[Cincinatus' Wife]

In 2000, under the administration of Gov. Roy Barnes, Georgia's teacher pay jumped to 19th in the nation. Teachers averaged $41,122, just $700 below the national average. .....……..National test scores have not correlated with rising pay. Despite ranking 19th in teacher pay, Georgia is 50th in SAT scores.

A person with a degee in education is worthless to students.

"There was a time when educators' salaries were pitiful," Callahan said.

And there was a time when high school graduates were educated.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Are these $85K teachers TEACHING teachers, or are they actually administrative personnel like principals?

[dennisw]

I have relatives in the suburbs west of Philidelphia. Top teachers salaries are 90+ thousand.

This is way out of wack compared to the private sector especially when the vacations and benefits are figured in. They can get away with this in Pennsylvania, a heavily union state.

[LIBERTARIAN JOE]

"If there is any way to make some extra money, volunteer to do it," said Henry, who teaches gifted elementary students. "You have just got to keep looking at the pay schedule. [The top] should be your goal."

This guy shows up to "work" every day to work towards his goal of rising to the top of the pay scale... wonder where educating his students falls on his priority list?

[Flyer]

For Danny Cronic, whose $90,895 salary made him the highest-paid classroom teacher in the state last year. . .
Cronic, who teaches physical education. . .
"All I have ever done is just coach and teach," said Cronic, 57, who is exploring retiring after this school year

A P.E. teacher and coach earning $90,000 a year, retiring at 57. . . we're gonna go broke.

[pt17]

"There was a time when educators' salaries were pitiful," Callahan said.

Well, that's certainly true. Before I went into IS/computers in the late 60's, I was getting paid in the vicinity of $4000 per year teaching HS math, from freshman algebra to senior calculus. Upon leaving, I immediately tripled my salary and reduced my workday from 12 hours to 9.

And there was a time when high school graduates were educated.

You know, I loved teaching math and my students did well. I never had a student who took the NMSQT and scored an lower than in the top tenth percentile - most were in the 99th percentile (and I didn't teach for the test :-). The combination of low pay, unbelievable administrative ignorance and BS, NEA thuggery and my wife's having twins forced me to leave. For right or for wrong, I've never looked back.

[martin_fierro]

For Danny Cronic, whose $90,895 salary made him the highest-paid classroom teacher in the state last year, serving as head football coach of East Coweta High helped push him into the ranks of the top earners.
Cronic, who teaches physical education, received a doctorate from Middle Tennessee State University in 1985.

I'm reminded of the old saying:

Those who can't do, teach.
Those who can't teach, teach Gym.

[R. Scott]

Georgia must have the finest schools with the best educated children in the nation if teacher salaries are truly an indicator.

[JohnSmithee]

I remember 10 years ago meeting a teacher making over 75K for teaching kindergarten. I wonder if they set the cutoff at 60K, what percentage of teachers are making that kind of salary?

[Wonder Warthog]

"National test scores have not correlated with rising pay. Despite ranking 19th in teacher pay, Georgia is 50th in SAT scores."

This pretty much says it all.

[Xenalyte]

Teaching doesn't pay well because almost anyone can acquire the "skills" to do it (saith the ex-teacher). I can teach. My sister can (and does) teach. My mother used to teach. None of us can sink a three-pointer with Yao Ming glaring down at us, or run a multinational corporation.

[PigRigger]

Many Teachers on Long Island exceed 100K a year. The average is about 75K. In my district about 10% exceed 100K, one teaches kindergarten.

The days of poorly paid teachers on LI ended long ago. However, the union still uses the stereotype to garner sympathy from the non-educated public.

I was at an open house when one of the teachers stated she taught for the love of the children; "because we all know it isn't for the money". Laughter broke out everywhere; the teacher was quite embarrassed.

People I know who have tried to get hired in the district say it is virtually impossible to get placed unless you are a relative or friend of someone who already works there. Pathetic.

