Myths and Exaggerations About Teacher Pay

Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 8/24/2015 | Tom Gantert

[MichCapCon]

Rachel Brougham recently left her job as the assistant news editor of the Petoskey News-Review but continues to write for the daily newspaper. In her most recent column published Friday, Brougham celebrates public school teachers, but does so by repeating some common media myths and exaggerations about teacher compensation.

Several statements in Brougham’s column deserve a closer look.

Brougham: “Many starting salaries are barely $30,000.”

It’s rare to find a teacher’s starting salary at “barely $30,000” in Michigan.

At the Benton Harbor Area Schools, a starting teacher with a bachelor's degree gets $31,582. The Eau Claire school district located near the Indiana border pays new teachers $32,528.

But most school districts pay more for first-year teachers.

The National Education Association estimated the average starting salary for Michigan teachers was $35,901 in 2012-13, which is just shy of the national average ($36,141). That's the most recent data available.

At school districts within the readership area served by Petoskey News, teachers start at much higher salaries.

In Petoskey, a new teacher with a bachelor’s degree gets $37,960. In nearby Harbor Springs Public Schools, the figure is $42,271. Like all the amounts listed here, this does not include health insurance benefits or defined-benefit pension contributions made by the employer.

And teachers don’t stay at those starting salary levels for long. In Petoskey, in 10 years the employee who started at just under $38,000 is getting $57,898 plus benefits. Teachers who add academic credentials make more.

Brougham: “So tell me again how teachers are overpaid. Explain to me how you think teachers get paid full-time wages for part-time work. And describe for me just how teachers should be able to keep up with an increase in workload and improve student test scores while we pay them less, give them less in funding and constantly tell him it's all their fault.”

The notion that teachers are being paid less is not accurate.

Thirteen of the 17 largest school districts in Michigan gave some type of pay raise to their teachers in 2014-15, according to a survey of the schools done by Michigan Capitol Confidential. The pay increases were either in the form of a bonus or a seniority-based “step increase.” Of those four large school districts that didn’t give raises, only Waterford cut pay in 2014-15, by 1 percent.

Flint Community Schools, Detroit Public Schools and Warren Consolidated Schools didn’t respond to requests asking about raises. The school districts' teacher contracts list variables for raises to occur which could not be determined within the union contract. Overspending has placed all three of these districts in debt as of the 2014-15 school year.

Brougham: “Nationally, the average salary for public school teachers — including those with decades of experience in the classroom — is less than $57,000.”

The National Education Association estimated the average teacher salary in Michigan at $62,166 in 2013-14, the most recent year data is available. That is 11th-highest in the nation. New York had the highest average salary at $76,409.

Conventional public school teachers in Michigan with “decades of experience” would be at the very top of the union pay scale in and earn more than $57,000, especially if the teacher acquired a master’s degree.

In Harbor Springs, a teacher with 20 years of experience would make $68,289 with a bachelor’s and $76,650 with a master’s degree. In Petoskey, a 20-year teacher would earn $63,479 with a bachelor’s degree and $68,869 with a master’s.

At the Lansing School District, a 20-year teacher would earn $59,985 with a bachelor’s and $69,979 with a master’s.

Some districts have much more lucrative pay scales.

Walled Lake Consolidated Schools in Oakland County pays a 20-year teacher $75,326 with a bachelor’s and $85,609 with a master’s.

[Teacher317]

Teachers have some of the lowest ACT/LSAT test scores.

I aced the SAT Math, and got 740/800 on the Verbal (this was before it was a 3-part, 2400 point max). Also, I think you mean the SAT, not the LSAT, which is taken before Law School. (My LSAT score was 171, though... in the 98th percentile).

But I do understand your point. There is no shortage of slobbering idiots in the teaching field, some of whom, in my experience, likely could not pass their own tests for their students.

Among MY winning Presidential platform ideas, for my imaginary run at the office, would be de-fanging unions when it comes to defending bad teachers and bad police. Who can possibly want to stand up for them, and make it impossible to get rid of them? They DO exist, as we all know from the news (for police), and from our own childhoods (for teachers). Life gets better for EVERYONE when we have fewer bad (corrupt, evil, stupid, belligerent, abusive, exploitative) police and teachers in our world.

[1Old Pro]

Performance pay for teachers: http://hanushek.stanford.edu/publications/teacher-quality

[pfflier]

you CANNOT say that they only work 6 hours per day

I can and I did.

I'm not saying it is true for all disciplines but for mine it was true. I did send students to state and then national competitive event each year for many of the years I taught electronics, physics and engineering. So, it cannot be said that the quality of their training suffered in any way.

As for prep time and post teaching time, I did that at school and previously at work too. I always showed up early and stayed until the job was complete for the day regardless of the clock. So, I consider that aspect as part of a good work ethic, not an obligation.

I also did coaching and had supplemental contracts for that. As far as I am concerned that was not an obligation but a choice I made for the compensation offered. I didn't consider those hours as part of my "teaching day". Rather they were part of the committment I made to some students and the district to provide an extra service.

As far as IEPs, yes I agree they were a pain in many ways. So were parent teacher meetings regarding discipline and I despised in-service group gropes. If there was anything I considered a waste of time it was the touchy-feely motivational in-services.

[Darth Reardon]

“Nationally, the average salary for public school teachers — including those with decades of experience in the classroom..."

Yes, that is how averages work. Why not say "including those with no experience"?

[mountn man]

But I do understand your point. There is no shortage of slobbering idiots in the teaching field, some of whom, in my experience, likely could not pass their own tests for their students.

I used to be a jr high leader in my old church.

One of my former kids had contacted me via e-mail back when Zero was first running for Prez.

We'd have some back and forths on stuff. He was a silver spooned diaper baby, who naturally became a staunch liberal and moved up to Minneapolis. He was a teacher up there. He said he was actually a principal of a school, at that point.

The spelling and grammar were ATROCIOUS. When pointed out to him, he shrugged it off saying he didn't need to worry about it, he had a secretary who took care of the small stuff like that.

I pointed out that he was a teacher, with many years of education behind him and that I was just a dumb construction worker with 3 years of junior college education in technical classes.

Like all liberals, it didn't bother him. In fact, he was rather proud that he was in such a high position (whether he was or not...???) and yet in correspondence he came across as a second grader.

[JAKraig]

You know what they say, “those that can do, those that can’t, teach”.

[kearnyirish2]

NJ is in the same boat as Albany; huge amounts paid to teachers (I believe they work 180 days here, 6 hours per day). They are bankrupting the towns and taxpayers, and causing a brain drain in which anyone who can is leaving. Soon NJ will be just illegal aliens (we import them to keep schools filled) and welfare populations; employers are fleeing when they are handed the bill for administering these populations (with cops, teachers, etc.).

Once so many Americans stopped breeding, it was only a matter of time before people took a hard look at what they were paying teachers (to teach other peoples’ children). The Asbury Park Press exposed the teachers when it published all of their salaries (as public information) years ago; they are pariahs now, interacting only with other government workers in their own incestuous bubble.

[kearnyirish2]

Don’t say “9 months of work”; they literally work less than half the year (about 180 days). When you put it in that context, and also clarify that these are not 9-5 days, then it is clear these are part-time jobs.

[1Old Pro]

yes, sad but so true.