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[quote=Anonymous]Over the past 20 years, I've taught in public and private schools in DC, Boston, and a few other places (dh's job means we move a lot).

In general, private school teachers make less than public.  In most cases, it is a lot less.  I never understood how parents believing they were "paying for the best" could justify this.  If you were buying a private jet to transport your family, would you want one built by engineers who are paid the highest in the industry, or would you prefer the jet built by engineers willing to accept a reduced salary/benefits, for whatever reason?  Would you happily chirp that "The engineers who designed our jet are the best in the field, and they accepted a much lower salary because they just love what they do so much!  They were so excited to work on designing OUR jet that they happily accepted the job even though it meant reduced circumstances for their own families and their retirement!"  Would you REALLY be willing to assume this is even true?  Why not pay slightly above industry standards and insist on full qualification, then pick and choose from the larger group of quality applicants your salary/benefits attracts, instead of...picking and choosing from the much smaller pool of applicants your tiny salary and reduced benefits (and dropped requirement for full qualification) attracts?

Sure, some teachers with wealthy spouses choose to work in private for the better experience, but that's a minority.

The truth is that privates are limited in who they can hire because of the low salaries.  There are SOME teachers willing to accept much lower salaries/benefits just for the sake of better work experience, but that is not a majority.

Private schools don't require full certification in many cases because if they did, they would have an even tinier pool to draw from in selecting candidates actually willing to work there.  It is a massive mistake to assume that the unqualified teachers working for lower salaries in private are all somehow better teachers: some are, but most aren't necessarily better, and in some cases are worse.

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