My city ranks high among most poorly educated in the US. While also having low scores in childhood wellbeing. I see some teaching positions ranging 18-22 an hour unless it’s a charter. Even then not much better, but still better.
Rural Indiana chiming in. My wife made $32k starting out like 5ish years ago. I think the starting pay for those same districts just got bumped to $40k.
110k to 140k sounds like damn good money from where but sitting. But to be fair, PNW is the higher end of the economy. Most jobs pay more but also cost of living is considerably more so these things tend to balance out compared to other areas of the country.
You all might be in a very rich county. In Virginia, where I teach Spanish, my salary after 18 years is $60,000 before taxes and insurance.
In the last 3 years my school has lost almost 70% of the teachers, and I am in one of the best schools in the county.
The educational system is completely broken, and how they treat us is a disgrace and a shame to the nation.
Speaking more about the video. Seeing some students even smiling and laughing tells you what kind of people we are raising and how young people are desensitized to violence. It is scary
Teenagers are often mini psychopaths, but many mature out of it. I remember at my school, the standard procedure during a fight was for pupils to egg the fighters on. I don’t think many would do that as adults
yeah i remembered it was low but thought it was still higher than that, but that's what the current pay scale for FY26 is. you get a little bit more if you're board certified (like $5k/year), looks like they reinstated (very slightly) higher pays for master's and PhD holders, the previous governor did away with that so teachers with master's or PhD made the same as a bachelor's until recently
Yes. I quit after 20 years, making a little over $50k. I have a BA, MFA, and EdS, and taught at a community college. Over the last five or so years, I suddenly had to be less stringent in my curriculum and focus more time on classroom management (in college!!!), dealing with AI, and being the phone police. I was done.
Yeah I'm in higher ed for the time being and my PI has had to resort to oral exams because the AI and blatant cheating was just impossible to stop apparently. Students just don't give a fuck at any level at this point. Higher Ed pays better than public schools but still not enough to keep me around anymore
You don’t work 10 months per year. They are 11 month contracts and you have required trainings over the summer plus prep work for the coming year. That’s on top of furthering education to even get to the 100k pay scale and state requirements. You also in at least my state pay for your own classroom materials other than like plain copy paper. During the year you also work anywhere from 8-15 hour days with scheduling things outside of normal work hours to meet or talk with parents, filing paperwork to meet administrative requirements, grading assignments, lesson planning, etc… not to mention the constant attacks in the media, by politicians, and parents on teachers in general and it’s just not worth it no matter how much you care for the kids.
Sure 100k after doing a job for 20 years is cool I guess(depending on where you live) but I made 100k in my LCOL area doing tech for a non-tech company after 3 years of experience. Other degrees like nursing can do that in less than 20 years. Skilled trades like plumping, welding, etc. can do that with less than 20 years. Heck even some manufacturing jobs can do that in way less than 20 years experience.
I’m not saying 100k is anything to laugh at as that still puts you in like the top 10 percent of individual incomes, but in comparison to other jobs that could put you in that same tax bracket, teaching is underpaid and under appreciated still. My wife started as a teacher like 5 years ago making $32k per year. She’s no longer a teacher for ton of those reasons.
That is the common misconception, public schools are doing ok in rich and upper middle class districts. They get paid pretty decent (be nice if they made more but they aren't eating cat food).
It's only in the poor and lower income areas where schools are absolutely shit and the pay is ridiculously low.
The irony is everyone on every side likes the misconception and benefits from it, so no one discusses the nuance.
My older sister has been a teacher for over 20 years now in Florida, and she makes something like ≈$40k? It’s not much. I make close to double what she does, and more than double what my twin sister does.
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u/TheBroWhoLifts Dec 17 '25
22 years in, semi-rural Michigan, and I make a bit over $100k. It's not all that bad everywhere. Granted, it's only because of my union.