Posted by
Wil on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 1:59:42 AM
There have been many calls for teachers (as well as other State and local government workers around the country) to take wage freezes, pay cuts, partial benefit reductions, or start paying their own benefits. Why? Because in state after state, the budget is unsustainable, spending is out of control, programs and services are threatened with cuts, and taxes are high enough that most states fear raising them or if they do raise, them, the raises are limited due to economic conditions. Recent articles have stated that as many as 300,000 teachers could face layoffs around the country, and that intervention by the Federal government is necessary to preserve education as we know it. Of course, many dispute this. They see outrageous numbers such as 10,000 dollars per student (or more) to educate kids. They see teachers stand in front of their children and complain that "we can't do this field trip or that activity or these creative lessons because of budget cuts" They hear that teachers and other government employees get huge benefits that will be exempt from the luxury taxes others may pay for Obamacare, that they can retire at 50 with retirement pensions bigger than their salaries, that unlike the rest of us, their wages, retirements, and benefits are untouchable because of government employee unions. So are teachers overpaid, or do they sacrifice the pay they deserve to do a job they love and should get a lot more? The answer of course is not that simple.
Teachers after all do a job that is hard to quantify. If you produce a product, your production can be measured, if you provide a service, satisfaction of your clients can be evaluated. But when you teach a child, there are so many factors, the most variable of which is the children themselves. A teacher can get rave reviews from one parent and be considered a failure by another. A teacher can reach many kids and see them succeed, but a few slip by and do not get the education they should. And teaching is something we all have experienced from a student perspective, so we all know at some level what is a good or bad teacher. And many of us have taught in some way too, in a Sunday School class, at home with our own kids, volunteering as a 4-H or Boy Scouts leader, we all have some level of expertise.
So we all know a little, and we all have experienced a little, and we all see myopically, through the experiences of ourselves and our own children. This makes evaluating teachers and their worth very personal and important to us. A teacher who changes a childs life for the better is invaluable to that child and her family. A teacher who provides a spark that convinces a student to follow a particular career path is irreplaceable to the one they inspired. There is no way to put a dollar value on that. But we as a society have to try.
A starting teacher in North Dakota makes on average 24,872, according to the website teacherportal.com, a site put together to help teachers compare different states for teachers. In Connecticut, they start at 39,259 a year. All other states are in between these values. Considering a school year can vary between about 170 contract days and 190, and a typical school day is about 7 hours, wages for a starting teacher can vary from 18.70 and 34.00 per hour. Many would argue that this figure is skewed because teachers put in time after school in preparation and meetings, many volunteer to support school activities and events, and much of this is unpaid. Reality is though, any salaried position is expected to spend some of their own time to make a business succeed. A man I worked for who owned a feed store probably worked close to 80 hours a week, because it was his business and he was determined to see it succeed, so I do not feel this is a valid complaint. Others would complain that as a teacher your summers are not really free, many teachers have to go back and complete a Masters, or take additional credits to keep up to date. But again, this is part of the choice. Doctors must keep current, so must Lawyers and many other professionals. So 18-34 dollars per hour, which because of the very limited hours translates to a yearly salary of 25-40K a year. This is only part of the story though. Because the benefits package is added to this. Medical, dental, vision, sick days, retirement, all of these are benefits that not everyone has. My last year teaching, I made 39,000 but after including benefits, my salary package cost the school 57,000 a year. And this was a private school with much less substantial benefits. In a public school, the numbers would be greater.
So these are the wages right out of college, how about average salary? The highest average was in California, at 59,825 a year, which translates to between 45 and 57 dollars an hour depending on length of school year. Add in benefits, and this means the AVERAGE teacher costs about 80-85000 a year. If your district has more than average approaching retirement, this goes up. If your district has many who are already retired, this amount goes up because the school is responsible for making up the difference when PERS falls short. THIS is why there is a crisis in educational funding. It isn't the starting teachers, its the retirees still being payed and the longer serving teachers being payed near the top of the pay scale. The lowest was again North Dakota at 37,700 a year average which adds up to 28 to 35 dollars an hour. So are these wages too low, too high, or just about right considering the work that is done? That is really for you and I the taxpayers to decide.
