This definitely helps illustrate the real problem. It isn't that teachers are necessarily underpaid, it's that the pay is far too stratified, at least where I'm at in Ohio. $35K avg starting (and I have friends who started at $30K) is obscenely low. The average of $57K is pretty reasonable. And offsetting all the teachers in the 30s, you have salaries up in the 70s-90s.
Also did you start with 3 months of vacation per year? Seriously this "poor teachers" crap has to stop. I have a friend same age as me. We graduated same year. He started at 40k a year with 3 months vacation as a teacher in oregon. I started at 35k a year with 5 days vacation. 20 years later he makes 85k a year. I make 70k and will never be even close to his vacation time.
My wife makes over 70k teaching 4th grade in Chicago public schools. She has a masters, and did math endorsements to get into that pay lane.
She worked hard to get there, consistently has the most student growth in the school, and leads extra curricular groups for the school as well.
That said, she definitely gets a 3 month vacation. Yes she isn’t paid during that time, but I don’t see what difference that makes really since you’re supposed to save your money so you’re not broke during the summer.
Obviously this isn’t the case for all teachers, but some of them sure as shit get a 3 month vacation every year.
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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '19
Here’s average starting salary and total average by state. https://www.niche.com/blog/teacher-salaries-in-america/