teacher myths

[PrincessKsMom]

Don't you mean that he was able to do that on a principal's salary?

The secondary principals in my school system make six-figure salaries. The elementary principals average around $85,000.

Some people are good at investing, who knows, maybe the kids got a lot of scholarships or went to schools that didn't cost all that much. If someone bought a house 40 years ago their house payment was probably $200/month. I can see it on a long time teacher's salary in a place where teachers make a living wage. Once you move into administration, yes you usually take a descent bump in pay.

Wonder if you'll be quite as comfortable correcting a fellow teacher?

 

[DawnM]

He said the teacher purchased two homes if I am reading that correctly. A lake home and a home to live in. On top of that he paid for two kids to go to college.

Even if the college wasn't high priced, buying two homes and one is on a lake, would be a stretch.

And this was all done before he moved into administration.

Now, I do know teachers on one salary with beach/lake/mountian homes, but it is usually because they ran into a winfall (death of a parent, etc....) of some sort.

Dawn

Some people are good at investing, who knows, maybe the kids got a lot of scholarships or went to schools that didn't cost all that much. If someone bought a house 40 years ago their house payment was probably $200/month. I can see it on a long time teacher's salary in a place where teachers make a living wage. Once you move into administration, yes you usually take a descent bump in pay.

 

[Mimi1965]

Let's just say they have reason to show me their W-2's and leave it at that, not that it really any of your business how I know.

.

Maybe you work at H & R Block?

Wherever you work-please tell me what is your career.
You're able to post every 10 minutes for the last 2 1/2 hours on this fascinating thread. No way MOST working people could ever be on the Internet that much

 

[golfgal]

He said the teacher purchased two homes if I am reading that correctly. A lake home and a home to live in. On top of that he paid for two kids to go to college.

Even if the college wasn't high priced, buying two homes and one is on a lake, would be a stretch.

And this was all done before he moved into administration.

Now, I do know teachers on one salary with beach/lake/mountian homes, but it is usually because they ran into a winfall (death of a parent, etc....) of some sort.

Dawn

We paid $45K for our first home and had an opportunity-which I am STILL kicking my self that we didn't do it-to buy a lake home in a popular lake area in MN for $45K back in the early 90's. Our combined house payments for both of those places would have been under $900. Some of our friends (there were 5 places all next to each other) that did buy those homes had them appraised a few years ago at $400,000 . DS18 school would cost us about $1000/month if we had to pay all of it (he got some scholarships and loans and it costs him $300/month). It's doable.

 

[ilovesugar]

I have never posted my district-others have.

A Masters Degree is one thing. A Masters Degree + 60 credits is a dissertation shy of a PhD. It plainly says masters+60 or more credits on the site. I stand by my claim that there is NO ONE with JUST a masters degree that makes $70K+ base.

The teacher pay scale is very confusing. Teachers get raises based on years of service (very small increases) and amount of post grad credits. Once they achieve a masters degree there is a larger bump in pay then but after that the bumps are pretty small even with additional credit hours. That pay scale would stay the same year after year if the unions or whomever did not negotiate raises in that scale. Those 2% raises they get don't even keep up with the cost of living/inflation changes so over time teachers make less money year after year in overall spending power.

2% is a heck of a lot more than some people have gotten over the last 3 years total. Most people have been getting 0% pay bump over the last few years and more so than not, they have been taking pay cuts.

 

[golfgal]

Maybe you work at H & R Block?

Wherever you work-please tell me what is your career.
You're able to post every 10 minutes for the last 2 1/2 hours on this fascinating thread. No way MOST working people could ever be on the Internet that much

Well, if you must know, I was supposed to go to the state fair today with some friends that were going to be visiting from Arizonia but they couldn't make it last minute and I had set my schedule to be off. My Dh hates going to the fair so I am staying home today. So instead of eating a lot of food on a stick I am doing laundry and posting here between loads. I also ran some errands this morning, loaded and unloaded the dishwasher, helped my DS18 with some stuff he needed for school. I had a nice salad for lunch with fresh tomatoes from our garden and I might take a nap later. Anything else you want to know?

 

[MM27]

2% is a heck of a lot more than some people have gotten over the last 3 years total. Most people have been getting 0% pay bump over the last few years and more so than not, they have been taking pay cuts.

