Public School Teachers Salary

In the year of 2011, there were 3.2 million teachers who were employed at public schools throughout the nation, which served close to 50 million children in grades kindergarten through twelfth (Feistritzer, 2011). Currently, to be employed as a teacher in the United States, one must obtain a Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited college or university, and be certificated in the state that one wishes to be employed. The certification serves as a teaching credential, which is needed for teachers in all states.

In order to become a teacher, an individual must take education coursework, evaluations through student teaching and passing state teacher examinations (Samson & Collins, 2012).

     High school teachers’ average salary varies across the world. The United States is said to be one of the richest countries in the world, yet our teachers are being paid one of the lowest amounts. The Education Intelligence Agency, author of the article “Ohio Teacher Overcomes Union’s Tolerance” published an International Teacher Salary Report ranking the fifty states by “how much the average salary exceeded per capita personal income.” According to the Education Intelligence Agency Ohio’s percentage rate is only fifty- five point one percent. According to the Education Intelligence Agency the lowest state percentage is in South Dakota at twenty- three point six percent and the highest state percentage is

Many people wonder if teachers should or should not get paid more than they do. A lot of people believe that teachers should get paid more, but there are some that do not. Parents that want their kids to have a good education want teachers to get paid more. For example, P.V Derkachev said, “… teacher pay influences the quality of education.” (Derkachev 574). Teachers that get payed more would be more likely to perform better at their job and not mind the extra time that they have to do stuff outside of work to get everything done. Matt Barnum said, “Higher salaries --- even small bonuses ---- can and do keep some teachers in the classroom, and likely improve outcomes for their students.” (Barnum). The student is going to get taught better if teachers get paid more because the teacher will want to teach at the best of her ability which will help the student.

All the time people ask, “Oh, why do you want to be a teacher, they don’t make that much money?” However, teachers make decent pay. On average, a teacher will make $53,000 per year. In the state of Wisconsin and Minnesota, teachers make the average salary and have the

A teacher’s salary has come a very long way in the U.S. from 1980 to now, it went from 15 (elementary) and 16(secondary) thousand a year to 57 and 59 thousand a year as average. That is a pretty decent change in just a little over thirty years. But as the salary went up so has the cost of living, so, in reality, it is not much help. Texas is the state with the most teachers since 2014. Texas has a total of 342,257 and California comes in second while New York comes in third (statista). That is a lot of people, who all happen to be on a state salary schedule in Texas. What this means is that teachers all get paid the starts salary and depending on who has been there longer than others determine who gets a bonus or raise.

Educators have recently understood that low income schools do need the money and that extra support. They have realized that too many places policies for assigning teachers and allocating resources are perpetuating the problem rather than solving it. The breakdown of data that researchers have found out on 2008-09 school-level spending proves that most of the high-poverty schools collect less than what they are supposed

They spend their own money to buy supplies that end up missing or broken before the end of the year. Often times, some students steal the supplies because they don’t have any of their own. Furthermore, in earlier years whatever a teacher bought for their class they got back in their taxes; but as of January 1, 2018 whatever the teacher bought for school would not come back in their taxes. Our educators are directed to supply a classroom with materials out of their own pockets with no benefit. In other words, teachers need the money to keep supplying the children of the future, they cannot survive on low income with so many

The low pay for our educators is causing many negative effects. New York Times shows that the low income is causing sixty-two percent of teachers to have a second job outside of their teaching jobs. Just to have enough money to support their families and make ends meet. Most everyone decides to college to prevent having these struggles with money, and to avoid having to work multiple jobs, when they get older; however, not when it comes to living off of only a teacher’s income, the struggles to have enough money are interminable. This low pay is also causing most teachers to retire, and find new jobs. New York Times states, “every year 20 percent of teachers in urban districts quit. Nationwide, 46 percent of teachers quit before their fifth year. The turnover costs the

According to Coulson (2011), the unions of teachers has helped to drive up the cost of a student in the K-12 school system and to protect even those teachers with low performance. Since 1970, the cost of a student in the K-12 system has raised from $55,000 to $155,000, but the performance of the students have declined since then (Coulson, 2011). Where is the rest of the money? I believe that a teacher need to have a

With beginning teachers usually earning entirely less than other college graduates, the profession is at loss of top-notch, quality people who tend to find jobs seeking more money. Almost 50 percent leave the profession within 5 years, lured by higher pay and prestige elsewhere in the booming U.S. economy (World, 1999, par. 7). Starting teachers average a $25,735 salary in the United States compared to an engineer earning $56,820 or a physical therapist earning $56,600 (Engineer, 2000, par.1). And what signal does it send out about the value of good teachers and a good education when a 45-year-old teacher with a master’s degree earns $45,000 a year and a 25-year-old out of law school often starts at $80,000, considering a six year education for a master’s degree and a seven year education for a law degree (Greenhouse, 2002, par. 4)? A teacher is also given no compensation for the long hours spent basically in overtime work. The teacher’s day does not end when they leave school because if lesson plans, grading, or planning is not completed, it will have to be finished on their own time. Accountants, paralegals, and engineers all are compensated and get paid overtime for work that does not get completed in a regular day or if they want to stay and

Lurking over our great country is a troubling issue that is plaguing the professional educational workforce. When compared worldwide, American teachers work the most hours, yet are paid in the lowest brackets when related to the top 32 nations (Teachers Pay). In addition, when you compare a teacher’s salary to other four year degree salaries, teachers are among the 5 lowest paid degrees (O’Shaughnessy). Not only are the salaries among the lowest in the American workforce, a typical teachers at home workload exceeds all other professional jobs by 20% (Current). Furthermore, teachers were only given a 2.3% salary raise in 2009. Yet the rate of inflation rose to 3.1% causing a loss in purchasing power and creating a hardship on the

To qualify as a teacher students had to pass an exam leading to a degree, or a certificate of completion (Cantor 58).

For one to become a teacher in the United States, there are specific qualifications he or she must acquire prior to starting their career. All primary and secondary education teachers must have a high school diploma. After high school, teachers must get a college or university degree in elementary or secondary education depending on the level that they intend to teach at. A primary

Research into this career has expanded my knowledge excessively. Such as, there is a process which has steps to becoming a teacher. Step one includes, learning about the education system. Step two is to, decide if teaching is right for you. Obviously teaching is not the correct job for someone who does not like children. Step three, find a degree program. Step four, choose the correct specialty; in my case art. Step five, gain classroom experience. Step six, qualify for certification. Then, step seven, get hired. Which results in step eight and nine, professional expectations, benefits and teaching contracts. Finally step ten, the first year of teaching.