<p>BigGreen, Would you like to share with us the name of your school district?</p>
<p>BigGreen... where is that? $85,000 per year. After 30 years, a master's degree plus 60 graduate credit hours I am only making in the mid 50's. My cadet went to a public school where she received not only an excellent academic education but experienced life-skills necessary for her success in the future. I felt your entry was insulting to teachers.</p>
<p>I totally understand what you are up against here BG.
I worked in a HS that the teachers make 90K.
Here in the burbs of Chicago they start at 45+.
I know parents like to think that the school system you send your kids to is the best..but it is only what your kids makes of it that counts.
As to the recommendations..my DDs math teacher promised a rec but backed out due to the fact that she couldn't operate her computer...she makes 75+.
Don't think this isn't happening around your kids school..check it out. Illinois has a website that lists all public school's teachers salaries.
By the way I don't think it was lack of not knowing the book but anti military sentiment on the teachers part.</p>
<p>WIN84,</p>
<p>I'm in the Chicago burbs also. I suspect the tremendous success of some of our high schools is due just as much to a good gene pool as to the highly touted curriculum and faculty.</p>
<p>karenandjim: Since you asked, with 30 years, a master's degree plus 60 graduate credit hours, a teacher in certain suburbs of Washington, DC will earn approximately $90,000. </p>
<p>But before you consider moving: It is very difficult to find a house for a family in one of these counties for under $600,000. Even with $100,000 down payment, the monthly mortgage will be approximately $3000. </p>
<p>Local and state taxes are very high here. Public transportation isn't very accessible in the suburbs. $90K seems like a lot but it translates (after taxes, required retirement contributions, medical/dental deductions etc) to about $4000 a month take home. Pay the mortgage, real estate tax and insurance, and you will be left with about $800 to cover food, electricity/heating, gas and car maintenance, clothing, college savings, etc. Many, many of our teachers do a 1-1/2 to 2 hour commute (each way!) just to find more affordable housing. </p>
<p>My point is that salaries cannot be compared at a national level (not just teaching, but any industry). </p>
<p>That said: </p>
<p>1) A good teacher is worth whatever your children are worth to you.<br>
2) You get what you pay for</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>We live in Northern New Jersey.</p>
<p>I did not intend to insult teachers. My sister is a teacher so I hear all sides of things. There are many fine teachers in our district but certainly not the majority. The system - in my opinion run by the NEA/NJEA - works against good teachers. Tenure creates protections for bad teachers or for good teachers to get lazy. I'm not sure management is any better. Our problem here in New Jersey is that every city - from 3,000 to 100,000 in population - insists on having its own school district. Thus five contiguous towns with populations of 12,000 pay $150,000 or more per year for a School Superintendant, etc. I think Northern Virginia may have gotten it right.</p>
<p>In our state, its the teacher's retirement benefits that are bankrupting everything. They have better benefits than anyone else, retirement thats around 150% and a great schedule. This has nothing to do with Angel Killers but I believe that an AP High School English teacher should know the Pullitzer Prize list for fiction. In her behalf, she did listen to Jake and then changed her mind. She also let him read As The Sun Rises by Hemingway even though it was made into a movie. He had to promise not to watch thee. Thankfully she didn't know that Shaara's book was made into Gettysburg. Jake's not telling her!</p>
<p>Unions have a tendency to protect the people who NEED it most.
Not only are the teacher's are unionized but the staff.
The staff at my DD's HS is highly incompetent...security wasn't there when the kid threw a ball and broke her glasses during passing periods, the absence line calls my DD truant when she is out and I already excused her. Teachers so close to retirement-they refuse to do online recommendations to the USNA...by the way my burb is not affluent and the principal still makes 150k.
I worked in an affluent HS..so don't fool yourself..there are incompetents there that should be shown the door...staff and teacher's and BG is right..they need to give the younger teachers a better chance. The affluent school gives them 1/2 year...not long enough. At least the younger teacher knows how to open their email.
Do you want your children taught by computer illiterates?
I had to email the principal in order to get her math rec. done.
I essentially told him that his older teachers need to get their heads out of their bu##s!
Oregon mom--it still sounds like the teacher is anti military. I read Killer angels and then took my kids to Gettysburg..reading the book made the trip more memorable. Hey the hippy dippy HS I worked at was Hemingways own HS! UMMMM. His teacher sounds like a liberal to me.</p>
<p>Well, I'm not a parent, but I go to a public HS in Oregon and I understand a lot of what you are all saying. As a public school student I expect my teachers to be decent, but not great. After all, they're not paid real well and they have to deal with people that only go to school because they have to.</p>
<p>That said... we students get from a public education what we put into it. The reason people end up at the academies is because they applied themselves wherever they ended up. Some have a more priviledged upbringing which facilitates admission more easily, while others (like myself) just have to rough it out and take what they give.</p>
<p>I myself have a completely incompetent Honors English teacher this year. She is probably fit enough to run a middle school english class, but as far as senior high academics, I think she has basically failed. Ex... I was recently given an assignment to research and write a paper about an American Poet. I figured I would try to nail down someone familiar and came up with Ralph Waldo Emerson. I figure, hey, it won't be too hard to research this topic and then <em>WHAM</em> she tells us we need to fill out a research worksheet. She actually wrote out a worksheet for us to keep track of our research and is making us turn it in!!! As though we didn't have enough to worry about with just writing the paper, we also have to take notes and write our bibliography as we go onto note-cards. She acts as though we have never done a research paper before. I resent the fact that she thinks we can't take care of our own education this late in our high-school careers.</p>
<p>(Sorry about the speech... this just happened today and I'm a bit impassionate about it.)</p>
<p>Anyway, all this is to say that the public school system (at least here in Oregon) needs to be sorted out before students are left out and teachers are all that is left.</p>
<p>Oregon Mom, have either you or yor son seen the film "Gettysburg"?