Many teachers argue that what they do is tough. I agree. Many would not be able to spend every day keeping 25 8 year olds on task, managing a classroom of 40 14 year olds with hormones raging and all the teen angst they deal with, and to add to this being an expert in an academic field, it IS a lot to ask. Those who teach, those who REALLY teach, have a gift. They have a desire to see kids succeed, to impart some knowledge they see as vitally important, to teach kids the skills to be lifelong learners and to build on the base that has been provided. There are many easier jobs than teaching. But there are few as rewarding and enjoyable to one who really loves the task. The reality is, whatever teachers are worth, whether its minimum wage or 100 dollars an hour, the fact is that a teacher is paid by the state, by the taxpayers, by the producers of goods and services. The amount a state can take in is limited by the amount its citizens take in and by the amount they feel is just to pay for state and local services. The amount paid to teachers must be balanced with the amount paid to police and fire, the amount paid to maintain infrastructure, the amount paid for other state services, and the amount paid for national defense. All of these expenditures come out of taxpayers pockets. When teachers become political, when their unions demand more from the parents of the kids they teach, they undermine their own standing in the community. When they protect their own, when incompetent teachers and burnt out teachers and lazy teachers are equated with the good ones, it devalues the worth of genuine good teachers. When the school closes itself off from the community, when it teaches ideologies and viewpoints contradictory to the values of its families, it creates mistrust and contempt. It feeds a disconnect that makes the community value the school less and desire less for its teachers.
So how do we "fix" this problem of disconnect, this problem that leads to mistrust and the undervaluing of teachers? The number one answer would be school choice. If we feel that each student should be costing 6,000 a year or 8,000 a year, we provide vouchers to parents to choose where to send their money. There are two problems with this. Not every student costs an equal amount to educate. Special needs kids, English language learners, kids who depend on a bus to get to school, all of these things cost extra to provide. If a voucher is not enough to cover the higher cost of these special needs, the kids who have these needs will not have school choice, they will be stuck. And second, many parents are so busy, so wrapped up in work or trying to work, that they do not have the means even if a voucher is provided of taking their kid to a better school if it is further from home. Their kids will be stuck in the poor schools because they do not have a way to transport them. This is doable by a determined people, but even if the unions got out of the way, vouchers are a tough sell. How much should they be? How are they distributed? How are the schools accepted or rejected? Are religious schools ok, or not? Who decides, the parents without oversight? The kids? The state? After all it isn't the parents money, its taxpayer money at this point? Or do we scrap public education all together and privatize the whole thing? I think that would have to be phased in if chosen.
Second answer would be school accountability. If the tenure system were subject to review, if a poor teacher or a teacher who has lost his ability could be let go, the teachers who remain would be seen in a better light. If parents had access to the schools, if they were allowed to sit in class on occasion or volunteer they would know what the teachers are teaching and who is or is not a competent teacher. It happens a lot in elementary schools but not at all at high schools. Why is this? If curriculum were not controlled at federal or state levels but by local districts and school boards, if people had more say in their schools, the connection would be better and the product would be better. And if teachers would recognize the reality that the contracts their unions have negotiated are unsustainable, if they'd accept reduced benefits, especially retirement, and would recognize that at this time, perhaps a wage reduction is necessary though it is painful, maybe this proactive step would restore confidence that teachers are there after all for the students, and they don't just say that because it sounds good. Most teachers are good, they do it because they care and they love it, and they have become hostile because its knee jerk, because they feel unappreciated in their communities. Respect is a two way street though, and before the teacher can be respected, they must respect the parents and the kids they serve. We have a long way to go.