The Arjay Conception

I am trying to approach the topic of teacher pay in a non-accusatory, intellectual manner. But I can’t because some dumb asses wrote an article for the New York post regarding the teacher-pay myth. I’m not going to glorify these idiots by providing a link. Well enough, I will include quotations.

“As of 2002, the average salary for teachers nationwide was about $44,600. That does seem modest. But we need account for the relatively few hours that teachers actually spend working compared to other professionals.”

The average of anything is not always good measure. It is NOT a sound figure for what a variety of teachers make across the U.S. for two reasons: 1. The lowest teacher salary is below $30K, and the highest is above $50K. 2. That being said, an average measure does not take into account how many years one has been teaching. For example, would you say you made a lot of money if you have been on the job for 20 years and you earn $50K?…and you started at $35K?

“Teachers have long vacation periods, several personal and sick days and work a shorter day than most other professionals. We can only properly understand these hours away from work as a benefit of the teaching profession. That is, a teacher who earns $45,000 to work for nine months is clearly better paid than a nurse who gets the same salary for working 12 months.”

The long vacation periods are not necessarily paid. The salary is balanced or “averaged” across a certain number of working days. A shorter work day is a total misconception as teachers usually arrive before and leave after the students. It is not a benefit as much as it is necessary to accomplish all of the tasks required during working hours. Comparing a teacher to a nurse is absurd as nurses often work 12 hour shifts with 3 working days, and 4 off days–neither is better, or worse. **Update, 10 paid days off is about standard. In the school district that I am familiar with, when a teacher exhausts his/her sick days (5) first, the personal days cannot be used (the other 5).

“According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average public elementary school teacher in the United States earns about $30.75 an hour. The average hourly pay of other public-service employees - such as firefighters ($17.91) or police officers ($22.64) - pales in comparison.”

Again, apples and oranges. Also, firefighters and police officers are not demeaned or degraded as professionals. They are considered heroic and coincidentally are male-dominated. Do they have to receive continuing education? Teachers must constantly renew and upgrade their skills in order to maintain licensure.

“Indeed, teachers’ hourly rate exceeds even those in professions that require far more training and expertise. Compare the schoolteacher’s $30.75 to the average biologist’s $28.07 an hour - or the mechanical engineer’s $29.76 or the chemist’s $30.68. Note, too, that these hourly figures exclude benefits, such as health coverage and retirement accounts, which are typically more generous for government employees, such as teachers, than for private-sector workers.”

What is considered “far more training and expertise”? A biologist, an engineer, and a teacher all graduate with a bachelor’s degree and are able to find work in their field. All three can pursue advanced studies in order to earn more money, although with teaching, the pay step increase is minimal. As far as benefits are concerned, this may be true. Teachers’ salaries can includes basic health care insurance at no “extra” cost (this depends on the school district) However, active duty military personnel receive stipends for housing (BAH) (if they live in base housing, utilities are paid), food (BAS) (and commissary prices are “discounted”), hazard pay, cost of living allowance (COLA), family separation allowance (FSA), dental care for a small fee, and free health care and prescriptions. This is not to announce that military pay is great either. It is just to paint a picture.

“But, if we make the generous assumption that the average teacher in New York works the maximum 6.6 hours a day allowed by the union contract for the full 181 school days, that works out to $44.38 an hour. But don’t teachers spend a great deal of time grading papers and creating lesson plans while away from school? Some do - but the comparisons here are still fair - because other professionals do work away from the office, too. Engineers and computer scientists are certainly no strangers to long nights working at home. Nor do teachers spend all of their time at school in the classroom. In fact, teachers spend fewer hours actually instructing students than many recognize. Stanford’s Terry Moe worked with data straight from the nation’s largest teacher union’s own data - and found that the average teacher in a department setting (that is, where students have different teachers for different subjects) was in the classroom for fewer than 3.9 hours out of the 7.3 hours at school each day. With several hours set aside at school for course-planning and grading, it strains plausibility that on average teachers must spend more hours working at home than do other professionals.”

Maybe 6.6 hours is true for New York, but as unions negotiate teacher pay, there is often a trade-off. Higher pay can equal longer work days and the teachers I know have an 8 hour day (up from 7.5). There may be 181 days in which students are present but there are several more days during which teachers are working ie Teacher Work Days, early-releases, Professional Days/non-student days. Teachers must stay later at school, often until 8 p.m., in order to accommodate working parents on parent-teacher conference days. Some school districts only release report cards to parents through conferences only.

Yes, there are planning periods during the school day in which teachers are not teaching. In an 8 period day, a teacher may get 2 periods off (lunch is brief, and unpaid). During that time, tests are created and papers are graded, if they are lucky. More often than not, these “off periods” are reserved for attendance procedures, hall duty, study hall duty, in school suspension duty (ISS), lunch duty, parking lot attendance, faculty meetings, continuing education, and best of all substitute teaching!!!! Yes, teachers who think they are “free” constantly get called to cover another absent teacher’s class. It is more economic for the school district to use their own teachers instead of contracted subs. So, when teachers bring work home, it is out of necessity, and I can’t say the same thing for other professions in which it is optional, or helpful to bring work home.

I doubt that this article I have written is fully comprehensive of the fallacy of “teachers ARE paid” argument. Yet, I am exhausted but feel the need to constantly defend teachers. I know of no other profession in which one must PAY in order to get started. And that says enough for me.

Look, sure there are other professions that deserve pay increases relative to the importance of the skills that they perform and the necessity of the job. How many hours do you spend with your children? The truth is, unless you’re homeschooling, kids spend more time with their teachers than you do raising them. If you value your child’s education, then you should be a proponent of increasing teachers salaries. If you don’t give a damn about your kids, and could care less if they go to school to learn or not, then you’ll write articles like the one I’ve been referencing.

Besides, how much do you think you should pay someone to take care of your little muthafucker all day long, while you kick your feet up at the job, take 2 hour lunch breaks, shoot the shit, watch Sports Center online, and download child porn?