It is very well done.</p>
<p>I'm biased towards the Joshua Chamberlain character but Jeff Daniels did a fantastic job in the role. Great movie.</p>
<p>wpwannabe, I sounds like you have a handle on your accademics. For that I commend you. I ask you to see things from the teachers perspective. Although it may seem like busy work, your teacher is doing you a favor. With today's technology changing so rapidly, students of all ages depend on the internet for a great deal of research. Too often students are turning is research papers with "cut" and "paste" documentation. It sounds like your teacher is asking you to work outside your comfort zone to challenge you to learn how to compile information and document your work. I don't think that is too much to ask.<br>
Think about how often we all depend on "spell check" before we print a document. When was the last time you or your classmates opened a dictionary to check spelling.<br>
Out in the real world, you will be asked to document your work. Our computers do provide a paper trail of our work, however, we still have to be able to explain how we did the work.<br>
Continue to set high goals for yourself. You will thank a teacher some day.</p>
<p>Washington DC teacher pay:</p>
<p>"Median annual earnings of kindergarten, elementary, middle, and
secondary school teachers ranged from $37,610 to $42,080 in 2000;
the lowest 10 percent earned $23,320 to $28,460; the top 10 per-
cent earned $57,590 to $64,920. Median earnings for preschool
teachers were $17,810."</p>
<p><a href="http://www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/ooh20022003/ocos070.pdf%5B/url%5D">www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/ooh20022003/ocos070.pdf</a> </p>
<p>I don't think 100,000 a year teacher salaries in DC is correct. It certainly isn't for most teachers there.</p>
<p>I would challenge anyone to substantiate an area where even 10% of public High school teachers make 70-100k a year. I see it mentioned over and over on this discussion thread but when I do the research, the facts don't support it.
Public HS teachers are in fact underpaid. They do not get the support of the parents (attend a PTA meeting and see what I mean). Parents expect to be able to have kids, generate a dual income, and have the publc schools teach their kids all they need to know to make it in this world. The problem ain't the teachers, its mommy and daddy.</p>
<p>Shogun, do you have your ggf's papers? How marvelous that they are available. I (one of those "overpaid" teachers) have recently been putting together a website/blog & podcast space for students that focuses on letters written from many points of view during the Civil War (north and south, soldiers and civilians). Are the papers published anywhere? I'd love to link to them.</p>
<p>Chamberlain ranks right up there with Dick Winters (Band of Brothers) IMO.</p>
<p>Spidermom---email me at <a href="mailto:shogun000@netzero.com">shogun000@netzero.com</a></p>
<p>Unfortunately we knew we had to move from the San Diego school system were the emphasis is only on elementary education- (smaller class room size), and fairly good teachers. But middle school and High School in San Diego are quite difficult. The public high school our kids were to attend spoke 83 different languages! A good cultural experience; but a very fractured student body. We moved to Denver and knew schools here were better but luckily Kevin was picked to attend a chartered school. This school posts the highest averaged ACT tests scores in the state 29 and the highest Colo test CSAP also. The teachers here have averaged 6 years at this school of 8 years. Average salary is 56k. With a 98% college bound senior class each year, we couldnt be more pleased with this school. Every year at least one student is accepted to an Academy. We made the right decision. Now our son is going to USMA in part because of this school.</p>
<p>Shogun: The compensation numbers may actually be low - if you take into account the very generous health plans and pensions. How many of us in the private sector don't have to pay a big chunk for healthcare, and how many of us actually receive a pension?</p>
<p>And shortly Social Security will be a thing of the past. Is not qualifying for a pension acceptable to Americans, especially women, who have worked most of their adult lives? I think something is terribly wrong with that picture.</p>
<p>My dad gets a teachers pension, which he paid into for 28 years----650 bucks a month---AND as a retired teacher in California, he is not eligible for social security. He's really living high off the hog.
I work in the private sector..... ---there is a heck of a lot more money to be made there than in teaching public high school. A 100k a year public HS teacher is an oddity. I'd like to meet one some day.</p>
<p>shogun, I'm sorry to hear that because I believe it is downright immoral. Teachers in the United States who have paid into Social Security are at a disadvantage too, because there is an offset to their contributions. I was a flight attendant for Delta Airlines before I started teaching, so I've paid into Social Security as well as our California teachers' state retirement system. Frankly, I would like to see all pensions administered by the feds like it's done in Germany. Americans are entitled to health benefits and a decent retirement after a lifetime of work. Veterans should be taken care of too.</p>