Our district is only slightly above average when compared to the rest of the state regarding mandated state wide testing. Of cousrse, the union fought having to perform this testing. I guess it makes it to easy to identify who is doing well and who isn't (both teacher and student). Go figure.

[mewzilla]

And bennies, let's not forget the bennies. Around here the health care benefits and pensions are what's costing us big-time.

[Paul_B]

Here in southern NY, my old high school gym teacher made $85k 25 years ago. Probably extra in there for coaching, but outrageous. That's why employees of the government monopoly were prohibited from unionizing - until, I think, the Kennedy administration.

[MamaTexan]

Schools have become a dumping ground for the government.

College graduates with the lowest ranking diplomas become teachers, then administrators.

Cafeterias receive 'commodities' from the Dept. of Agriculture.

Superintendents usually make as much money as Congressmen, but the pay is so low for 'support staff' (the folks that actually DO something) you're better off working at Burger King!

[SamAdams76]

A lot of needless fuss is made over teacher's salaries. They get paid what the market will bear and that's that. There's no conspiracy to underpay teachers. So long as school systems can find teachers willing to start at $30,000 a year (or whatever), that's what they will get paid. Once the schools cannot find teachers to work at that price, the starting salaries will ratchet up until they are found. Simple economics. Supply and demand.

I also should comment on the analogy that is often made between the difference in salary of school teachers and professional athletes. This argument is often made by liberals and is intended to show that priorities in our society are somehow screwed up. How absurd, the comparison. All I have to say to that is that if an Algebra teacher can fill Shea Stadium on a Sunday afternoon for his lecture with millions of people tuning in at home on TV, then all the power to him - he can make $10 million a year too. And maybe Texas Instruments will sign him up to endorse their calculators.

I don't think anybody has a problem with paying teachers well but since (in the case of public schools), they are paid with our tax dollars, it would be irresponsible to pay them a penny more than what the market will bear (and that goes for all public servants).

What I don't understand about our public school systems is the glut of non-teaching personnel that now hang out at our schools - all paid with tax dollars. You got your school psychologists (who evidently are the ones "available for counseling" everytime some kid gets run over by a car or ODs on drugs), your guidance counselors (not one but many), your "outreach" counselors, etc., etc. There are probably more people employed at my son's high school in non-teaching roles than those who actually teach. And on that subject, why are there full-time janitors? Can't they subcontract cleaning services to sweep the floors and empty the trash cans at night like 99% of all businesses now do? Or maybe they can have the teachers be responsible for sweeping up their own classrooms and having unruly students stay after school to sweep the hallways and clean the bathrooms instead of sitting in detention?

Put me in charge of schools and I will get things fixed and maybe get these teachers more money without having to raise any taxes.

As for public school teachers, they do have it pretty good overall. They get the summers off with several weeks during the school year (when schools are closed for winter break, Christmas, etc.). They get this thing called "tenure" which basically means they can't get fired unless they do something really, really bad. And pensions are pretty generous in most places.

[VOA]

bump

[narses]

Ping.

[desertcry]

Yes, as the teachers salary goes up, the quality of education goes down. Would this happen without a powerful, greedy, uncaring and irresponsible teachers union?

[Oschisms]

http://www.teachny.org/salary_new/Salary%20Schedule%20for%20Certified%20Teachers.htm

The salary schedule for NYC teachers. Minimum starting salary= 39k. Maximum salary with 22 years experience and a Master's + 30= 80k.

It's a pretty good deal, IMHO.

[Moonman62]

In 2000, under the administration of Gov. Roy Barnes, Georgia's teacher pay jumped to 19th in the nation. Teachers averaged $41,122, just $700 below the national average. .....……..National test scores have not correlated with rising pay. Despite ranking 19th in teacher pay, Georgia is 50th in SAT scores.

I like how they kept the most important facts for the bottom of the article. I read through the whole thing wondering if they were going to report on the results.