In the article “Teachers’ Cost of Living Matters More", the author addresses a really good point that teachers’ salaries cannot be compared nationally simply based on the number. The salaries should be compared based on location and cost of living, or how much goods and services the teacher can buy with the salary. It is also very interesting to me that when this factor is considered, the rank for a teacher’s pay in a certain location can significantly change. For example, Los Angeles is ranked #4 among teacher pay at the rate of $54,738; however, when cost of living is considered, this city drops to #48 at the rate of $34,776 (Georgiou, Villarreal, & Moore, 2005). In addition to making this interesting and significant assertion, I also noticed another perspective that the article seemed to be addressing with a teacher’s salary. The article reflected how low the salaries are compared to other positions in our country with similar education requirements.
I have analyzed salaries for almost five years now. It is my experience that the more demanding the position the higher the pay. This seems simple enough, but for some strange reason this does not really seem to apply to the teaching profession. The previously mentioned article seems to reiterate this claim. I also found an article that addressed paying higher salaries to teachers. According to the article, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan proposed that a teacher’s salary should begin at $60,000 attempting to lure the brightest college students into the profession. The article further stated that this type of change has already been attempted in some areas of the U.S. For example, a charter school in New York City decided to pay all of its middle school teachers $125,000 salaries because of certain research that indicates that a really good teacher can close achievement gaps and lift kids’ test scores. These same teachers can earn up to $25,000 more in bonuses depending on how well their students perform. In order to provide these salaries, the school had to make a few sacrifices such as larger class sizes, no assistant principals, and no substitute teachers. The high-paid teachers assume administrative duties to cover for the lack of an assistant principal, and they cover for each other in an absence. In addition, these teachers work longer days and they only have three weeks off during the summer. The article reported that it is still too early to determine whether or not this system is working for the school (Goodwin, 2011). In my opinion, it does seem like a very motivating initiative.
I would like to conclude with a brief article that I have seen circulate a couple of times via the Internet. I found the article posted online in The Atlanta Journal Constitution. It really makes you think about whether or not teachers are getting paid fairly for all of the duties that they are expected to perform. The article is written as follows:
Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year. It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do – babysit. We can get that for less than minimum wage. That’s right. Let’s give them $3 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan– that equals 6 1/2 hours). Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day…maybe 30? So that’s $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year. I am not going to pay them for any vacations. LET’S SEE…That’s $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on. My calculator needs new batteries.) What about those special education teachers and the ones with master’s degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.
Wait a minute — there’s something wrong here. There sure is.
The average teacher’s salary (nationwide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student– a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL! (Downey, 2011).
References
Downey, M. (2011, February 23). If teachers are mere babysitters, pay them accordingly. The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Retrieved from http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2011/02/23/if-teachers-are-mere-babysitters-pay-them-accordingly/
Georgiou, D., Villarreal, P. and Moore, M. (2005, October 24). Teachers’ cost of living matters more. National Center for Policy Analysis. Retrieved from http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba535
Goodwin, L. (2011, September 1). Should the starting salary for a teacher be $60,000? The Lookout. Retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/starting-salary-teacher-60-000-131728091.html
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