Unpopular opinion: DCPS teachers are super well paid!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:We just got our school budget. Our librarian makes $140k. Most teachers make about $130k and they work for 9 months per year and they get a pension.
I am happy for them but people have to stop with pressuring parents to give them gift cards, valentine presents and all the talk about them not being well paid.
By

This is not valid in other states. I am just talking about DCPS and probably DC metro and other big cities.

That’s it 🙂

Yup. I have 20 years experience and am in a senior role at my large nonprofit and make $126. We have had some lovely, lovely teachers and assistants when my kids were at a title 1 elementary, and I was generous with the gifts. But I no longer go overboard or give gifts to individual teachers in middle and hs. They are professionals!

Do you get $126 gross pay, or is $126 allocated for your salary, any benefits your company employer pays, subs if you are absent etc . . .?

Because a line item in a budget is not a salary.

If 126k is allocated for a teacher, approximately what is their actual salary (pre-tax)?

You managed to not see it posted twice.

https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/WTU%20FY20-FY23.pdf

This does not answer my question.

Private sector, the number is usually around half. Taxes and benefits are expensive

Are you saying taxes and benefits are half of the cost of an employee? Like someone makes $50k, the insurance and taxes are also $50k?

One non-profit in DC lists a max salary of $115k and says it has a payroll tax of $8500 and benefits about $4500.

Those benefits are terrible. Good health insurance for a family can cost an employer 20k a year

Yes, but then surely the employee isn’t just making $40k right? The point was the percentage. Even if that $112k employee was getting $20k insurance it still isn’t close to the 50% PP said.

[Anonymous]

Teachers spend more time with your kids than you do. Being bitter than you are encouraged to make them a card or give a $5 gift certificate is totally bizarre.

(I’ve also never been at a school where I was pushed to do either thing. I’ve done it because they’re doing literally the most important job— taking care of my kids.)

[Anonymous]

I was in K classroom for almost a year. The assistant is with the kids from from 8:45 to 3:15 having arrived at 8. There is a 30-minute lunch break which is more like 20 min because kids need help getting dressed heading to recess.
Assistants had recess duty or lunch duty for assistant 5 days a week. Teacher had three duty days. There are several specials during the day so only morning meeting, math, reading, writing, and choice time is done by teacher. Total on 4 hours I'd say. The morning meeting is same thing over and over again. It is so painful.
Math is such a waste of time while reading and writing is being pushed like nothing else.
Taking a plunger to the toilet is no big deal; I wouldn't even mention it.
The biggest problem I saw/heard was the friction between teachers. I have no idea how one class had zero kids with special needs while
the other 3 classes had multiple. Chances of this happening while picking the kids are very slim. Ofcourse the teacher with no special needs kids scored the best. The pay difference was also like $30k while both had experience and MA trying to do the same exact job.
I'd be worried about the pay for assistants. All had at least BA. On paper they got paid $39k while take home was $1020 every two weeks. I have no idea what the benefits were as nobody benefited.
The hardest part in that school was the atmosphere. Parents would never know it.
About the teachers pay? I don't really care but they should consider education more than experience. " Highly effective" yet again while you have no special kids in class. Pushkin can do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was in K classroom for almost a year. The assistant is with the kids from from 8:45 to 3:15 having arrived at 8. There is a 30-minute lunch break which is more like 20 min because kids need help getting dressed heading to recess.
Assistants had recess duty or lunch duty for assistant 5 days a week. Teacher had three duty days. There are several specials during the day so only morning meeting, math, reading, writing, and choice time is done by teacher. Total on 4 hours I'd say. The morning meeting is same thing over and over again. It is so painful.
Math is such a waste of time while reading and writing is being pushed like nothing else.
Taking a plunger to the toilet is no big deal; I wouldn't even mention it.
The biggest problem I saw/heard was the friction between teachers. I have no idea how one class had zero kids with special needs while
the other 3 classes had multiple. Chances of this happening while picking the kids are very slim. Ofcourse the teacher with no special needs kids scored the best. The pay difference was also like $30k while both had experience and MA trying to do the same exact job.
I'd be worried about the pay for assistants. All had at least BA. On paper they got paid $39k while take home was $1020 every two weeks. I have no idea what the benefits were as nobody benefited.
The hardest part in that school was the atmosphere. Parents would never know it.
About the teachers pay? I don't really care but they should consider education more than experience. " Highly effective" yet again while you have no special kids in class. Pushkin can do that.

