Florida teacher says district worker removed several pictures of "black heros" from his classroom

On average, this is highly doubtful. Consider that teachers in FL must work 10yrs before becoming vested (eligible for pension or optional investment plan). Then consider that the average teacher makes it five years or fewer and the fact is that very few teachers are benefiting from the "sweet retirement deals" that so many like to complain about. Not saying this is you.

I mentioned before, but my 10yrs in FL public schools yielded a wopping 22k investment plan. Had I not gone back and taught a 10th year after grad school, I would have received nothing. The investment is growing, but that retirement piece will be little more than a bump for my family.

 

70k is an exception. It probably also doesn't factor in that teachers drop their own $ on school supplies and that they devote countless hours outside of the workday planning lessons and taking in professional development (including inservice training during summer).
One of my recent graduates just began his teaching career. He took a 2-week development class (for grad credit) that cost thousands and will pay all of it out-of-pocket. Many in other industries receive perks that teachers do not, but we rarely hear folks complain about this.

 

In terms of retirement plan, you got more than my 8 yrs at an oil company.

Don’t get me wrong. I do not think teachers are overpaid. I just don’t think it’s as bad as some make it out to be. There have been multiple teachers in my and my wife’s family. His financial planner told my BIL that when he retire as a hs teacher he will be doing fine.

 

Furloughed LOL. Too funny.

 

They can teach summer school for additional pay during the time they are off, so there's that.

 

I think we all agree that teachers should make more but the problem is quite simple. It's a numbers game. If there were a need for fewer teachers, then their pay would be a lot more.
In Hillsborough, there is a ballot item to increase the millage on property tax that would go to teacher salaries. Might be an increase of 100 million or so. Well, with 20K teachers in the county, that's about a 5 grand increase. Not exactly life changing.

If people are thinking that teachers should earn 100K a year, we are talking Trillions of dollars that don't exist or would have to come from somewhere.

 

I'm not saying 100k, but I think somewhere around 60-70 after 10 years is a reasonable amount.

 

Welcome to Human Resources / Collective Bargaining and Salary Schedules

Alachua county teachers are at 45k after 10 years (52k with a doctorate). They don't hit 60k until 29 years (with a doctorate they hit 60k at 20 years).

 

I’m not saying teachers make 60-70k, I’m saying that’s what I think they deserve after 10+ years

 

I was agreeing with you and adding context.

 

I like that DeSantis is moving starting pay up to close to $47k for teachers and I hope that he moves raises for current teachers up as well. I think we would have a lot more people teaching if after 10 years they are making between $60-70k.

 

True, and if they are making 40's right now that would be about 25K more per year. So in the state of Florida, there are about 180K teachers (maybe a little more). That's 4.5 billion dollars per year for just Florida.

By comparison, there are about 25,000 fire fighters in Florida. 180K>25K. Unless we want to take budget money from fire fighters and police to put toward teachers. I'm ok with that, particularly police pensions. That coward from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas retired and is making 108K per year.

 

Alachua, for whatever reason (COL?), has always been one of the poorest paying districts.

 

I'd let the counties vote on it. Some counties will pay more and get better teachers(in theory) and the cheaper counties won't.

 

True, and in some rural counties, 45-50K will go a lot farther than it will in Miami, Tampa or Orlando. So those teachers would be doing better cost of living wise.

 

More that the new graduates all want to stay in town, so all the entry level college graduate jobs can underpay and still fill their hiring quotas.

 

My wife, in her 34th year, is now making nearly $90K, which includes two supplements for extra “duties”. She entered DROP this year and will retire in five years with a $250K check plus a monthly pension of around $4500 per month.

And while she rarely does it anymore, after school tutoring can be big extra money for teachers. You can’t tutor your current students, but there is never a shortage of parents wanting more help for their kids. At a going rate of at least $50/hr, teachers can make good cash money tutoring a few hours a week and even more in the summertime.