Reply to MCPS Reaches Agreement with MCEA to Raise Teachers' Wages

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]I don’t, in principle, have a problem with paying teachers more. I just think it's counterproductive to do large, across-the-board raises when older teachers already make well above the median income. Heck, they make more than the median household income on their own![/b]

Pay is a serious issue for starting teachers, who in many ways have even harder jobs as they adapt lesson plans and materials for themselves. They should get substantial pay raises. Similarly, some areas, like special education, should be on higher salary schedules due to the increased challenges with recruiting and retaining them in the field.

The real problem across-the-board is teacher workload. The MCPS salary agreement mostly helps veteran teachers, many of whom are nearing retirement. Not only will it do little to help the long-term challenge of attracting teachers, it could make it harder to fix the real problem. More money on higher salaries means there's less money to spend on more teachers.

Don't the vast majority of teachers agree that pay isn't the main problem?  So why is MCPS digging itself into a bigger hole? And why are the younger teachers letting MCEA throw them under the bus to help the old teachers?[/quote]

Throughout these posts, I see many people presenting that the fact that MCPS teachers make more than the median income in Montgomery County as the central argument that MCPS teachers should be happy to get what they get. What is the median household income in Montgomery County for someone with a masters degree or a doctorate degree and how does that compare to that of an MCPS teacher with a masters or doctorate degree? I couldn't find that data specific to our county, but the Economic Policy Institute has tracked this data on a national level and the difference between the earnings of teachers as compared to other professionals with the same level of education has increased over time.  In 2021, Teachers earned 23.5% less than comparable college graduates.

Here is the article: 
https://www.epi.org/publication/teacher-pay-penalty-2022/
And here is a summary of the article: "Simply put, teachers are paid less (in weekly wages and total compensation) than their nonteacher college-educated counterparts, and the situation has worsened considerably over time."

The fact of the matter is that many schools have teaching & paraprofessional vacancies that have not been filled. If the job was so cushy and well-compensated as some of you here suggest, there would not be so many vacancies. Many teachers have left or are planning to leave for jobs that are not as emotionally taxing on them or their families. For some it is worth it move into another less stressful job (even if that means a paycut). 
[/quote]

Pay isn’t everything. A lot of people choose professions based on work/life balance. Given that it is impractical to expect the very large salary increases that would be necessary to offset the poor work/life balance of entry-level teachers, it is critical to address those other underlying issues with how schools structure those jobs.

You keep suggesting the pay is low, but it really isn’t when you dig into the data. The study you cited put the compensation gap at 14%. Once you further adjust for the area of education (e.g., comparing to social science degree holders) and public sector employees (and potentially the 10-month schedule, depending on the study), the gap will further shrink, if not invert.

That's not to say there aren't problems that need to be addressed, but increasing the salary of a 50-year-old with a Master's/Doctorate in Education from ~$110k by another $6k next year isn't going to do anything to fix the real problems.[/quote]

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