there are several teachers in my family; as such, i have the highest respect for them.

i've watched them pay for many an item for the class out of their own pockets...i've watched them work nights and weekends...my aunt (who helped raise me) runs an incredible special education program...and she brings these children into her home and our lives. her program teaches these kids to LIVE...basic skills...house-cleaning, cooking, job skills, money skills...LIFE skills. it's very expensive.

the summers are often for summer school or continuing education. many teachers bump up their teaching skills by taking courses throughout their off-time...

eliminating electives is a horrible idea. music, for instance, helps structure the brain for excellence in mathematics. athletics strengthen our bodies, and other electives help to prepare a child with technical skills that they will need as an adult. not every kid is cut out to be a mathematician or scientist, and it's unrealistic to not prepare them for their TRUE future.

maybe if we would PAY our teachers...maybe we'd have MORE quality ones. seriously, an above-average student isn't going to say..."hey! look at THESE prospects! i could...hmm...be a doctor and make a couple hundred grand a year...or i could be...oh...a teacher and get **** on while starting at twenty-two grand! yeah, that's it!"

TABLE 7.

State Starting Salary Climb (%)

1) Alaska 34,800 36.1
2) New Jersey 31,435 55.6
3) Pennsylvania 29,514 56.2
4) Connecticut 28,840 76.6
5) Maryland 26,846 53.6
6) New York 28,749 67.4
7) Illinois 26,753 51.4
8) District of Columbia 25,937 63.6
9) Massachusetts 25,815 66.7
10) California 25,762 63.7
11) Michigan 25,635 85.0
12) Nevada 25,576 54.6
13) Virginia 25,500 36.0
14) Hawaii 25,436 45.6
15) Alabama 24,824 26.2
16) Rhode Island 24,754 69.0
17) Georgia 24,693 38.2
18) Oregon 24,592 59.9
19) Washington 24,590 54.5
20) Wisconsin 24,560 53.0
21) Vermont 24,445 48.3
22) Delaware 24,300 66.8
23) Indiana 24,216 55.6
24) Oklahoma 24,187 20.6
25) Arizona 24,042 28.3
26) Minnesota 23,998 53.5
27) New Hampshire 23,510 52.2
28) Florida 23,508 41.8
29) Texas 22,642 39.7
30) New Mexico 22,634 28.6
31) Kentucky 22,457 47.3
32) West Virginia 22,011 46.1
33) Missouri 21,996 47.2
34) Wyoming 21,900 44.2
35) South Carolina 21,791 44.1
36) Kansas 21,607 50.6
37) Tennessee 21,537 53.8
38) Colorado 21,472 69.4
39) Iowa 21,338 51.7
40) Nebraska 21,299 47.9
41) Arkansas 21,189 40.9
42) Maine 20,725 58.6
43) North Carolina 20,620 47.5
44) Utah 20,544 47.9
45) Ohio 20,355 87.1
46) Mississippi 20,150 37.4
47) Montana 19,992 46.9
48) Idaho 19,667 57.1
49) South Dakota 19,609 34.5
50) Louisiana 19,406 38.1
51) North Dakota 18,225 48.0

while i would like to see year-round schooling to aid in the retention of material, it's not really feasible around here. too many non-custodial parents who have summer visitation who would be cheated out of time with their kiddos. vacations are important to development, as well.

I'm not a teacher. Its not worth the debate to be honest.BUT,,,,,,,,,,,, Its a calling for most because the pay stinks, its not rocket science to figure it out. The highest paid teaching state isn t enough to support yourself, nevermind a family.

My son was in a year-round school from 1st through 5th grade, it was great. The go the same number of days, it's just broken down differently. They got 5 weeks in the summer, which was more than enough for vacations, summer camp, etc. They got longer breaks at the holidays and an extra break in October. Student grade averages shot up dramatically in the first year when it was introduced. I'm all for it.

i'm hoping we'll end up there...standard visitation in arkansas has a six-week summer stretch (in our case, broken up into three two-week periods). they'll have to get all that ironed out first...and anyone spoken to around here is pretty against "losing" the summer.

retention rates for education is much higher in year-round classes, and they don't have to spend several weeks re-hashing last year's stuff...

I could dig it

Most people are against it, simply because it's a departure from the norm. I worked on the parents' committee when our school first started talking about doing it. We needed a 90% reponse on the vote, with 80% favoring it. It was hard. But, there wasn't one person who after the end of the first year that didn't think it was great.

Well, I think this is a sensitive subject. A lot depends on the school district, location, etc.

In my school district, well, teachers were much better when I attended than when my boys attended the same schools. There were the good teachers and there were those who were there just to collect a paycheck. Unfortunately, the ones just for the paycheck far outnumbered the really good teachers who went above and beyond what is expected of them. Which, in reality, is very costly, like a domino effect.

Some high school teachers in my school district are earning in the $80,000. No way is a high school teacher worth that much.