Please send Pushkin on over to the classroom across the hall which has not had a permanent teacher since October.

There’s an element of supply and demand. We need more teachers and there aren’t enough of them. Just like the private sector, you raise salaries to be competitive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just got our school budget. Our librarian makes $140k. Most teachers make about $130k and they work for 9 months per year and they get a pension.
I am happy for them but people have to stop with pressuring parents to give them gift cards, valentine presents and all the talk about them not being well paid.
By

This is not valid in other states. I am just talking about DCPS and probably DC metro and other big cities.

That’s it 🙂

Yup. I have 20 years experience and am in a senior role at my large nonprofit and make $126. We have had some lovely, lovely teachers and assistants when my kids were at a title 1 elementary, and I was generous with the gifts. But I no longer go overboard or give gifts to individual teachers in middle and hs. They are professionals!

Do you get $126 gross pay, or is $126 allocated for your salary, any benefits your company employer pays, subs if you are absent etc . . .?

Because a line item in a budget is not a salary.

If 126k is allocated for a teacher, approximately what is their actual salary (pre-tax)?

You managed to not see it posted twice.

https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/WTU%20FY20-FY23.pdf

This does not answer my question.

In the budget, they put the average total cost (which includes all the benefits and add ons). The average teacher salary isn't easy to find but it is listed as $93,823 here https://joindcps.dc.gov/become-a-dc-teacher. The starting salary is $63,373. In the budget, whether a teacher makes $63K or $93K, they are listed at the average "total cost" of about $130K.

For how they calculate the average total cost, see https://dcpsbudget.com/budget-model/average-position-cost/.

I'm not talking about a line in a budget, I'm talking about something like this, that lists salaries by name:

https://dchr.dc.gov/public-employee-salary-information

Those are actual salaries.

[Anonymous]

Whatever a teacher makes, it's not enough! How soon people forget what it was like when they had to take care of your own kids when schools were closed. They are a backbone of out society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just got our school budget. Our librarian makes $140k. Most teachers make about $130k and they work for 9 months per year and they get a pension.
I am happy for them but people have to stop with pressuring parents to give them gift cards, valentine presents and all the talk about them not being well paid.
By

This is not valid in other states. I am just talking about DCPS and probably DC metro and other big cities.

That’s it 🙂

Yup. I have 20 years experience and am in a senior role at my large nonprofit and make $126. We have had some lovely, lovely teachers and assistants when my kids were at a title 1 elementary, and I was generous with the gifts. But I no longer go overboard or give gifts to individual teachers in middle and hs. They are professionals!

Do you get $126 gross pay, or is $126 allocated for your salary, any benefits your company employer pays, subs if you are absent etc . . .?

Because a line item in a budget is not a salary.

If 126k is allocated for a teacher, approximately what is their actual salary (pre-tax)?

You managed to not see it posted twice.

https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/WTU%20FY20-FY23.pdf

This does not answer my question.

Private sector, the number is usually around half. Taxes and benefits are expensive

Are you saying taxes and benefits are half of the cost of an employee? Like someone makes $50k, the insurance and taxes are also $50k?

One non-profit in DC lists a max salary of $115k and says it has a payroll tax of $8500 and benefits about $4500.

Those benefits are terrible. Good health insurance for a family can cost an employer 20k a year

Yes, but then surely the employee isn’t just making $40k right? The point was the percentage. Even if that $112k employee was getting $20k insurance it still isn’t close to the 50% PP said.

20k in health insurance. Taxes are 6% FUTA, another 2.5% for state unemployment, and 8% medicare and social security. 401k matching is 5% plus another 1% in administrative fees. Thats about 40% for an employee making 100k

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is unpopular to consider salaries without considering cost of living. Unpopular because it's dumb and/or disingenuous.

OP here. cost of living is not a factor here because I am comparing to people living in the same area. I make similar salaries as teacher in DC and I actually live in DC. I have 3 weeks of vacation and no pension. But I am expected to hand gift cards to teachers 3-4 times a year, plus volunteer for all kind of events, donate to the PTO and help with all kind of classroom requests.

Don’t get me wrong, I think teachers deserve their salaries but all the extra parents are expected to do is a bit over the top!

What does that have to do with anybody's salary?

[Anonymous]

DCPS teachers are not only extremely well paid, they also get pensions, unlike virtually all other city employees (and unlike basically all private sector employees). They can retire with full benefits at 55! It's an amazing deal.