The percentage that is made public on teacher contracts is not the amount of increase that every teacher gets. When our contract is negotiated, it is usually done so for a three year period. Our contract includes teachers, secretarial staff, security and custodial staff. The contract for each of these groups is divided into steps. Our current contract which is over after this school year has about 20 steps.

Whatever the percentage is that you are hearing about is spread over the steps for all of the various parts of the contract. In a given year, two people on the same contract can be getting different percent increases. Now granted, any increase is nice, but when you hear about this 2 or 4 % increase, don't believe that it's standard across the board.

 

[golfgal]

The percentage that is made public on teacher contracts is not the amount of increase that every teacher gets. When our contract is negotiated, it is usually done so for a three year period. Our contract includes teachers, secretarial staff, security and custodial staff. The contract for each of these groups is divided into steps. Our current contract which is over after this school year has about 20 steps.

Whatever the percentage is that you are hearing about is spread over the steps for all of the various parts of the contract. In a given year, two people on the same contract can be getting different percent increases. Now granted, any increase is nice, but when you hear about this 2 or 4 % increase, don't believe that it's standard across the board.

And, that percentage is often spread out over a couple years so they may get a 2% increase, over 2 years-so 1% a year. This has been the norm for over 20 years so it has NOTHING to do with the economy today.

 

[DawnM]

But it depends on the salary. What was a teacher's salary in the early 90s in MN?

On what I made as a starting teacher in the early 90s this would not have been possible, even without a family to support.

Dawn

We paid $45K for our first home and had an opportunity-which I am STILL kicking my self that we didn't do it-to buy a lake home in a popular lake area in MN for $45K back in the early 90's. Our combined house payments for both of those places would have been under $900. Some of our friends (there were 5 places all next to each other) that did buy those homes had them appraised a few years ago at $400,000 . DS18 school would cost us about $1000/month if we had to pay all of it (he got some scholarships and loans and it costs him $300/month). It's doable.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

The percentage that is made public on teacher contracts is not the amount of increase that every teacher gets. When our contract is negotiated, it is usually done so for a three year period. Our contract includes teachers, secretarial staff, security and custodial staff. The contract for each of these groups is divided into steps. Our current contract which is over after this school year has about 20 steps.

Whatever the percentage is that you are hearing about is spread over the steps for all of the various parts of the contract. In a given year, two people on the same contract can be getting different percent increases. Now granted, any increase is nice, but when you hear about this 2 or 4 % increase, don't believe that it's standard across the board.

Yes, when we hear about a 3% or 4% increase that is in the total salary base. However, the step increases usually change as well. This is where, again in our most recent strike nearby, people got really aggravated. The teachers were touting that they were taking a 0% raise from year 1 to year 2 in the contract, but that wasn't the case.

The community saw right through that when they saw that the teachers were STILL moving up 1 step because of the year's service. That step for some of those teachers equated to anywhere from a 5% raise to a 12% raise (the "super" bump before max step). So while other people in the factories were TRULY taking a 0% raise, or taking a pay cut to keep their jobs, the teachers were lying about being in the same boat, when, clearly, they were not.

Steps are STILL raises, no matter how you try to disguise them.

Again, I have no beef with teachers. I do, however, feel that the Unions try to obfuscate certain things in order to push certain agendas, or to make the public think something different is going on, such as the "We're taking a 0" nonsense.

 

[golfgal]

But it depends on the salary. What was a teacher's salary in the early 90s in MN?

On what I made as a starting teacher in the early 90s this would not have been possible, even without a family to support.

Dawn

You can't really generalize salaries across the state but in the town where we lived then a teacher topped out at $35K . At that time DH was making about $28K or so and we had just had our oldest and I was not working. We could have afforded the payments then--we didn't have any debt except our house payment so that helped too. We had one car but only needed one car-gas was like 70 cents/gallon. The overall cost of living in that town was pretty low (still is). I think our property taxes on that house were $400/year .

We could have bought a house in a neighboring town for $2500--no that is NOT a typo, Two Thousand, Five Hundred dollars. It was a cute story and a half house too. Town population was only 200 people though-that was the drawback.

 

[wvjules]

First of all, I am a SHE.

Second of all, I really hate being called a liar. Just because you have different experiences doesn't make mine false.