But, the teachers that my sons had that were what I consider truly "teachers", well they deserve a higher pay, but not $80,000 when they get almost 3 months out of the year off and are home by 3:30 p.m.

Teachers here were crybabying because they were required to pay $10 a month toward their health insurance premiums! I wanted to choke all of them. I pay almost $100 a month in health insurance premiums, and I will never see a paycheck the size these teachers receive.

Lindyy

pay them 200 a week

if they meet the standards at the end of the year add the difference to make it 100,000

The AFT teacher salary survey for the 2004-05 school year found that the average teacher salary was $47,602,


http://www.aft.org/salary/

well if ya up to it send them

who cares

maybe you do a good job maybe you don't

i have no idea

but on ave the kids in the united states are not being taught
what they need to know

and rank in the bottom of world wide ave

so when they start moving up the list

you can quit applying those adj to your fellow teachers

In order to teach one must be able to learn. There are a lot of students out there who have learning disabilities due to a wide variety of reasons. That in itself is another whole topic of discussion. BUt how can they be expected to pass all these state mandated tests and do well on them, WHEN THEY HAVEN'T the skills or the ABILITY to attain the skills needed to succeed in doing well enough on these tests. We can teach and teach and teach til the cows come home, but will they all learn it???? NO!!!!

Why should we teachers be reprimanded in salary for kids not learning if it's not our fault??? It's hard to prove it's OUR fault, just because they fail a test.... Not if you're looking at the students' capability for being or not being able to learn the material.

Anyways..... adjectives I was thinking about were: insensitive, unrealistic and demeaning is that o.k. Adjective Man????

By your calculations it should cost parents $3600 a year, per child to go to a public school. Uhh, yea right.

$100,000!! are you serious? Personally I think thats a little extreme, especially since they don't work around 1/3 of the year. Where is all this money coming from anyway?
I also think it depends on what your teaching. I think someone teaching High school physics deserves more than someone teaching second grade.

It says only 5,600 students took the exam. I kind of wonder where these students were from. They could have been from a low scoring area or something. The other countries could have been testing their best students. The article doesn't address this so don't mind me if I take the article with a grain of salt.

the simple fact is that every profession can make one of these silly posts begging for more money, or justifying it in one fashion or another. Yes, everyone is underpaid. Everyone is more important than the next. We are all emroiled in our delusions of grandeur. So far this week I have seen one of these for waitresses, one for firemen, and one for police officers. All these people made their own career choices, knowing what the wages were going in. To whine after you make a contract is silly imho

Chance for Success: States Ranked by Chance-for-Success Score

Interesting correlation here I think.

1-Virginia
2-Connecticut
3-Minnesota
4-New Jersey
5-Maryland
6-Massachusetts
7-New Hampshire
8-Wisconsin
9-Nebraska
10-Vermont
11-Iowa
12-Illinois
13-Kansas
14-North Dakota
15-Pennsylvania
16-Colorado
17-South Dakota
18-Delaware
19-New York
20-Rhode Island
21-Utah
22-Washington
23-Maine
24-Wyoming
25-Hawaii
26-Michigan
27-Montana
28-Ohio
29-Alaska
30-Indiana
31-District of Columbia
32-Florida
33-Missouri
34-California
35-Idaho
36-North Carolina
37-Oregon
38-Georgia
39-Arkansas
40-Oklahoma
41-Kentucky
42-South Carolina
43-Nevada
44-West Virginia
45-Alabama
46-Mississippi
47-Tennessee
48-Texas
49-Arizona
50-Louisiana
51-New Mexico

Im sure there are lots of reasons for this, but I believe the correlation to pay is the most important reason.

When you look at the ranking of the US Internationaly it appears dismal. However, you must look at it with a clear perspective.
A- We are a very large country, (equiv to 50 different countries across Europe). If you look at our highest scores in this context, The States with the highest scores would rate right up there with any country in the world.

B- We have many ethnic groups. One of the largest is the Hispanics, and most of them are illegals. I'm not saying one ethnic group is smarter than the others, just that whether it be from poverty, language barriers, or lack of a stable home life, Hispanics have a very high drop-out rate and poor scores. This is a very big difference, and experts say tends to lower the average for America as a whole and on an individual level according to the population of illegals in that State.

Hmm. Alaska and N. Dakota kinda stand out as exceptions!!

Alaska is not getting the bang for their buck!

N Mex. either...

I wish it was 50k.....30k here

very good post, thank you. Just one comment about your idea on sumer vacation taking away time from non-custodial parents. The child and non-custodial parent would be far better off with a year round school plan, as the parent would then have them for a couple/few weeks at a time every couple months, instead of for two months in the summer.
Yes, the over all AMOUNT of time spent together would not change, however, they would spend more time together throughout the entire year, instead of just during the summer. There would be less upheaval in the child's life, as special events (such as soccer, or swimming competition, etc.) could be more easily planned between the parents.