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Permalink Reply by Laura Gibbs on March 6, 2008 at 1:03pm

Phil, there are professors and staff at my university who have taken part-time jobs just to cover the dependent child healthcare costs. That is definitely not right. For folks with families, raising kids, the salary challenges are much more serious... but that is true in all professions, not just teachers, of course. The secretaries at my school, incredibly underpaid but vital to the effective functioning of the university, do not begin to make enough money to pay for healthcare for their own kids - and that is seriously wrong.

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Permalink Reply by Phil on March 6, 2008 at 1:42pm

Point well taken.

But the secretaries did not spend $30,000 and many years becoming secretaries. Yes, they are highly-skilled, but it did not take them years to get there.

I have two college degrees. They do not make that much less than me. In fact, when you consider that much of my money for the last several years has been spent on continuing ed, they may have made more than me during those years! One year 1/3 of what I made was spend on continuing ed.

I would also argue that they have more opportunities than me. They can quit or start work at another job without much thought to "when the school year begins". If I decided to take some time off to explore my opportunities, I would not be able to go back into teaching for 12 months. Their jobs, by nature, are more transitional, with plenty of opportunities for advancement.

In fact, no matter what school I go to, I am going to get paid the same in my state.

Are their people who have it worse than teachers? Of course. But they also have more opportunities. No matter what I do, how hard I work, etc. I pretty much get paid the same. And while people do quit teaching and make the leap into another profession, my skills are teaching skills. Not transitional skills like secretaries and others may have--keyboarding, web design, newsletter layout, database design and maintenance, and other cool things that make them more valuable in the market place.

So not only am I going to tell my students to stay out of teaching because of lack of pay, but once they take the teaching track, their skills are limited to once profession--Teaching.

Poor choice all around and if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't.

Permalink Reply by indigo196 on March 6, 2008 at 8:06am

Your ~50K will be the equivalent of someone making 68,421 in a twelve month position (which will be more than I am paid and I have 10 years of experience in IT and 8 years in educational IT)

While I can appreciate the point that teachers should be paid more I take issue with comparing a 9.5 month schedule (190 days) to a 12 month schedule (260 days).

If teachers were all given 12 month money and only had to work 9.5 months what would the 12 month people be paid?

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Permalink Reply by Phil on March 6, 2008 at 12:43pm

I think we are playing the same song here, but again:

Nobody has 9.5 month's worth of car payments or 9.5 month's mortgage.

So the question then becomes, should we make it so that students go to school 260 days per year.

I personally think we should. I know I am going to keep my kids academically involved, even in the summer.

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Permalink Reply by indigo196 on March 6, 2008 at 1:43pm

Well I just found out that my 'position' is on the table for cuts... if it does get cut I will be really sorry that I wasn't a teacher with the strong teacher's union to protect my job. I will have wasted 9 years in the state retirement system at a lower wage (roughly what you are making per month).

I guess certain things, put in perspective, might appear differently to you.

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Permalink Reply by Laura Gibbs on March 6, 2008 at 2:22pm

Indigo, GOOD LUCK with all that. The one complaint I do have about my job is that it is year to year and I have no job security of any kind, unlike my tenured colleagues. I know how you feel - and I hope this will turn out okay! FINGERS CROSSED.

Permalink Reply by indigo196 on March 6, 2008 at 3:11pm

Thanks Laura... my wife and three children hope so as well... I am the only wage earner (three kids in daycare cost more than what one wage earner can make) so this is critical. What stinks the worse is it has nothing to do with my performance.

Permalink Reply by Laura Gibbs on March 6, 2008 at 3:42pm

Exactly - I wouldn't mind the job in-security if I knew my contract was being renewed based on my performance. But my performance is not even a factor - it's the "big picture" of the budget - I try not to think about it too much, except to keep tinkering on my "Plan B" which I will pursue if the axe falls. GOOD LUCK.

Permalink Reply by Phil on March 7, 2008 at 7:33pm

Please know that I really do sympathize with your situation. I am sorry to hear what is happening.

As a teacher though, I was making so little that I actually quit on purpose. I had no job lined up or anything. What did I end up doing? Collecting quarters out of video games, counting the money, and driving it to the bank.

I made $15,000 more per year than I did as a teacher. After 1 1/2 years through a little networking I landed a second contract for another $20,000 per year.

So why did I quit? It goes back to daycare. My wife did not want to work at all with a new little boy in the house. I did not quite make enough to pay for everything.

So we compromised, moved across the state so grandma could watch my son three days per week, and I went back into teaching.

My point is, you will likely find something that pays more than what you do now. As a very qualified person, I would head back into the private sector. I would not even wait to find out what happens with your position.

Good luck,

P

Permalink Reply by Laura Gibbs on March 6, 2008 at 2:21pm

Hi Phil, re: the point above (I think we got so nested in the discussion that Ning won't let me add a reply), I think this is where we disagree: exactly because you have this great education, and because your job is one that gives you constant stimulation and chances to grow and learn new skills, you have incredible opportunities, the kind of opportunities that a secretary, locked in what is often a grinding, repetitive job, may not have at all. Teaching is not just one skill as you say, but many skills - and a great environment in which to be learning new skills all the time.

As someone who worked for quite some years as a secretary before getting into teaching, I would never say that secretaries have more opportunities than teachers - there's a kind of freedom that comes with having a job that is comparatively free of professional responsibilities (I was able to read and read and read in my spare time when I worked as a secretary, since I never took work home), but it's that lack of professional responsibilities which results in fewer professional opportunities as well, and why secretaries are, in general, paid so little even though they may work very hard.

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on March 7, 2008 at 6:45pm

Phil, check it out. NY Charter School pays $125,000

Could there be hope? haha

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Permalink Reply by Phil on March 7, 2008 at 7:27pm

Now this is the kind of pay I am talking about. Of course, the idea of living in NY City is not a pleasant one. I mean, you have simple condos going for $1,000,000, right?

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