re: More strikes ahead? Teachers say they love their jobs but can't pay their bills, poll show

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I’ve been in the classroom before on two separate occasions in my life

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Wow. Then you proceed to try and tell people how easy it is?

This is like me saying that working offshore is easy. You just have to have some physique, brains not required.

Teachers get a terrible break on here and with most uninformed people about their pay and lack thereof

What you guys are missing is most teachers feel happy with their jobs and wouldnt have it any other way but with a job in the public sector, you will hear about any and every gripe.

I would guess if you went to any place of employment and asked the workers if they felt fairly compensated, you would get the same exact answers.

Most people feel they should be paid more. With teachers, the only way to get raises is let people hear it as in the public. Same with police and firefighters

If a regular employee wants or needs a raise he or she goes to his or her boss and asks and you go from there

Also to the people stating how GREAT the health insurance is....lol, its not.

I taught for 32 years. I taught in both a public and private setting and I taught all grades, k-12. What most don't understand about teacher's salaries is that we ask public educator's to do is what my college coach used to say "go bear hunting with a stick". The administrivia demands along with the razor fine line of liability issues along with the warped expectations of the parent screams for a higher salary. I live in NC where the legislature capped the salary scale at 50k per year. If one is board certified, a bump on the pay scale and advanced degrees aren't recognized. Public education is like a swiss army knife...we can do several things but none of them well. I get the majority of the state budget is retirement and health care. Most view public education with a white middle class perspective. Middle class kids are fed, clothed, loved, given structure and opportunity. Go check some of the schools in EBR and tell me that these kids have middle class opportunity and meals on the table The only meals they receive during the day are what schools provide...some of these kids don't eat from the time they leave school until they arrive the next morning! BUT, teachers are to deal with that issue while trying to teach math concepts, behavioral norms and self respect. My suggestion to any of you complaining about public education is to volunteer at your child's school. Better yet, substitute teach there for a day...become fully aware of the crisis these men and women face daily. Be careful in painting with such a broad brush in the criticism of teacher's going on strike for a sustainable working condition.

The wife and I are both teachers I am 13 years in and she has 12. I made just over 60k in 2018 teaching and driving a bus and she made just under 50 to just teach. Both have masters degrees.

While we do not make a fortune we do have a very comfortable life. Live on a 100 acre horse farm in a 2200sq ft house, I drive an older truck and she has a new suv, own 2 hunting cabins one in 10 and one on 12 acres and hunt public around them, have 2 boats, 2 4 wheelers etc all paid for except one of the cabins which I have 8 months left on and I am able to hunt and fish +/- 100 days a year(some of that evening after work though.)

I feel like we do a lot for what we make and have a little bit out away and contribute to 403b extra retirement plans monthly(which I am not sure if I should be moving to something else it’s pretty low yield but I’m pretty ignorant on investing which is another story) and we rarely bring work home. No debt at all except 6 years left on the house the 8 months left on the one cabin. Never miss my kids stuff lots of family time etc.

I say all that not “brag” as most anyone who works hard and is semi smart with their money can have a heck of a lot more “stuff” than that but to say and show that I certainly do not feel that we are underpaid for what the job is and I rarely hear any other teachers complaining about the pay on its own and I think that is where a lot of the bad rap comes from on teachers complaining about pay. What I don’t like and what I hear most others complaining about is that the pay does not change with the responsibility. Again I feel that we are compensated well for what we do...of course I’d like more money but who wouldn’t....I am just trying to keep what the majority of the complaints that I see in the context that they are actually in.

Yea teachers sign in knowing what they are getting into....but what they signed on for is changing vastly each year. 13 years ago when I started teachers had FAR less responsibilities and general crap to deal with than we do now.....but the pay has not gone up with the responsibilities. Data tracking, tutoring, progress monitoring, TST, sped accommodations, greatly increased rigor to match state tests, test preps, etc etc etc the list is very long.....but the pay didn’t change.

Again I am not saying we are underpaid.....but let’s say you signed on for a job that paid $100 to do A and B tasks. But after one year they add task C but still only get $100....the D....E....F....but you still get $100. Your stress level has increased exponentially, your hours have gotten longer, time away from home has increased....would you not expect your compensation to go up along with it?

Of course you would....and that is the primary thing teachers are complaining about. It may not come out that way and of course there are those that just complain to be complaining but the vast majority are complaining about the pay not increasing with the required tasks which anyone would complain about in any job and to say otherwise is just disingenuous.

Lastly some of you keep using the “median household income” number as some end all be all measuring point but that is a farce. That number is ridiculously skewed....the better number to be using the median income of a household with at least 1 college graduate and probably 2 as most educated people are with other educated people. So that 35ish number should really be more like what 70k for 1 and maybe something like 120k for 2... not sure there I didn’t look them up but to use overall household income when we are only comparing people with degrees or other job specific certification is nonsense.

I know....to long didn’t read....except really everyone knows you did ha. Prob a bunch of typos too on the phone and I didn’t proof read it bc yea it is to long so if there are so what figure it out. Hopefully you had a good teacher along the way to help with that ha.

Found your problem:

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know....to long didn’t read....except really everyone knows you did ha. Prob a bunch of typos too on the phone and I didn’t proof read it bc yea it is to long so

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Dem SAT scores, baws.

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can anyone justify why a teacher shouldn't have a roght to want that type of money?

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They have every right to want it.

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teachers ate more important than drs and lawyers in the realm of life

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You can't learn if you are dead

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Wal-Mart truck drivers make 90k.

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Supply and demand

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if teachers want a raise ,they surely deserve one

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No one deserves anything

I hope you're drunk

GTFO... they can work the other (3) mos doing Uber.

People wouldn't "hate" teachers so much if you were allowed to shite-hammer the bad ones.

You can't embrace the Union culture that allows shitty human beings to simply be reassigned or get another job (for what would be a fire-able offense in the real world), THEN complain when your field of choice has a bad reputation.

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Little surprise, perhaps, that teachers overwhelmingly see public schools as worth the tax money that pays for them, 78 percent to 19 percent. On this the public generally agreed: 68 percent to 25 percent in the survey in September. 

Teachers say public schools do a better job of educating students than they did 10 years ago – 2 to 1, or 62 percent to 30 percent.

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This is proof that many teachers are idiots