Political Crossfire Forums

Vastly underpaid in Hawaii just at a glance. I saw a 3bd, 2bath house that was a total dump sell for 900k. That same house in Texas would have been 1/10th of that, if that much.

I don't think that teachers are overpaid except in maybe a couple places on that list but I think its hard to lump them all together when different areas of the US have different costs of living. Based on this list, I'd say they are probably adequately paid on the whole.

But the issue isn't starting salaries so much as it is rewarding the good teachers somehow.

Starting salaries usually aren't the problem, except in the South. Starting salaries are 'fine.' Just pay increments are notoriously low-end. Spending 10 years in a profession only to make an additional $4,000? Pfft. You can get bigger raises working in retail.

It takes about 3 years for most teachers to learn what works best for them. Some teachers can make it happen in only a year, but that's rare. Teaching is an interdisciplinary profession that involves psychology, academics, counseling, and acting. After that the pay increments should be much larger (or non-existent if they suck - as in by that point they should be gone).

We'll see where education goes in the next two years. I just applied for a federal job as a scientist. $67,000 starting with the possibility of earning $90,000 in 7 years. The starting salary would be more than I would make after 25 years in teaching, and it would require less committed hours. If I land the job, I'll probably change professions. I'm done being hated on by conservatives/libertarians, watching business and bureaucracy 'reform' education in the wrong direction, seeing kids suffer through 20 tests, and working for an additional $400 per year.

I think good teachers are generally underpaid for what they do. Not by too much, though. In the big scheme of things, $40-50,000 is not bad at all for only working 9 months a year (I know, I know........that old "myth". But not really).

The problem for me is that there's an unreasonable number of incredibly shitty teachers being paid those average salaries and sometimes much higher for consistently performing poorly with almost zero prospect of ever being fired for it. Depending on the state, of course. I think that's why people criticize teachers for being overpaid. Not because they think teaching as a profession is not worth the money, but because they've dealt with so many individual teachers who are clearly not worth the money.

here's a novel approach.

why don't we pay teachers what we think is acceptable and keep it up with the cost of living for the area instead of basing it off of things that are impossible to quantify fairly.