Something about teacher's pay...

Districts are already broke, the entire thing will be drastically reduced, there is no funding and you can't just tax the people into compliance.

Dismantling the public education system is not the answer in my mind.

tempo_n_groove said:

unsung said:

Government schools won't exist in 20 years as they currently do.

An ipad will automate out the teacher, one course instructor will guide hundreds of students.  Textbook manufacturing will dwindle to nearly nothing.  Students will eventually all be taught at home.

Wayyyyyy too much money in textbooks to eliminate that.  The people whom make them are in the pockets of politicians anyways

Pretty much all of our textbooks are online now. Each one our middle school students gets a nice fancy apple Computer.

Remember Encyclopedias?

unsung said:

https://fee.org/articles/no-teachers-are-not-underpaid/

I have a lot of issues with those arguments.
True that in some states teachers are paid very well. 
But many states the wages are far below the cost of living (and also compared to other careers that require similar or even less education). Places like New York, yes a teacher may make 70K within 5 or 10 years, but when a single bedroom condo costs 500k+, or a small apartment is $2500 to rent that doesn't really go that far.
I lived in Southern California. One was San diego about 10 years ago, where a starting teacher made about 36k (now I think it is a little higher). 36k doesn't go very far when an apartment rents for $1500 a month. It was very difficult to be single, you could not afford to live by yourself as an adult if you were single. Much of Southern California was this way, the pay did not come close to reflecting the cost of living.
 Cost of living in Colorado, the latest state to push for walkouts, has shot up in cost of living because the state has grown so much in the last 5 years, we are 42 when it comes to teacher pay. Not to mention the average salary that states post are also not accurate. Colorado we pay about $10,000 a year for health insurance, when many other states the health insurance is mostly if not all covered by the employer, here it is about half. Add taxes, retirement and all other deductions and you end up with a teacher contract for $50,000 (and to get to that point requires about 15 years experience and an MA) only ends up taking home about $30,000 a year. 
As I mentioned earlier, in most areas of Colorado the cost of just health insurance alone has increased at a much higher rate than wages. Forget about the cost of housing and dozens of other factors that contribute to an increase cost of living, they are getting pay deductions each year just with increased cost of health insurance.
That article was clearly biased and from a standpoint that teachers are lazy and get what they deserve and ignored many of those factors.
Some states, like Wyoming, they do make very good wages. This is because no one wants to go there and they have to offer high wages to get people to move from somewhere like Colorado. Teachers in Wyoming make about $10,000 more compared to Colorado and the cost of living in less. But the catch is you have to live in Wyoming. 

I have never said that they are overpaid, but I don't for a single second believe that they are underpaid.

mcgruff10 said:

mace1229 said:

If you're curious how much teachers make in my area this is a good example. The local paper reported this district as the highest paying in the county.
If you're not familiar with this scale, the #1-26 on the left represent years of experience, and the top represents education. So yes a teacher can make close to 80k here, if they have a Masters AND a something close to a PHD equivalent (72 graduate level units) and 26 years of teaching experience. How many people with a PHD do you know that work in the same place for 26 years and only make 80k? I don't know any.
A teacher with a masters starts out at 42,900, a masters and 10 years experience makes 49,900.  If all you ever get is a BA, then your max pay is 46k. You have to spend more time and a lot of money to earn additional, graduate level credits to increase pay. This is expensive and slow. Earn a Masters after your BA and you get a whopping 5k added to your pay.
Not to mention about $1000 a month will be taken out of this pay for benefits. Then deductions for taxes, medicare, retirement etc is another $700 or $800 a month
And that retirement the article bragged about so much, well that is self-funded. Money is taken out of your paycheck and placed into a fund. No retirement is given to teachers in this state, it is basically a stock market that is managed for you with your own money. The only problem is if you die 2 years after you retire your wife or kids never see that money that you put into for 30 years, it goes back into the pension fund (yes there is that potential to live to 100 and get more back than you put in). Stock market managed by me and not on my behalf actually sounds like a better deal.
So you still think they are overpaid? 

So you pretty much need to get a masters to make any sort of money. By the time you get to the top you d be retired. Lol. Shitty guide

Even with a masters, a new teacher on the district's health plan gets $1000 a month deducted. Add other deductions and your net pay is about $2,000 a month for someone with a MA. It will increase about $100 a month until you retire. 

mace, $10,000/year for health insurance???? What?! Are you serious?!

brianlux said:

Bentleyspop said:

Here' what we know about public school teachers.
They are...  
Overpaid
Underworked
 they are all unionized liberal elites
And are government tools brainwashing our children

And lazy, don't forget lazy.
And they all take three month vacations to go to Club Med locations every year.  Every summer, the Caribbean is completely swamped with lazy, overpaid, underworked, liberal elitist (except for McGruff ), child brainwashing government tools.  It's disgusting!

Lol!  Besides actually teaching Monday through Friday I worked four other paying jobs this week: Monday i power washed, tues/wed I officiated track meets, wed night I ripped up a hot tub, and tomorrow I get to work as a pirate lol. Good times. 

Bentleyspop said:

mcgruff10 said:

brianlux said:

Bentleyspop said:

Here' what we know about public school teachers.
They are...  
Overpaid
Underworked
 they are all unionized liberal elites
And are government tools brainwashing our children

And lazy, don't forget lazy.
And they all take three month vacations to go to Club Med locations every year.  Every summer, the Caribbean is completely swamped with lazy, overpaid, underworked, liberal elitist (except for McGruff ), child brainwashing government tools.  It's disgusting!

Lol!  Besides actually teaching Monday through Friday I worked four other paying jobs this week: Monday i power washed, tues/wed I officiated track meets, wed night I ripped up a hot tub, and tomorrow I get to work as a pirate lol. Good times. 

A pirate? 

Who knew pirates were part of the unionized liberal elite

It's my summer job for four years now.  http://www.piratesonthemanasquan.com
Everyone that works there pretty much is a teacher!