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Eight Reasons Public School Teachers Are NOT Underpaid
Real Clear Markets ^ | 12/07/2011 | Andrew Biggs

Posted on 12/07/2011 7:00:50 AM PST by SeekAndFind

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1 posted on 12/07/2011 7:00:56 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

This is such a huge story and needs to be shouted from the mountain tops. Thanks for posting.

There is simply no industry in our nation that has so obviously failed and yet remains so incredibly sacred in the minds of so many.


2 posted on 12/07/2011 7:05:14 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright (Moderator of Florida Tea Party Convention Presidential Debate)
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To: SeekAndFind

8 months work,no weekends, uncountable number of holidays and tenure...overpaid for sure!


3 posted on 12/07/2011 7:06:44 AM PST by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: Don Corleone
It also varies greatly by area. Our school district (SW Pennsylvania) has about 300 qualified applicants for every vacancy. The Carolinas and Georgia have less than three.

Average salary in our district is about $58K per year. For the Carolinas and Georgia it is about in the mid 30's.

Pennsylvania colleges and universities graduate (surprise!) about a 30% surplus of newly minted education majors. Many of them end up working in (double surprise!) the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia and West Virginia.

Our local district hires some of these U-Turners-- they've gone south and obtained some actual experience, so they tend to stand out amoung the 300 or so qualified applicants for every vacancy.

4 posted on 12/07/2011 7:17:51 AM PST by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: Don Corleone

you can see what your local teachers get paid as it is public record and trust me I looked up many of them around here and they get paid damn well.

50 grand is the average for them down here and that is good money down here and especially as they are only working so long in a year etc


5 posted on 12/07/2011 7:18:31 AM PST by manc (Marriage is between one man and one woman.Trolls get a life, I HATE OUR BIAS LIBERAL MEDIA.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Personally, I find the administrations at schools to be a bigger obstacle than the teachers. The district I live in has 5 elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school. I don't know what the total enrollment is, but it services and area of around 35,000 people.

The superintendent gets paid a couple hundred thousand a year to basically run the district into the ground. Their idea for improving schools is to have a full time curriculum staff that is constantly changing the coursework. Every time you turn around they are replacing core academics with more multi-cultural, self esteem based "learning."

Until we get these districts to get back to the basics they will continue to fail their students. How does it help a kid's self esteem when he can't make change at McDonald's without having the register tell him what to do?

There is a reason they call them elementary schools.

6 posted on 12/07/2011 7:24:43 AM PST by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: SeekAndFind
All bachelor's degrees aren't the same. No one's surprised when a physics or finance major earns more than the person who studied medieval poetry, even if both graduate from the same college

When I was in school I had a buddy who was not cutting it and he was told by his academic advisor that he had two choices. Flunk out and go home or switch majors and get and Education degree. The school of education was chock full of the academic rejects from the rest of the university.

7 posted on 12/07/2011 7:27:02 AM PST by pgkdan ("Make what Americans buy, Buy what Americans make, and sell it to the world" Perry 2012)
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To: pgkdan
get and Education degree

and should be an

8 posted on 12/07/2011 7:27:50 AM PST by pgkdan ("Make what Americans buy, Buy what Americans make, and sell it to the world" Perry 2012)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

This is a huge subject, impossible to cover in one post, but I would be more than happy to pay the good teachers twice what they’re making.

Teachers are soooo constrained by cultural marxist bean-counter BUREAUCRATS and administrators, it’s a wonder they maintain their sanity.

I get it, I really do about “the industry”...

I’m suggesting conservatives should focus on the ADMINISTRATORS AND FACELESS BUREAUCRATS.

NOT teachers.

It’s a win win.
- PR value: conservatives avoid the “mean-spirited” meme.

- it strikes against the REAL PROBLEM...those who have used the industry to set themselves up for comfort. They don’t actually do anything, except enforce their stupid “directives” etc. FIRE THE LOT OF THEM!


