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State Superintendent Claims First-Year Teachers Make $28K—We Can't Find Them
Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 2/26/2017 | Tom Gantert

Posted on 02/27/2017 5:44:20 AM PST by MichCapCon

Michigan’s current superintendent of public instruction claimed in a news article that first-year teachers in the state earn $28,000 a year.

Superintendent Brian Whiston made his comment in an article in the Feb. 10 edition of MIRS News.

If any full-time Michigan public school teacher is paid that amount, it would be an extremely rare instance. There were 540 Michigan public school districts in 2015-16, not counting charter schools. Michigan Capitol Confidential has reviewed hundreds of those districts’ union contracts and has not yet seen a starting salary under $30,000.

The Michigan Department of Education didn’t return an email that asked for the name of one district that pays its first-year teachers a starting salary of $28,000 a year.

“We do want our ‘best and brightest’ to go into teaching,” Whiston said in the MIRS article. “But the problem is, why would our ‘best and brightest’ go into teaching making $28,000 a year, while other students are getting jobs and making $50,000 or more right out the college? We’ve got to do something about starting pay for teachers.”

A first-year teacher at Dearborn Public Schools, the district where Whiston worked as superintendent before taking the state position, makes $33,672.

A first-year teacher in Saline Area Schools would make $39,932.

Eau Claire Public Schools has one of the lowest pay scales in the state. The top of the scale for a teacher there is $58,714, according to the union contract. A first-year teacher makes $32,528 a year.

But while teachers everywhere may start with a relatively low salary, they generally advance quickly up the pay scale.

MLive published a story in 2013 profiling new teachers at the Muskegon school district.

Lindsay Boone was listed as a new teacher. A starting salary for a teacher at Muskegon in 2013-14 would be $36,926, according to the union contract. In 2015-16, two years later, Boone was getting a base teaching salary of $46,041, according to a state database of teacher salaries.

Kirk Carlson, another new Muskegon teacher in 2013-14 mentioned in the article, made $44,614 in his third year on the job, the 2015-16 school year.

Those salaries are in line with what Michigan Capitol Confidential found for a series of reports published in 2016. The Mackinac Center submitted Freedom of Information Act requests for teacher salary data from 2010-11 to 2014-15 for the largest school districts in the state. That data showed young teachers saw their salaries climb while the pay for teachers at the top of the pay scale who made $70,000 to $80,000 was static.

For instance, in 2010-11 new Ann Arbor teachers started at $39,276. By 2014-15, four years later, they were getting $48,643, according to district documents.

The National Education Association publishes regular nationwide teacher pay surveys. Its most recent one has figures from 2012-2013 that show the average first-year teacher pay in Michigan at $35,901, compared to a national first-year average of $36,141.


TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: pay; schools; teacher
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1 posted on 02/27/2017 5:44:20 AM PST by MichCapCon
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To: MichCapCon

The law of supply and demand works for teachers like any other aspect of the economy.


2 posted on 02/27/2017 5:47:55 AM PST by theBuckwheat
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To: MichCapCon

Given the quality of a typical teaching degree, $28k sounds a bit high.


3 posted on 02/27/2017 5:49:48 AM PST by Da Coyote
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To: MichCapCon

Then factor in the hours/day and days/year of teachers and the salary whining of the teacher crowd becomes even more laughable.


4 posted on 02/27/2017 6:02:10 AM PST by drpix
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To: MichCapCon

They work about as many days as Congress. And feel just entitled. I say 28K is just about right for both.


5 posted on 02/27/2017 6:05:06 AM PST by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
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To: theBuckwheat

Not when you get the goobermint and da union’s collective bargain units involved...


6 posted on 02/27/2017 6:10:50 AM PST by L,TOWM (I don't have a preference for politician or a party. I have God and His standards.)
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To: MichCapCon

But while teachers everywhere may start with a relatively low salary, they generally advance quickly up the pay scale.

*********

I was on my local district’s contract bargaining team for several years.

Union contracts typically have automatic raises built in to the salary schedule, commonly referred to as “steps”. There are usually at least 12 steps, and possibly as many as 15 in some districts.

In my district, the steps for a bachelors degree (with no additional education, referred to as “BA-0”)went from 1.00 to 1.61 on the 12th step. IOW, if the starting salary was 30k, the second year at 1.06 would be $31,800, the third year at 1.12 would be $33,600, and so on, to $48,300 for the 1.61 rate in step 12.

But that was just for BA-zero, if the starting teacher never achieved any advanced education beyond their bachelor’s degree. There are additional step advances for +20 hrs of post-graduate work, +40 hrs, for a masters, for a masters with additional hrs, for a second masters, and so on. By taking additional college courses, they can get automatic increases, which is mostly unheard of in any other form of employment.

