New Study Says Teachers Aren't Underpaid
For years, leaders such as U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and former first lady Laura Bush have said teachers need to be paid more. But researchers from two conservative think tanks say otherwise in a report released.
In 2003, Bush argued, "Salaries are too low. We all know that . . . we need to figure out a way to pay teachers more." And just last month, Duncan said in a speech at a Detroit school that teachers are "desperately underpaid" and that their salaries should be doubled.
In the new report, however, Jason Richwine of the Heritage Foundation and Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research argue that the nation's 3.2 million elementary and secondary public school teachers may actually be overpaid—by as much as 52 percent—based on their salaries, benefits, job security, and relative education level. The authors say that state and local governments may be spending as much as $120 billion annually in excess labor costs.
"The teaching profession is crucial to America's society and economy, but public school teachers should receive compensation that is neither higher nor lower than market rates," they write.
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The analysis of these numbers is fundamentally flawed... "People who switch from nonteaching jobs to teaching jobs see an 8.8 percent wage increase, while teachers who leave the profession see a 3.1 percent wage reduction."
What that ACTUALLY means is that you need to offer over an 8% wage increase to entice anyone to even consider switching to teaching and that experienced teachers will take a pay cut to get out when they've had enough of these types of attacks.
The comparitive skill-set mix is mind-boggling. Maybe this report was written by some technical-writers and editors, but that doesn't mean they would make good teachers.
If they want to do a more accurate comparison, they should be identifying the best teachers in the profession, their actual hours spent working (not just paid time), personal investments required and use that to account for what they are making. Oh, and don't forget that many of the best teachers had to spend even MORE money to get a Masters Degree in their profession!!! How common is that among the average technical writer?
Seriously, teachers are overpaid, give me a break.
Unbelievable, this study is flawed. The thought that teachers are overpaid is ridiculously. I come from a family of teachers and do know the cold hard facts of how little they make. After seeing what my aunts, sister, mom and sister-in-law were making, even with master's degrees, in a state where teachers are well paid, I chose not to go into classroom teaching. While I am in the education field I’m not teaching the money is just not there.
Starting salary for a fresh out of college teacher is usually $35K annually and in today’s economy that is not much. Even with masters degrees my mom, sister and sister-in-law topped out at $55K annually with 30 years of experience. Most school districts have benefits but typically now days you are paying a portion of those out of your salary. Many, many teachers take on any extra duties such as coaching, after school tutoring, etc… if offered at the district for extra income and these are very competitive and coveted. I’ve known many teachers who hold part time jobs during the school year and second full time summer jobs for additional income, especially if they come out of school with student loans.
If the studies looked at and included what districts pay administration level personnel that is a different story. Typically district administration level personnel do make a good salary. But however, if you are talking classroom teachers, which is the majority of the teaching profession workforce, these folks are seriously underpaid.