Re: Give me an F, give me an I, give me a R, give me an E, give me a D
The starting salary for a first year teacher in my school district is $38,500, which jumps to $42,500 in the second year and increases thereafter with COLA's, tenure and additional education. I'd hardly call that "getting the shaft".
My father is close to retirement and still only gets around $38k a year. I was getting roughly that as a high school graduate by working as an intern for the USDA. As a mechanical engineer, I'd be starting out at roughly $60 - 80k per year. So yeah, teachers pretty much get the shaft.
Also remember that both my parents are teachers, so I have some firsthand knowledge.
Teachers do get the shaft. While pay increases with education, tenure, and experience, most districts have a cap at about $70K...and that's after a full 25+ year career in teaching. If you're married, on a dual income, you can buy a house on that. Even $50K ain't shabby. But if you're single, like me, with student loans to pay off, you'll never be able to get beyond the renting stage. Especially during the first 20 years of your teaching career.
Teachers are paid for a 7am-3pm day. What most people don't realize is that a teacher's work day doesn't end at 3pm when the students leave. I work well into the evening 4-5 nights per week (Sunday evenings included), grading, calling parents, and preparing for the next day/week/unit. Our "paid vacation time" often includes reviewing new textbook and curriculum materials, attending professional development seminars, taking additional classes (all teachers in my district area are required to take 4 units per year if we want our $500/year pay raise), attending school orientations, and possibly teaching summer school. Any extra time you have after that is "paid vacation." Newer teachers like myself are usually required to do all of the above. My summer vacation this year, after summer school and orientation, will be about 2 weeks. Only a few days more than what most companies offer as paid vacation.
Most people also don't realize that teachers pay for most of their classroom materials out-of-pocket. My school gives a $30/month reimbursement, which basically covers whiteboard markers (one box will last about two weeks!) and grading pens. That means that the other stuff...things like pencil sharpeners, kleenex, special paper for projects, bulletin board borders/butcher paper, rewards for students, gradebooks/gradebook software, field trips, hiring buses for field trips, board cleaner, and room decorations come from my own paycheck. Fortunately it's tax-deductible. But still...that's an extra $100/month (at least!) that I don't have.
Now, I'm not crying because I'm not rich and never will be. If I have enough to make ends meet and enjoy the things that I want to enjoy in life -- an occasional vacation, a dog, a decent place to live, etc. -- then I'm happy. I'm not in it for the money. But to say that teachers get a fair salary compared to the other professions that require a 4+ year degree and continuous education for the rest of their careers is crazy. To say that teachers shouldn't complain because they get lots of "paid vacation time" is fucking obnoxious. We work hard...really hard. And just to tie it in to the OP, most of us still manage to do it while maintaining a code of conduct.
Oh yeah. That's the other shitty thing about working in education. Double standard or not, we keep our private lives private. It goes with the calling. In a perfect world, it would be ok to be a Playmate and a cheerleading coach, or an exotic dancer and an art teacher. It would even be ok to have public Facebook pages with pictures of people holding mysterious red party cups. But this ain't a perfect world...and until we (as teachers) have made it such, we keep working. Working for a better world on piss-poor pay.
The school was right to fire her. It sucks, but she should've known better.