And the “starting salary” is usually the salary discussed and criticized as being too low, to pressure local boards to increase that number. The thing is, all of the other teacher salaries are multiples of that starting salary, so if they get the local board to increase the “starting salary”, the big increases automatically go to the teachers who have been on the payroll for many years.

Of course, the younger teachers get hard hit by union dues. I would guess that the $28,000 number claimed in the article was after subtracting the $2k or so in first year union dues.


7 posted on 02/27/2017 6:17:42 AM PST by leftcoaster
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To: MichCapCon

That is a pretty good starting pay for a part-time job.


8 posted on 02/27/2017 6:20:07 AM PST by castlegreyskull
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To: leftcoaster

Many Michigan teacher contracts are now readily available online at the local school district’s web site. Search for “Master Agreement”. The salary schedule will usually be as an appendix or exhibit in the back, and probably be called “Schedule A”.


9 posted on 02/27/2017 6:29:28 AM PST by leftcoaster
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To: leftcoaster
A principal where my wife works makes close to $100K per year. Approx $95K.

Teachers after many years can retire with $80K plus (including full benefits). $30K starting may not be unreasonable.

I know this because all of the district's salaries were published a few years ago. All the way up to the and including the administrative staff and administration. We checked my wife's posted hourly and it matched.

10 posted on 02/27/2017 6:38:12 AM PST by dhs12345
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To: MichCapCon

In the real world you don’t get pay raises unless there is a profit made


11 posted on 02/27/2017 6:43:17 AM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: MichCapCon

Can’t find them because they’re homeless.


12 posted on 02/27/2017 6:44:50 AM PST by thulldud
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To: MichCapCon

The “best and brightest” do not go into education for a variety of reasons. Teaching at K-12 (and often in college and graduate programs) is unbelievably easy and the challenges come largely from dealing with colleagues, administrators, and occasionally problem students. A “good” teacher is not necessarily a smart person.


13 posted on 02/27/2017 7:28:33 AM PST by FateAmenableToChange
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To: MichCapCon

Whiston, some of these crap numbnut teachers ought to be paying the taxpayers 28k for the privilege to even be in a classroom.


14 posted on 02/27/2017 7:37:45 AM PST by WKUHilltopper (WKU 2016 Boca Raton Bowl Champions)
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To: drpix
Then factor in the hours/day and days/year of teachers and the salary whining of the teacher crowd becomes even more laughable.

Exactly. Teachers don't work anywhere near as many days a year as the average professional works. Not even close. And that fact is always conveniently left out of the salary debate.


15 posted on 02/27/2017 7:48:40 AM PST by Cinnamontea
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To: MichCapCon

For those who went to college, would you say that the “best and brightest” went to the school of education. Also, would you say that an education degree is one of the more demanding ones?


16 posted on 02/27/2017 7:52:26 AM PST by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation camp?)
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To: hal ogen

Q - what degree program has students that enter with the lowest SAT scores but graduate with the highest GPA?

A - Ed majors

Q - Math problem, if you get paid a salary of $32,500 and work only 181 days a year - what is your hourly take home pay before taxes?

($29.92/hr) not counting benefits.

Q - What is the proper Title for a person that has a doctorate in Education?

Hint - it isn’t Ph,D

Ya - professional and very liberal whiners for the most part....


17 posted on 02/27/2017 8:09:28 AM PST by ASOC (Have *you* visited the World of the Chernyi?)
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To: MichCapCon

Since teachers only work nine months a year I think they are paid well, and many work in the summer which boosts their income and they still get three weeks off paid and numerous holidays.


18 posted on 02/27/2017 8:40:17 AM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: Mastador1

I love when they have “Teacher Work Days”. What do they do during the other days?


19 posted on 02/27/2017 8:42:21 AM PST by AppyPappy (Don't mistake your dorm political discussions with the desires of the nation)
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To: AppyPappy
I pick my grandson up from school, so know the schedule, it's amazing how the friday before a three day weekend or before Spring break(remember when it was Easter Vacation)is a Teacher Work Day and no school for the children. Many years ago when my kids were in school it started with early days on Thursday so the teachers had extra time.

I know that teachers take a lot of work home, my son taught for a while, but so did I when I managed Food, there wasn't a week I worked less than 50-60 hrs and I didn't get spring break, winter break, numerous holidays and 3 months off in the summer, I didn't bitch and moan that I was underpaid and no one cried out that I shoud be paid more.........OK I did.

20 posted on 02/27/2017 8:52:35 AM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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