This week, teachers at Delaware public schools staged a protest. They chose to go to work on time and leave on time.
Typically these teachers work way over the hours they’re supposed to but don’t get paid for it. That’s just what teachers do. They know it takes more than a regular work week to be a great teacher and deal with our wacky kids.
What got them working regular hours was a proposed 8 percent pay cut by the Governor to shore up the state’s budget.
There is something wrong with a society that values bank executives more than it does educators.
I’m not going to tell you anything new. Teachers don’t make a lot of money and have been among the lowest paid professionals in the work world for years. Part of that has to do with the fact that so many women are in the profession and we’re just not that big on paying women a fair wage.
But part of this problem is our priorities are screwed up. At some point we decided certain individuals should be paid the big bucks and others should not.
Even with the government take over of financial institutions no one has had the balls to step up and do something about the obscene pay not just top executives, but lower level traders and analysts in the financial sector have enjoyed. These fat paychecks, many economists believe, is what got us in the economic mess we’re in today because big payouts encouraged reckless behavior by money managers and the whole system collapsed.
But nooo, we can’t actually do anything now to stop the excesses.
This week, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the government shouldn’t set limits on executive compensation: “I don’t think our government should set caps on compensation.”
God forbid we put caps on high-flying executives. But teachers … go ahead, cut their pay. Who really cares about them?
May 30th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
To say teachers make very little money is true if they are just beginning your career. Frankly, I have known several people who were childhood and teen friends that went to school to become teachers. On two occasions, I vividly recall one who decided to become a business executive and one who became a buildng contractor. Still, there is another fellow, who is teaching now in the school district I am employed. After 25 years, he is earning over $90,000 per year. The other two, who became customers of mine when I was a salesman at one point said the same thing, if only they would have stuck it out with teaching. These were men. Ironically, when the teachers were negotiating their last contract, two tenured teachers at an elementary school, both females, were focused on as an example of tenured longevity. Both now have over 30 years of teaching, both had a desire to retire before the end of the next contract, however both will fail to meet the criteria of being 59 1/2 to collect their pensions with out penalty for early retirement. When the school district request or makes room for early retirement, they normally pick up the penalty as to not disrupt the pension allotment. Because the other memebers of the union, many of whom have the time but are very young to retire felt they should and rightfully so be given the same deal. Well the two tenured teachers decided not to retire until they are at least 59 1/2. This will put them four years into the next contract unless it is shortened, and their compensation is now and has been gender equal for over 30 years. They will be earning close to $150,000 per year. This is how I interpret their salary. One of these woman is a wife and mother of two. Her husband was a welder who i worked with. He is blind now, but a good man and she is a good wife. The other woamn is single now with no children. She lives close to me and sometimes she likes to sponsor children’s activities in our neighborhood summer program. Both earn a mere $2884 per week.
Well Eve, I could bid you farewell because I must now go out and work three full time jobs so I can earn $3000 per week. Men make more than woman and teacher’s are underpaid. I would not have the time to go to the bathroom if this were the scenario I must endure to exceed the good fortune of woman. And what really hurts is when the teacher’s were negotiating their last contract, they were making about 5% less than the teachers in the Pittsburgh School district and as a comparison something like 20% than the teachers in Framingham, Mass., a school district similar in size.
What I am saying is, those who say teaching is an underfunded profession may be right, or they are too new to realize what they will earn in the future.