Interesting op-ed peice from the Wall Street Journal about public school teacher salaries based on this report. The basic idea is that, when looked at on an hourly basis, public school teacher salaries are good compared to other professions, which goes against the conventional logic. A few excerpts:
"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, public school teachers earned $34.06 per hour in 2005, 36% more than the hourly wage of the average white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty or technical worker."
"In the popular imagination, however, public school teachers are underpaid. "Salaries are too low. We all know that," noted First Lady Laura Bush, expressing the consensus view. "We need to figure out a way to pay teachers more.""
"Of course, public school teacher earnings look less impressive when viewed on an annual basis than on an hourly basis. This is because teachers tend to work fewer hours per year, with breaks during the summer, winter and spring. But comparing earnings on an annual basis would be inappropriate when teachers work significantly fewer hours than do other workers. Teachers can use that time to be with family, to engage in activities that they enjoy, or to earn additional money from other employment. That time off is worth money and cannot simply be ignored when comparing earnings. The appropriate way to compare earnings in this circumstance is to focus on hourly rates."
"Moreover, the earnings data reported here, which are taken directly from the National Compensation Survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, do not include retirement and health benefits, which tend to be quite generous for public school teachers relative to other workers. Nor do they include the nonmonetary benefit of greater job security due to the tenure that most public school teachers enjoy."
Sunday, February 04, 2007
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2 comments:
I'd agree with you but your own analysis is flawed because the statistics aren't reflecting reality.
The pay would seem "better than average" if teachers were just doing that: teaching.
Instead, teachers must also be office supply stores (out of their own pocket), career counselors, nannies, special needs caregivers, psychologists and paramedics...all while fending off overzealous "helicopter parents" that criticize their EVERY move no matter how trivial.
Not to mention the hours "off the books" teachers must put in every day to keep up with the workload. Most teachers I know work from 6am to 8pm every weekday and at least half that much every weekend. The idea that teachers don't work after 2pm, don't work on weekends, don't work on holidays, and don't work over the summers, is complete and utter bullcrap. Those days are used solely for teachers to play catchup.
Viewed in that light? Yes, teachers are SORELY underpaid.
My mother has been a college teacher for longer than I can remember. This semester she's been teaching from 8am-5pm nearly every day of the week. When she gets home (usually not until after 6 because she stops to answer student questions and emails) she works on creating tests, assignments and lesson plans as well as marking those tests and assignments. She is usually up working until after 1am, and gets up at 5am.
If the author of this article actually believes that teachers only work the hours they are paid to work, they are absolutely and completely misguided and should spend ONE day doing what my mother does EVERY day.
She teaches a few hour long classes that pay upwards of $50/hour which sounds like a lot, but when you divide her salary over the actual number of hours she works, she is, without a doubt, underpaid.
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