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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

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.

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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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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![/quote]

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.[/quote]

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.). [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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