and this doesn't include their kick ass pension and health insurance plans
www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050314/1070961.asp

In fact, of the 242 administrators and school principals and assistant principals outside Buffalo, some 188 - or 78 percent - make more than Erie County Executive Joel A. Giambra's $103,428 annual salary, state education records show. Median base pay for teachers here is $50,666, but recent payrolls show a new first: a handful of teachers either making six figures or getting awfully close. That doesn't surprise Alan Getter, the assistant superintendent for business with the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda school district, where two teachers earned more than $100,000 last year.

www.speakupwny.com/article_593.shtml

The median per capita income in Erie County is $23,019. The per capita median income in Erie County is about half that of the entire state of New York. It's also lower than that of the state of West Virginia.

A lot of teachers get paid very well, and they like to bitch and moan any how.

The unions have a lot to  do with it.

Starting salary here is 29,000.   I have a MA and have taught for 10yrs...... I don't make $40K yet.
So, piss off!

Edited to add, I took a 9K deduction from selling cars.....to teach.  I started at 19,600 ten years ago.

In my 6th year, I make a bit over $35K, have laughable health insurance, and a marginal (at best) retirement plan.

Don't apply anything from that article to anywhere outside of Erie County, NY is the lesson here.

Quoted: Starting salary here is 29,000.   I have a MA and have taught for 10yrs...... I don't make $40K yet. So, piss off! Edited to add, I took a 9K deduction from selling cars.....to teach.  I started at 19,600 ten years ago.

My question is: Is it worth it? (Not trying to be an ass)

The teachers salery here w/o master is $30,000 max., w/ master $35,000 max. They should be mad when the super. is making (I think) ~$150,000 and got a 5% incress in pay for the board.

My mother has taught for 27 years this year and makes roughtly $36k/year.  

My mother teaches high school math, she doesn't make half that.

  In Mich, they are the 3rd highest paid in the Country and LOVE to bitch, moan, and sob about everything.  Most people would give their arm for the benefits they receive, to include $3 copays, of which they moaned about like the end of the world was coming. Worst kept secret out there. And it's about impossible to get rid of a worthless one once they have their time in.

I let the classroom in 99 after 9 years of teaching and was making 29900 gross.    Went tech until the the telcom field went to shit, am now a tech for the same district my wife teaches.   I carried her and my kids on my family plan when corporate for a max of $70 a check (health, vision, and dental)after my getting laid off my wife put us on hers and she pays out $455 a check.   I am considering going back in and teaching tech for the district, should be a lot less stress than teaching severe and profound behavior disorders like I used to.

My wife is an underpaid teacher!  Just to highlight that the people mentioned in the starting article were all school board administrators.  Not teachers.  How many classroom teachers in a public
K-12 school will ever make over $50k?  Even in Kalifornia?

Try working at a school in SD.
Lowest paying in the nation for education for the umpteenth year.
At our school, they start at 24,000, and thats pretty good for the area.


Go SD

My wife is in her third year of teaching.

She makes $26K.

Well than some how  some of these teachers are finding a way to get paid more, I had a history teacher who was making around $50k a year and all he ever did was put in a tape on the tv, I still recall learning about the cave paintings in france, what that had to do with american history is beyond me.  

After four years of teaching in MA I was making $37k w/o a masters.  The salary cap for 20 years with two masters and a cags was around $60k.

Quoted: Well than some how  some of these teachers are finding a way to get paid more, I had a history teacher who was making around $50k a year and all he ever did was put in a tape on the tv, I still recall learning about the cave paintings in france, what that had to do with american history is beyond me.

You should become a teacher then.

I look forward to your posts about how you are rolling in the dough for doing next to nothing.





ETA:

My wife arrived at school today at 6 AM in order to prepare for the arrival of over twenty 5-year old children.  She wiped noses, tied shoes, maintained order AND taught them at the same time.  She arrived home at 4:30 PM.

All for 26K.

What did you do?

I think it is a very bad idea to make generalizations of what teachers make or what they have to do durring the course of their work.

while some teachers do enjoy very competative wages and benifits, the sad truth is that many do not and are grossly underpaid, working impossible caseloads, and burried in the bureaucracy that teaching has become.

