Teacher Salaries: More Attention Needed to Specifics ( The Millionaire Next Door)

EducationNews.org ^ | June 16, 2006 | David W. Kirkpatrick

[Erik Latranyi]

If anything I am in favor of vouchers. I am all for competition. I am a firm believer that competition breeds excellence.

Yes, and most auto workers vote conservative. Unfortunately, you joined a union that takes your money without your consent (unless you are one of the few) and uses it to fight against vouchers and to support liberals across the spectrum.

[meyer]

$70,000 IS a lot of money for a teacher, but $70,000 divided by $400,000,000 = When this teacher has worked 500 years {!!} they still will not have earned as much as the parting gift to one oil company employee.

All that tells me is that it's better to be a departing oil company employee than a teacher. The nice thing about a free market is that one can aspire to the level that they choose.

[HIDEK6]

Why do you not applaud a teacher that betters himself and his family for making as much money as he can?

The CEO's pay comes from the company's customers who can buy from the company or not.

Teachers are paid from tax revenue which is extracted from the unwilling at the point of a gun.

[Strutt9]

It maybe due to the fact that Teachers' are paid by Tax payer dollars. CEO & Officers of companies payrolls do not come out of taxpayers salary.

[SauronOfMordor]

Nice screed. Why does everyone begrudge teachers, dockworkers, mechanics, autoworkers, etc. when they make money yet ignore the officers and CEO's of companies that make millions even when the company loses money?

Because there aren't that many CEOs, but lots of teachers. The total money paid to the CEOs of the Fortune 500 is much mess than the total compensation of millions of members of the education establishment

[q_an_a]

i'm with you. the only problem is that some people trying to make a good living do so by claiming that it benefits others i.e. the children. The CEO can't use that logic except when he gets a big reward for sales and profits.

[alvindsv]

But in other professions, there is accountability. In teaching there is very little accountability because performance is never measured and standards are always discounted. Not necesarilly true. My US History students had to take an End of Instruction test. If they preform poorly on it, and that occurs often enough, I WILL find myself in the unemployment line. Why? Cause the school risks getting shut down if test scores are consistantly low. That's how it is here in Oklahoma. I can't speak for other states. As far as accountability in other professions. Sure there is, to a degree. As far as the legal profession in OK, one must graduate law school, pass the bar, and then do 12 hours of continueing legal education a year. Great, it still doesn't weed out people that have no business practicing law. I saw a kid get convicted of a crime simply because his attorney had no clue how to defend him. Guess what? That person is still practicing criminal law today.

[wintertime]

Or lets look at a daycare. My local daycare charges me $20 a day. So, $20 times 25 students is $500 a day, at 185 days is $92,500. Please, pay me like a daycare.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Stop WHINING!

If you want $92,000 a year then open a daycare.

BUT...Be prepared to get to work at 5:30 in the morning to get ready for the child who arrives at 6 a.m. Then be prepared to go home at 7:00 p.m., an hour after the last child leaves. Be prepared to come in on Saturdays to do the repairs and manage the bookkeeping and payroll.

Be prepared to NEVER have a vacation....NEVER!

Be prepared to pay the property and business taxes, payroll taxes, business insurances, and income taxes. Be prepared to pay salaries and CPA fees.

Be prepared to go bankrupt or lose money.

Like ALL the WHINNY teachers I have ever met, you take a buisness's GROSS ( not considering expenses) and compare it to your VERY GENEROUS salary. How typical!

What was that big name school you went to?( eye roll at the ignorance of basic economics.)

[raybbr]

First, CEO pay is capped by legislation.

Huh? Where?

[alvindsv]

Unfortunately, you joined a union that takes your money without your consent (unless you are one of the few) and uses it to fight against vouchers and to support liberals across the spectrum.

I would agree with you, that's why I am one of the few. I refuse to join the teacher's union for the simple fact that I think they do more harm to teachers than good.

[wintertime]

I've never known a teacher to wear a beeper or be on call 24/7.
Unless the beeper is used by a 15 year old to tell the teacher that mom and dad are out of the house and it is time for a rendevouz!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^6

Very funny! I am sitting here laughing and laughing.

[9999lakes]

I'd agree with you entirely, IF i thought the oil companies were really an example of the free market. I don't, and neither does President Bush. More than a year ago -- maybe longer, I can't remember, but I bet i could find the link -- he said something like "When gasoline is selling for $2 a gallon, there is no need for subsidies of the oil companies."

They're protected monopolies, hiding behind free market camo. While the rest of us are making sacrifices for the good of the country, they're sucking up the largess.

They're the corporate version of Ann Coulter's "Jersey Girls", and principled conservatives need to face the fact.

[raybbr]

Be prepared to NEVER have a vacation....NEVER!

Only if you choose not to.

[alvindsv]

Actually I am fully aware of the economics of running a business. I ran a law practice for several years, and had to cover overhead, and payroll, etc.

By the way the name of the big name school was the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Perhaps you have heard of them? I hear they once won a few national championships in sports or something, and have one the best business school in the nation. But, that's just what I hear. JERK!

[Amelia]

You're right, teaching is a really plum career.

Why isn't there a glut of teachers? Why isn't everyone hear trying to become one instead of complaining about them?

An influx of conservative teachers into the field could stem the liberal tide in education as well. Looks like a good idea to me.

[wintertime]

$70,000 IS a lot of money for a teacher, but $70,000 divided by $400,000,000 = When this teacher has worked 500 years {!!} they still will not have earned as much as the parting gift to one oil company employee.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

They should have bumper stickers that read:

I am an economic illiterate. Thank a government indoctrination camp teacher.

I am a communist. Thank a government indoctrination camp teacher.

[barkeep]

The dockworkers, mechanics and general repairmen I deal with daily do not own the monopoly teachers have on eddicashun. OK, dockworkers were a poor example, but if my mechanic charges me a large sum to screw up a job, he will never get any more of my money. If the public schools fail in their job, I at least have the alternatives of private school, home-school, or tack-on tutoring such as Sylvan, BUT the bozos I fired still collect my money for not doing any work at all on my child.

One of my favorite bumper-stickers on this topic read "Teachers Need a Raise, Now!" seen on a Cadillac. Call your next case.

[raybbr]

Because there aren't that many CEOs, but lots of teachers. The total money paid to the CEOs of the Fortune 500 is much mess than the total compensation of millions of members of the education establishment.

Like just about everyone else here, you have missed my point.

A CEO is in a closed market like teachers. If the teacers negotiate a larger salary they are impeached. If a CEO is handed a large salary everone compliments him on his windfall. There is clearly a double standard of perspective.

[Erik Latranyi]

If they preform poorly on it, and that occurs often enough, I WILL find myself in the unemployment line.

If poor performance occurs often enough, why aren't you unemployed yet?!

Because they do not fire teachers for poor performance of the students. I'll bet you do not know one teacher you have worked with that was terminated for poor performance.

[VOA]

bump