Last is certainly a problem. Based on the cost of living of other states, where should Florida teachers rank in pay?
How much is that? The chart indicates they make $6k under a living wage but is a living wage enough to raise a family or enough to not get food stamps or something in between?
Yep but hard to believe a bartender makes more than a teacher. Perhaps they make more on an hourly basis
my biggest issue is that the salaries are quoted as a yearly salary while the days off and summer make it closer to 8 months. I average 45 - 50 hours a week so around 2150 + hours per year after 4 weeks vacation and 2 weeks of holidays while a teacher works 9 months with 15 - 20 days of holidays. Even if they average 50 hours a week it still comes out to 1850 hours. On top of that, the benefits are better than most private sector jobs. the biggest problem I see from the outside looking in is administrations have grown in size exponentially and administrators get paid so much more than teachers that many of the best teachers go into administration. In Florida, salary increases are not enough to keep the experienced teachers as they don't make that much more than the new teachers. There is absolutely no reason that Florida should be 50 out of 50.
A bartender on a Friday or Saturday night in a good bar will walk with 300$ cash in just tips minimum. My top bartender made about 60k working 4 nights
Correct, but that doesn't happen with privatization. Private and charter schools marginalize minority kids because a) they can b) minority kids tend to produce lower test scores and c) the parents of minority kids are less able to contribute to the school financially and via volunteer hours.
Your math is off. Teachers in Florida work a 10 month contract and that doesn’t count summer professional development, lesson planning, and the like. Benefits are NOT better than other professional jobs. My daughter that works for Disney has far better benefits than I ever had. Fun fact (anecdotal) most administrators were not good in the classroom; they left to get away from kids.
I shouldn't have to wonder each year if I should go back to teaching, or become a Taco Bell Manager for more money and fewer hours (I say Taco Bell specifically because I worked there and had friends in management who said they could fast track me to store manager within a couple of years based on my experience as a teacher).
More like teachers are furloughed for two months a year. School starts for teachers the first week of August, and ends the first week of June. When I was teaching in person, I averaged 60 hours a week. When I was working an office job (that started at 50% more than when I was a classroom teacher with 5 years of experience) the big struggle was stretching out my 25 hours of work to keep me looking busy for the 40 hours I had to be in the office.
60-80% of variation in student achievement is related to factors outside the school. Things like race, gender, SES, and family structure. About two-thirds of the variation related to in-school variables is about peer effects. The actual school, principal, and teachers have very little to do with student achievement. It is very hard for a school to outperform its demographics.
Agree with everything here, but your calculations of teacher work hours fails to account for a slew of variables. Just for example, they don't take the entire summer off. Many teachers are working on professional development, curriculum, or developing their art/craft during the summer. During my first two years of teaching school I worked at a rec center to help make ends meet during the summer. That job paid a very low hourly wage (must be my fault). I also worked side gigs as a musician/private lesson teacher, including playing at Busch Gardens. It's far more involved than you think. Here's How Many Hours a Week Teachers Work But if you take a closer look at what actually goes into good teaching, how much time that takes, and how teachers are compensated for that work, you’ll find that teachers’ work weeks are in many ways just as taxing, if not more so, than in other careers, and that they receive much lower pay and less public respect, Holdheide said.
Bennies? The health insurance is at least one silver lining for most teachers. Some evan have good retirement plans (or at least did ages ago), but most require a great deal of discipline in order to retire comfortably.
This piece suggests 54 hrs/week. Here's How Many Hours a Week Teachers Work Don't know what you mean by personal vacation days. There are paid holidays and then usually 10 sick/optional vacation days. Our district allowed no more than five sick days and up to 10 total days of leave (including the 5 sick). Those could be banked for future years. One can cash in days upon retirement, but only if you work a thousand years or so.
I've seen similar stats before, but have to believe that the teacher has a greater effect, esp. if not determined solely by standardized test scores. I agree with @AgingGator that the quality of a child's education is largely dependent upon the teacher in the classroom, less so by the school admins, but they can make a diff too. You are right about external factors being most prominent, esp. in relation to test scores. When it comes to educating the whole child, though, teacher quality matters.
Technically, I’m sure that you are correct. But since school quality is highly subject to the variables that you mentioned and quality is somewhat subjective, my comment was more aimed at parental satisfaction. And you are 100% correct on demographics. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
50% of new teachers don't make it past 5 years. Most teacher retirement plans don't vest until 7 years, or even ten years in some cases. Florida it is 8 years now. Alabama is 10 years. In practice, most teachers get no retirement benefits.