IMHO, teachers for the most part are greatly under appreciated. they are tasked with educating our youth and preparing them for the future academically, emotionally, and physically.

my wife for instance teaches special education at the elementry level. she currently has a caseload of 25 kids ranging form EI (emotionaly impared) to PI (physically impared) and everything in between.  each one of these kids has different needs and abillities yet she is supposed to teach several areas of concern to them at the same time. the logistics of trying to prepare and plan for this every day is daunting to say the least. she is at the school nine hours a day on a good day and spends from 2-3 hrs a night at home doing "homework" just to keep her head above water. she also spends her own money on classroom supplies because there is not enough money in the school to keep her or many other teachers and programs going ( this is a nationwide problem with many school districs) let alone continuing her education out of her own pocket to keep her teaching certificate (also part of the no child left behing act that has burried schools and teachers in red tape of sometimes impossible/unreasonable requirements that neither teachers or parents can acheive)

oh, and before you ask, why does she do it? because she loves it.

i look at it kinda like if you didnt vote, then you dont have anyplace bitchin about your government.
if you did vote and you are still not happy, then learn and understand how it works then work to change it for the better.

if your not involved in your kids education to the point of being active with your school and your childs teachers, then you have no place bitchin about either of them.
if you are active and participate in your childs education and still are not happy then learn and understand the education system and then work to change it for the better

just my .02

ps. no im not a teacher, im just the supporting husband of one.

I get a shiteating grin everytime I get a teacher for a patient.  Noting like Blue Cross Traditional.  Basically the platnium card of healthcare.  Anything goes and the bill gets paid instantly as healthcare goes.  

AND HOW MANY MONTHS OF THE YEAR DO THEY ACTUALLY WORK!?!?!?!?

take your yearly salary, minus 3 months, minus 1 more for all the breaks.         so 8 months a year, tops.
(my moms a teacher so dont give the b/s about how they still have to do work.  she does a lot, but its not nearly the same)

teachers should just be hot and marry doctors, so they can use all of his money to go on vacation year-round.

Quoted: I get a shiteating grin everytime I get a teacher for a patient.  Noting like Blue Cross Traditional.  Basically the platnium card of healthcare.  Anything goes and the bill gets paid instantly as healthcare goes.

We use my military provided TRICARE because her Blue Cross is not affordable.

Around here the superindent of the schools was ripping off the county real good,


I also remember a few years back when some of the police were abusing the overtime system if Buffalo and were the top paid people in the county.

Quoted: AND HOW MANY MONTHS OF THE YEAR DO THEY ACTUALLY WORK!?!?!?!? take your yearly salary, minus 3 months, minus 1 more for all the breaks.         so 8 months a year, tops. (my moms a teacher so dont give the b/s about how they still have to do work.  she does a lot, but its not nearly the same) teachers should just be hot and marry doctors, so they can use all of his money to go on vacation year-round.

My wife gets two months off during the summer.

During the school year she will work an average of 50-55 hours per week.

Oh, and she frequently gets to spend our own money on classroom supplies because the school  budget won't support it.

All for 26K.

Quoted: Just to highlight that the people mentioned in the starting article were all school board administrators.  Not teachers.  How many classroom teachers in a public K-12 school will ever make over $50k?

um no

Median base pay for teachers here is $50,666

the admins were listed separately and were way above $50,000
and both my aunt and uncle were making around $50,000 each when they retired a few years ago

Principal at my highschool drove a Ferarri.

The school district that I went to had an average salary of 90k a year. That was 20 years ago. But the school district is in the top 10 in the nation.

I have also met teachers that have take money out of their own pockets to buy supplies for their kids. So the income and benefits are not spread out evenly.  

Like they say, if you can read this, thank a teacher!

Quoted: Well than some how  some of these teachers are finding a way to get paid more, I had a history teacher who was making around $50k a year and all he ever did was put in a tape on the tv, I still recall learning about the cave paintings in france, what that had to do with american history is beyond me.

Most everyone in a unionized job in Erie County is making obscene money. My county is due south of it and deputies make $14hr full time. Erie county has most deputies making high 5 figures and some in the $100K+ area. FUCKING REDICULOUS.

Quoted: Try working at a school in SD. Lowest paying in the nation for education for the umpteenth year. At our school, they start at 24,000, and thats pretty good for the area. Go SD

Parents both went to usd to get there teachers schooling.  now my older brother goes to usd to also become a teacher.  they moved to iowa because the sd teachers are paid shit.  Iowas not much better but its still sad.  Both my parents are teachers and I know for a fact they aren't overpaid.  its the admins that are overpaid.

where in south dakota are you?

My opinion is if you need more money to live - quit (in the middle of the year, that makes them mad)

My wife was a teacher for 27 years. She finally got fed up with the system, quit, and started her own business. Best thing she ever done.

tag for later

My wife teaches in Montgomery County, MD which is one of the highest paid counties on the East coast. She brings home about 42K after 6 years, so as others have said don't make a blanket statement that doesn't hold true for all involved.

I hear all the stories of the kids who can't tie their shoes and my wife has to teach the placement test.

What a stupid topic, and waste of my life.

As far as teachers and pay it definately depends on the school district. Now some of the superintendents really need to take a pay cut.

Quoted: Starting salary here is 29,000.   I have a MA and have taught for 10yrs...... I don't make $40K yet. So, piss off! Edited to add, I took a 9K deduction from selling cars.....to teach.  I started at 19,600 ten years ago.