9 posted on 12/07/2011 7:34:18 AM PST by spankalib (The Marx-in-the-Parks crowd is a basement skunkworks operation of the AFL-CIO)
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To: pgkdan

Teachers do so well “teaching”. I was Christmas shopping yesterday and my bill came to $56 and some change. I gave the young girl $60 and the change and she got so confused she couldn’t figure out what to do. She picked up a bunch of fives from the cash drawer and started counting out the cash to give to me. I stopped her and told her what my change should be even though it was on the register—she was so flustered I felt sorry for her. Yeah teachers do a wonderful job—at sex ed.

Unless she gets her act together JCPenny’s will lose a lot of money this Christmas season in the junior dept-the crooks will be swarming like sharks.


10 posted on 12/07/2011 7:35:43 AM PST by notaliberal
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To: pgkdan

RE: Flunk out and go home or switch majors and get and Education degree.

Just curious, what did your buddy do?


11 posted on 12/07/2011 7:35:52 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: Don Corleone

Teachers sign a contract every year for X amount of dollars. They can take that amount over 12 months thereby getting paid when school is closed during the summer, or, they can take it over the 10 months that school is in session having a higher monthly pay but they do not get any money during the summer when school is closed. They do not get paid a years salary for just 8 or 10 months work.


12 posted on 12/07/2011 7:36:35 AM PST by SkyDancer ("If You Want To Learn To Love Better, You Should Start With A Friend Who You Hate")
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To: spankalib

It is a huge subject, but by free market reality principles, teachers are over paid for one simple reason: there are a lot of folks who can do it and a lot who are willing to do it for far less. You could staff a huge percentage of the work force with business people and other professionals who would love to teach part time probably gratus. I know I would and the kids would learn more about business in one lecture of mine than they do now K-12.

And I know plenty of other professionals as well who would.

The problem is we have invented a “profession” where one was not needed.
Teaching is really imparting life experiences, and the adults in our society with the least “real life” experiences are our “teaching professionals.”

We home school our kids. We have made a ton of mistakes and we do it in a couple hours a day, and all our kids are minimum three years ahead of grade level and usually much more.

It ain’t that hard, but we’ve made it hard.


13 posted on 12/07/2011 7:41:53 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright (Moderator of Florida Tea Party Convention Presidential Debate)
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To: SeekAndFind

bump for great justice


14 posted on 12/07/2011 7:47:09 AM PST by pogo101
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To: SkyDancer

The entire argument about how long a teacher works each year isn’t very relevant to overall argument of teacher worth, IMHO. I know that it gets trotted out during almost every debate and it just peeves any person that teaches.


15 posted on 12/07/2011 7:57:01 AM PST by Tallguy
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To: SeekAndFind
Many states and school districts do not require teachers to demonstratre competency in the areas they teach.

One notible area where that is not true is vocational education. In our state a voc ed teacher needs at least three thousand hours in their field to be considered for certification. In my case I also had a BS in electronics engineering and 9 years in the USAF as well as 12 years in aerospace experience.

The highest compliment I could received was "You're not like my other teachers".

The DoD has an excellent program, Warriors to Teachers, that receives little support through the districts that I am familiar with.

16 posted on 12/07/2011 7:59:21 AM PST by pfflier
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To: C. Edmund Wright

Exactly right. Teaching is not a profession. Professions are self-regulating — like doctors (AMA) and Lawyers (Bar Associations). Teachers belong to unions in most places and collectively bargain for wages and benefits. Their behavior is regulated by administrators appointed above them. It’s more akin to a skilled trade.


17 posted on 12/07/2011 8:00:30 AM PST by Tallguy
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To: SeekAndFind

If pay was ‘results-oriented’; teachers would be paid the rough equivalent of a teen-age babysitter.


18 posted on 12/07/2011 8:02:34 AM PST by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
There is simply no industry in our nation that has so obviously failed and yet remains so incredibly sacred in the minds of so many.

That says it all.

19 posted on 12/07/2011 8:04:08 AM PST by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I think teaching is a talent that can’t be learned in college. That means teaching effectiveness can’t be improved greatly with degrees, particularly advanced degrees.

Everyone has encountered some PhDers who can’t communicate basic ideas.


20 posted on 12/07/2011 8:05:34 AM PST by AlmaKing
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