Great post. I have added you to my digg bookmark…

I’ll leave it at that.

I’ve seen some students’ AP English papers. It’s really impressive work. Teachers who can get students to do this high-level writing deserve bonus merit pay. It’s a special talent that’s worth paying extra to land.

Teachers’ salary payouts are made over 52 weeks. So this teacher would get $829 per week. This doesn’t look like much. But it is paid during an 11-week period in which no work is done. Zero, zip, nada. What jobs other than teaching have a pre-planned annual 11-week “layoff”?

It’s a double-edged sword. You make decent money for the weeks you work. You have the best time of the year off, with no boss telling you what to do. But if you want to make decent money during this period, rather than kick back, there aren’t great options. You can make some money teaching summer day and evening classes. Maybe help review and edit some textbooks and other published education materials. Otherwise, most opportunities are in the sub-$10/hr range, not because teachers are dumb, but because well-paying employers want people to work longer than 11 weeks.

Perhaps we should have schools teaching classes 48 weeks a year. Then teachers’ salaries could be set and understood in the context of regular-job salaries.

By age 33, with a master’s degree having been completed through evening and summer coursework, the USD 259 teacher is paid $52,121. Most teachers of this age are married, and are women, whose college-educated husbands earn decent incomes. (If they earn less than this, then we need to shift the topic to the underpayment of non-teaching college graduates.) So, we’re looking at circa $100,000 two-parents-working family incomes. That’s within the top 10% of Wichita household incomes, and for most dual-income families that money is earned by two people each working 49-50 weeks per year. Actually, for 33 year old couples, it’s probably in the top 5% bracket for Wichita.

There’s another double edged sword here: the salary scale tops out at 11 years, being raised only intermittently, i.e. at collective-bargaining time, for cost-of-living increases. Younger teachers get $900 automatic yearly increases, plus sur-payments for earning higher degrees, and are paid well for their ages, but older teachers “top out”. Which encourages talented mid-career teachers to switch to administration, to break through the glass income ceiling. Maybe this needs to be changed.

Even though KS ranks 42nd in the country for Cost of Living.

Yeah, that makes Liberal sense.

Sit. Good boy.

Now stay. Staay..

Stay.

CRY.

Now, doesn’t that feel better?

You “Max” are a pretender at least and a mid management toady at best. Just what do you add to society? ANY teacher is more important than you.

http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2007/10/legislators-sho/

Guess what the Cost of Living in Kansas rank is in the USA?

42nd.

Teachers in Kansas then, should get their salaries DECREASED to the point of being ranked 42nd in the US.

http://ded.mo.gov/researchandplanning/indicators/cost_of_living/index.stm

Guess what the Cost of Living in Kansas rank is in the USA?

42nd.

Teachers in Kansas then, should get their salaries DECREASED to the point of being ranked 42nd in the US.

http://ded.mo.gov/researchandplanning/indicators/cost_of_living/index.stm

http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2007/10/legislators-sho/

What a life. I devote my all to other people’s children then get called a liar on a blog. Wonderful.

Ms. Creighton wrote:

“In the six years I’ve prepared students for the AP English Language and Composition exam, I’ve brought in thousands of dollars in these happy kickbacks to my high school.”[ $30 per student passing score]

Creighton has been teaching AP English Language and Composition for 6 years, not Language Arts for 6 years. It’s almost invariably true that when districts have AP and IB programs they select experienced veterans to lead the classes. Check out how many East High IB or Northwest High AP English classes are taught by twentysomething year olds.

Right.

Just like we do with medical doctors, national politicians, and CEO’s of large companies.

Hey, wait a minute, we don’t do that for those professions.

The $36,000 per YEAR is paid MONTHLY… per YEAR!! Why do you have some idiotic mental block on something SO simple?? Teachers are paid for 12 months…. That is called a Contract… THEREFORE… Their paycheck at $36,000 per year is $3,000 per month… And THAT good sir, is $750 per week….

In other words, Divide the $36,000 by 52 weeks, instead of 36…. And, the School Year hasnt been 9 months in Kansas for YEARS!!! So even that argument is BOGUS!!

Uninformed? Methinks you exaggerate your extra time spent doing skool work.

I’m paid pretty well for a young professional, given the fact that the cost of living is low in Kansas. I’m not complaining about the pay, I just wish Fleetwood would stop is idiotic, uninformed statements.

But the larger reality is more noteworth: the great majority of Wichita families have two working parents. So, if a couple is comprised of husband-and-wife teachers, of age 28-29, they’re making $83,139, with a total of 15 weeks of annual vacation.

At age 32-33 with 10 years teaching experience, and master’s degrees, earned with easy-pace night-and summer study, they earn over $104,000 with 15 weeks annual vacation. That’s an UPPER middle class household income in this community, and it is earned for working only 70% of the year.

Easy. 9 months X 4 weeks = 36 weeks
36 weeks X $1,000 per week = $36,000

And all of those figures you list are a LOT less than Fleetwood’s $1,000 per week upthread… Where Fleetwood gets that number is beyond me!!

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-06-25-teacher-salary-raise_x.htm

2006: Kansas
Starting: $28,530 Yearly: $39,175

http://dcjobsource.com/teachersalaries.html

This is salary alone. Not total compensation. Would like to find a source for total compensation.

I don’t think these numbers are adjusted for only working 9 months of the year either. Should add 1/4 back in?