Anonymous wrote:My wife is a MCPS teacher and leaves the house at 7am; gets home at 6:30pm; eats dinner; and then grades papers/plans until bedtime....

She sounds like a very devoted woman but what she is doing only hurts the rest. In what other job do employees routinely bring work home? Do carpenters come home and then walk down the block asking if people need carpentry work? Do firefighters come home and then drive around looking for fires? What about grocery clerks? Do they go home and eat and then go back to the store and stock shelves for free? I would doubt it.

This culture of teachers doing free work at home has to stop. Counties, municipalities, etc, know that teachers will do that so they have grown to expect it.

I say that papers stay at the school, go home and relax, and if principals want extra work out of you then let him pay you overtime. I refuse to do anything more than occasionally looking around the Internet for interesting items to talk about in class.

Yes, we also pay into social security.

Anonymous wrote:

Maryland's teacher's pensions is one of the lowest in the country. A Maryland teacher pays 7% of her slary a year towards the pension benefit and then after 30 years of service is entitled to 45% of an average of her last few years salary. That is assuming the state does not continue to raise her contributions or change the formuals. I would rather they let her invest that 7% in a 401K, because I don't think the pension will be there when she needs it,

I'm curious, do Maryland teachers also pay in to Social Security? Many of these state and local government plans are outside Social Security, which means that a teacher will just get the state pension (if it's still there), and not the additional retirement income from Social Security. Well, some will get Social Security as spouses, but the Social Security benefit is reduced a lot if that happens.

Also, I heard that MD is trying to shift teacher pensions from the state to the counties, so MCPS would assume the MCPS teacher pensions. Not sure if that's true, but it probably wouldn't be good news for teachers.

My wife is a MCPS teacher and leaves the house at 7am; gets home at 6:30pm; eats dinner; and then grades papers/plans until bedtime....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's all public info:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/ersc/employees/pay/schedules/salary_schedule_current.pdf

A first year teacher with a BA is $46,000, with a MA is $51,000

what about pension for life and also dividing that number by 9 than multiply it by 12.

Maryland's teacher's pensions is one of the lowest in the country. A Maryland teacher pays 7% of her slary a year towards the pension benefit and then after 30 years of service is entitled to 45% of an average of her last few years salary. That is assuming the state does not continue to raise her contributions or change the formuals. I would rather they let her invest that 7% in a 401K, because I don't think the pension will be there when she needs it,

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Divide by 10 then multiply by 12.

what about spring break and winter break http://www.fcps.edu/hr/oec/pdfs/stcalendar11-12.pdf

Do you get annual leave in your job? If you know someone who has 2 weeks of annual leave do you consider them to work 11.5 months?

Seriously. There are many federal government workers with 5+ weeks of leave a year and no one ever says they only work 10.75 months a year!

Anonymous wrote:These salaries are really decent. Why do districts like PG and Baltimore County have to get H-1Bs to come to fill teaching positions? And, our unemployment is so high and all of these college grads cannot find jobs.

Because the job is really hard, especially in places like Baltimore and PG County where you have more discipline issues, students living in poverty, etc.

And you actually have to have some skills to teach - you can't just pull any person off the street and throw them in the classroom. While there are many unemployed people with various skills, they do not necessarily have what it takes to be a good teacher. Teaching is SO much more than academics.

Watch this documentary to get some idea of teaching in Baltimore schools:

http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/hard-times-at-douglass-high-no-child-left-behind/index.html

These salaries are really decent. Why do districts like PG and Baltimore County have to get H-1Bs to come to fill teaching positions? And, our unemployment is so high and all of these college grads cannot find jobs.

Teachers get paid for what they do, not for how many hours they work.

And, the teachers who are in 12 month positions (there are people in the system on the teacher level who work this way) are not paid 20% more than the ten month employees, so the division logic on the first page doesn't hold up. 12 month employees only make 17.5% more, are NOT off during winter or spring break or Jewish holidays. They do get vacation time though many on this thread would probably begrudge them that...I mean, why would anyone working for the school system deserve annual leave?!

Anonymous wrote:The salary is essentially for 12 months. What new job can you get for two months in the summer? You either look at is as a 12 month salary or 10 months salary with 2 months of furlough.

And the pension is not all that. First, there is guarantee it will be there when the teacher retirRes. Clearly there are people who post here who want it reduced. Second, they would be better off with a raise in salary and a 401k.

Yes -- it is a 12 month salary with 2 months of furlough. It is very difficult to find summer jobs that pay anything like a teacher's salary at 15+ year's experience.

I know a lot of people who would like to have 2 months off each year but I don't know many who would like it to be a furlough!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Divide by 10 then multiply by 12.

what about spring break and winter break http://www.fcps.edu/hr/oec/pdfs/stcalendar11-12.pdf

Do you get annual leave in your job? If you know someone who has 2 weeks of annual leave do you consider them to work 11.5 months?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Divide by 10 then multiply by 12.

what about spring break and winter break http://www.fcps.edu/hr/oec/pdfs/stcalendar11-12.pdf

What about spring break and winter break? Teachers do not get paid for these days. Most have their paychecks spread out over 12 months to include the summer. The urban legend is that teachers get paid for being off during the summer, winter break, spring break, etc. They do not.

Anonymous wrote:No googling. On average. A 1st year teacher, a teacher with 5 years experience and a teacher with 10 years experience.

You, OP, are a pathetic excuse for a human.

just pathetic . . .

Thanks for pointing out what an asshole you are.

Anonymous wrote: The point of the thread was to compare perception to reality, thus the instruction to not Google the answer.

Precisely and one can see that the public has a rather ridiculous perception! I especially "love" the moron who wanted to adjust teacher salaries, "thinking" teachers only work 9 months/year. After someone pointed out that teachers have a 10-month contract, a runner up moron wanted to use Winter and Spring Breaks to justify that teachers work a 9-month year.

I'll bet that both of these morons are the same ones that troll the WaPo comments section posting about "anchor babies" and how Robin Ficker is of sound mind.

When will the public get it through their thick heads that teachers are professionals with, in many cases, multiple advanced degrees who are willing to earn much less than market salary due to the joy they have for their profession and the PROMISE of a pension?