I'd say the WA State scale is pretty generous, minimum is $40,000 for first year teachers. Along with incentives for getting a MS and/or National Boards, teaching at a Title 1 school, etc. a teacher after 15 years can be right about $100,000 for their 180+ day contract, plus benefits. But you have to put in your time to get there, but really that's the way of many jobs.
As a physical therapist, I can tell you that at least on average, we definitely make more than 60K as a new grad, often quite a bit more (I'm willing to state that I was at 75K starting out). But we (mostly) have Doctorate degrees with 7-8 years of school, and I will say that we don't make enough to justify that amount of schooling.
Ironically, Dd19 is an exercise science major and will be applying to grad school this summer for a DPT program. It’s actually been a field she’s been interested in since freshman year in HS, she just got a gig working in a rehab program at a local hospital for the next 6 weeks before going back to UD. Family members (who are doctors) tried to convince her to go that route (my cousin’s wife is a pediatric psychiatrist with her own practice and doesn’t accept insurance, is doing very well), but PT is what she wants to do.
That's great!! That's about when my interest in PT started, too. I absolutely love it, but the ratio of cost and length of school compared to pay is very poor, so I tell people that you need to be very interested to make pursuing the career worth it. If you go in knowing that, then you won't be as surprised later.
Vacations..of any sort, at any time, to any destination are never..I repeat NEVER more important than school. No matter what grade, level of education or willingness to work around schedules.
My husband was a sickly kid. He missed more school then anyone ever does taking a vacation. He graduated with a 4.0. We took our kids out of school for trips and it taught them that in life, if you want to have fun, you will need to work hard for it. Making up school work is part of working for our fun. They wanted to go on vacation so they knew that they would have to work harder to make up the work. How is that in any way a bad thing? It isn't. You do what is right for your family. If you think that it would be too much for your kids to miss a bit of school, then don't take them out. Nobody is making you. But it was just fine for our kids.
Amen.
I have a lot more tolerance towards teachers than this! They are people too, who have been asked to adapt perform and sometimes triple their workloads during this pandemic. You may have had to change and adapt for your job, but does your job entail educating 30+ kids through various platforms (hybrid approach and virtual?) and providing resources for lower income kids or kids with parents who are unwilling or unable to help out at home?
Sorry, we can agree to disagree. We have all had to adapt many times during all of this. I work as a Firefighter and have adapted many different times with things changing daily in the beginning. So to say I have zero sympathy for teachers that have been working from the confines of home during this is an understatement. I've worked during all of this and during the spring also had to do my civil duty and teach my kids on my off days. We have since moved out of the public school system and into a private school because of how terrible public schools are in my area. Lots of great teachers out there.