 

[MM27]

Yes, when we hear about a 3% or 4% increase that is in the total salary base. However, the step increases usually change as well. This is where, again in our most recent strike nearby, people got really aggravated. The teachers were touting that they were taking a 0% raise from year 1 to year 2 in the contract, but that wasn't the case.

The community saw right through that when they saw that the teachers were STILL moving up 1 step because of the year's service. That step for some of those teachers equated to anywhere from a 5% raise to a 12% raise (the "super" bump before max step). So while other people in the factories were TRULY taking a 0% raise, or taking a pay cut to keep their jobs, the teachers were lying about being in the same boat, when, clearly, they were not.

Steps are STILL raises, no matter how you try to disguise them.

Again, I have no beef with teachers. I do, however, feel that the Unions try to obfuscate certain things in order to push certain agendas, or to make the public think something different is going on, such as the "We're taking a 0" nonsense.

Um, the step IS the raise. We don't get a raise and a step increase. I am currently (for the 2009-2010 school year) on Step 8 (my district redid our steps one year so time of service and steps don't match. I just finished my 10th year).

As of September 1st, I move up to step 9 (year 11) on the new salary guide (the 2010-2011 one). The salaries are set for each year when the contract is initially made. My district usually does a three year contract. I don't understand why anyone would think that teachers should remain on the same step from year to year. If you've completed another year of service, you should be moving on the guide. The only time people don't move in my district is as a punishment when teachers don't get their master's in time. We have 3 years after tenure to get it and if we don't, you freeze on that step.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

Wonder if you'll be quite as comfortable correcting a fellow teacher?

I will just say that they get testy when you correct their spelling or grammar! Then, regardless of the point, you are stooping to the lowest because you have nothing worthwhile to say!I wonder if the argument goes both ways?

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

First of all, I am a SHE.

Second of all, I really hate being called a liar. Just because you have different experiences doesn't make mine false.

Lol, now where would the DIS be if people actually remembered that? I am running my first marathon in October. Good luck!

 

[CowboyCO]

The median salary for teachers in my town is: $51,958

And we are one of the poorer counties in NJ.

Of course, the teacher probably pays $10,000 a year just in propoerty taxes in NJ...

Different states, different economies of scale.

In Colorado, my wife just cracked $40K after 19 years. But property taxes on our $300K house are about $1,700.

 

[CowboyCO]

Myth*

Papers should be graded within a day or two being turned in...

DW teaches HS English and when she assigns a 10-page research paper, that means she ends up with 1,200+ pages to grade. Sorry, that's not getting graded overnight...

 

[CowboyCO]

2% is a heck of a lot more than some people have gotten over the last 3 years total. Most people have been getting 0% pay bump over the last few years and more so than not, they have been taking pay cuts.

We've had a pay freeze for the last 4 years here.

 

[HsvTeacher]

Wonder if you'll be quite as comfortable correcting a fellow teacher?

I wasn't correcting the PP's spelling. I find that to be rude and in poor taste.

I was trying to clear up whether her DBF's father was making a principal's salary or a teacher's salary. All the principals I know make much more than I do as a teacher, because they are running an entire school.

 

[design_mom]

Um, the step IS the raise. We don't get a raise and a step increase. I am currently (for the 2009-2010 school year) on Step 8 (my district redid our steps one year so time of service and steps don't match. I just finished my 10th year).

As of September 1st, I move up to step 9 (year 11) on the new salary guide (the 2010-2011 one). The salaries are set for each year when the contract is initially made. My district usually does a three year contract. I don't understand why anyone would think that teachers should remain on the same step from year to year. If you've completed another year of service, you should be moving on the guide. The only time people don't move in my district is as a punishment when teachers don't get their master's in time. We have 3 years after tenure to get it and if we don't, you freeze on that step.

I do not intend to begrudge teachers their money (I definitely think they earn it), but there are many, many, many people in many professions who have not been getting raises in recent years even though they've also completed additional years of service. If all is right with the world, I agree with you: People (teachers and others) *should* get rewarded for loyalty of service and increased experience, assuming they're doing a good job. However, that's not the reality of the current economic environment. Even people who get *great* reviews are not all getting raises because the company, or the taxpayers, can't afford it.

I have been ranked in the highest tier every year at my job on my performance evaluations. I got my first raise in 3 years this year (3%). I have 10 years of service.