There is no reason for someone to complain about a job that they chose to take, you made the decision, you know that part of the sentance where you said "I took a 9K reduction".  Don't blame the rest of us for your decisions, and don't complain to us either!  work sucks, deal with it!

Did any of you who feel you are underpaid know what your salary was going to be before you took the job? Just curious. Personally, my decision making process includes finding out if I'm going to make decent money or not. I'm strange.

no kidding!  You should see the salaries the professors at Clemson have. Anywhere from $50,000-$180,000!  And the highest paid ones are tenured, so they don't do shit!

If teachers are in it for the money, they should have done something else.  They have always been paid at the low end of the scale.  In fact, there is evidence to suggest that increasing teacher pay  results in less dedicated teachers, since you have more opportunists wanting to be teachers.  Unfortuately,  the unions have screwed it up and won't let good teachers be paid more than bad ones.

When I think of friends in high school that later became teachers, most were not the sharpest tacks in the box and went into teaching because that was about all they could do.

YMMV.

What I am reading in this thread is 30K to 40k for nine months work, after a little time on the job.

Doesn't sound to bad to me!

Average wage for an adult male in this state is about that for twelve months work.

As long as the teachers continue to support their union and the unions high paying members then I don't give a shit what you make.

Over 1/2 of Californiasa budget goes to schools and the schools STILL suck.  The teachers union is the number #1 problem and cause of these shitty condition.

So if the teachers think they deserve higher pay then  you can get it by firing your own union.

SGatr15

Quoted: As long as the teachers continue to support their union and the unions high paying members then I don't give a shit what you make. Over 1/2 of Californiasa budget goes to schools and the schools STILL suck.  The teachers union is the number #1 problem and cause of these shitty condition. So if the teachers think they deserve higher pay then  you can get it by firing your own union. SGatr15

Preach it, brother.

Quoted: What I am reading in this thread is 30K to 40k for nine months work, after a little time on the job. Doesn't sound to bad to me! Average wage for an adult male in this state is about that for twelve months work.

I don't know about other districts but my wife last day of school is June 18 and the first day back is Aug 19. So more like 10 months of work. Having the summers off is long gone.

It all depends in some rural areas the teachers don't make squat, but they still have to listen to your snivlin' little brat and are not allowed to beat him!!

and they have to pay the 40k in college loans..... I know I paid my wifes!!      She does not make enough!!

Quoted: Starting salary here is 29,000.   I have a MA and have taught for 10yrs...... I don't make $40K yet. So, piss off! Edited to add, I took a 9K deduction from selling cars.....to teach.  I started at 19,600 ten years ago.

get a real education, and get a better job

don't be angry, you are paid exactly what you are worth, otherwise, you would find a job that pays you more.

txl

Quoted: Like they say, if you can read this, thank a teacher!

I was able to read LONG before I started school.

I'll thank my mother.

SGtar15

Quoted: Quoted: Like they say, if you can read this, thank a teacher! I was able to read LONG before I started school. I'll thank my mother. SGtar15

Advance math, science, and reading above grade school level. Thank your teacher

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Like they say, if you can read this, thank a teacher! I was able to read LONG before I started school. I'll thank my mother. SGtar15 Advance math, science, and reading above grade school level. Thank your teacher

Teachers helped, so did the parents.

Your theory is flawed and a major sign of the problem with todays schools.  The teachers teach, but it is the parents job to make sure they learn.


Advanced reading...mom and sinlings.

Math...dad while helping him do construction.  Yes I learned alot from my teachers, that's their job..to teach.  But that has notheing to do with their pay.


SGatr15

It is not bad pay, especially considering that it is a part-time job.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Like they say, if you can read this, thank a teacher! I was able to read LONG before I started school. I'll thank my mother. SGtar15 Advance math, science, and reading above grade school level. Thank your teacher Teachers helped, so did the parents. Your theory is flawed and a major sign of the problem with todays schools.  The teachers teach, but it is the parents job to make sure they learn. Advanced reading...mom and sinlings. Math...dad while helping him do construction.  Yes I learned alot from my teachers, that's their job..to teach.  But that has notheing to do with their pay. SGatr15

sinlings...hmmmmmm

I guess your right

NY is a tough state to use as an example. The school districts upstate are mostly township based instead of county or state based as in most states, so pay scales are all over the map.
Talking about raw pay numbers is deceiving unless you give median income and cost of living data as the original poster did. A $50K salary is peanuts in CA and CT, good pay in parts of VA and NC, and might be considered incredible teacher pay in Mississippi.

In rural areas teachers don't get paid as much because there are more stay at home moms.

In suburban areas teachers are baby sitters who have parents over a barrel, pay us or we strike and if we do, you have to stay at home with your kids.

Not many parents want to do that.