It just sucks that we couldn't reserve high pay for high performing teachers, given how terrible (generally speaking) DC schools are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep your gift cards. Send your kids to school on time, engaged, and excited about learning. Ask the mayor to ensure I don’t have to spend my own money on things like copy paper, Kleenex, and expo markers.

Ensure your students don’t lose their tablets or chargers so that they can actually do work on Canvas. Stop texting and calling your kids during class. Ask the principal to provide and mandate cell phone locker usage so I don’t have to request that phones are put away multiple times during class. Teach your children to be respectful and not cursing like sailors. Stop your kids from skipping class and roaming the halls. Think about the grading policy and how it removes student accountability and the way it sets them up for failure in the future.

I don’t mind my salary because I know teachers in surrounding cities make much less. Here’s a thought, if we are so overpaid, why are there so many teacher vacancies at many schools? Five teachers have left my school since the start of the school year and I know of at least four more (including me) who don’t plan to return.

Yea I don't think your audience is here on dcum. But nice try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just got our school budget. Our librarian makes $140k. Most teachers make about $130k and they work for 9 months per year and they get a pension.
I am happy for them but people have to stop with pressuring parents to give them gift cards, valentine presents and all the talk about them not being well paid.
By

This is not valid in other states. I am just talking about DCPS and probably DC metro and other big cities.

That’s it 🙂

Yup. I have 20 years experience and am in a senior role at my large nonprofit and make $126. We have had some lovely, lovely teachers and assistants when my kids were at a title 1 elementary, and I was generous with the gifts. But I no longer go overboard or give gifts to individual teachers in middle and hs. They are professionals!

Do you get $126 gross pay, or is $126 allocated for your salary, any benefits your company employer pays, subs if you are absent etc . . .?

Because a line item in a budget is not a salary.

If 126k is allocated for a teacher, approximately what is their actual salary (pre-tax)?

You managed to not see it posted twice.

https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/WTU%20FY20-FY23.pdf

This does not answer my question.

Private sector, the number is usually around half. Taxes and benefits are expensive

Are you saying taxes and benefits are half of the cost of an employee? Like someone makes $50k, the insurance and taxes are also $50k?

One non-profit in DC lists a max salary of $115k and says it has a payroll tax of $8500 and benefits about $4500.

Those benefits are terrible. Good health insurance for a family can cost an employer 20k a year

Yes, but then surely the employee isn’t just making $40k right? The point was the percentage. Even if that $112k employee was getting $20k insurance it still isn’t close to the 50% PP said.

20k in health insurance. Taxes are 6% FUTA, another 2.5% for state unemployment, and 8% medicare and social security. 401k matching is 5% plus another 1% in administrative fees. Thats about 40% for an employee making 100k

I used this site to calculate. What is it doing wrong? Leave out 401k matching since that’s variable and optional.
https://gusto.com/resources/calculators/employer-tax-calculator

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can see the max salary of a 10 month teacher is $131k. I’m not sure most teachers are on the PhD scale.

Also, what 3 months don’t teachers work? 😂

The max teacher salary is $146k
https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/WTU%20FY20-FY23.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can see the max salary of a 10 month teacher is $131k. I’m not sure most teachers are on the PhD scale.

Also, what 3 months don’t teachers work? 😂

The max teacher salary is $146k
https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/WTU%20FY20-FY23.pdf

So most teachers are paid around $80k-ish unless they have at least 15 years experience or a master's degree and then they might earn around $100k?

Factor in the cost of living in the DMV, I would say this amounts to "super well paid"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can see the max salary of a 10 month teacher is $131k. I’m not sure most teachers are on the PhD scale.

Also, what 3 months don’t teachers work? 😂

The max teacher salary is $146k
https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/WTU%20FY20-FY23.pdf

So most teachers are paid around $80k-ish unless they have at least 15 years experience or a master's degree and then they might earn around $100k?

Factor in the cost of living in the DMV, I would say this amounts to "super well paid"

*meant to say I would NOT say this amounts to "super well paid"*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can see the max salary of a 10 month teacher is $131k. I’m not sure most teachers are on the PhD scale.

Also, what 3 months don’t teachers work? 😂

The max teacher salary is $146k
https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/WTU%20FY20-FY23.pdf

Yes, but most jobs you think of as “teacher” are 10 month positions. The $146k is for 12 month positions.