example of former colleagues and transfer out of education. I have 2 degrees (neither are Education) and 20 successful years of managing people and data. I’ll be fine.

Another option, and the one that would support our students, would be to raise salaries and reduce workloads across the board. We need to do both to reduce teacher burnout and to improve teacher morale.

Again, you’re kidding yourself if you think all position areas are equally hard to fill. And you alluded to the exact problem: the teachers unions would never allow the most difficult position areas (e.g., STEM, SPED, ESL) to be paid on a different scale. Just look at what MCEA did when MCPS tried to give bonuses to new SPED teachers. We're going to continue to have severe shortages until we float teacher salaries based on the difficulty of recruiting and retaining teachers. But the unions aren't interested in addressing the root causes- they just want to do whatever they think will benefit most current teachers. And since elementary, english, and social studies teachers seem to be worried their market value is not equal to these other areas, they're going to fight floating or
separated pay scales as long as possible. Eventually the system will collapse as more districts are forced to turn to contractors who wouldn't be limited by the unions.

You’re kidding yourself if you think there has been any talk between elementary, English, and Social Studies teachers AT ALL about floating pay scales. Seriously, where are you getting this idea? It exists only here on DCUM. We’re too busy working 60 hour weeks, grading essays, and covering each others’ classes. We don’t have time to plan some attack against STEM teachers.

I don’t see where you read “worry” into my post. I’m not worried that my market value is less than a STEM or SPED teacher. I’m not worried because I know it isn’t. I am very confident my experience and expertise can’t be easily replaced. I’m very confident there isn’t a line of IB and AP certified teachers knocking on county doors. Here we are in the midst of a teacher shortage, and you continue to undervalue ALL teachers.

I agree we are heading toward collapse, but it isn’t because we don’t have some floating pay scale. I am likely harder to replace than other teachers, but I’m not calling for more money. I know that would dismantle the system because I would be telling other teachers that their work is less valuable than mine. (I don’t care if this is a supply/demand issue. That’s how they would take it and they would be correct.) If we want to fix education, value ALL. The idea of turning teachers against each other is unsettling. (Should the unsatisfactory Bio teacher be paid more than the 2nd grade educator? See where this is going?)

Whether you’re talking about it isn’t the point— your union is. We just saw this happen in MCPS with SPED positions.

My union = SPED and STEM union

[Anonymous]

Your industry needs to grow up and get with supply and demand

DC pays teachers over 100k within 5-10 years if you are good enough