Strangely, I've been in two conversations in the past month wherein a conversant has invoked the outrageous pay for teachers in a particular area school district.
I'm going to make up names to protect the innocent here, but I can't help but be amused at the way some people arrive at what they believe to be facts, especially when it involves something so easy to track down like the public salary of a public employee in a public institution.
So anyway, in the first conversation my counterpart noted as fact that teachers in this school district can achieve "six-figure retirement packages." She added that she's seen the contract that guarantees this.
Given that the general formula for calculating teacher retirement in the state of Ohio is something along the lines of 80% of your highest three years, this means teachers in this particular district must average $125,000 a year for three years in order to make $100,000 a year (six figures) in retirement. So, in the course of those high three years, they'll actually make more than $125,00 in order to achieve that as their average.
A quick check of the particular school's website gives us the following myth-busting information:
The top pay on this year's scale (presumably the highest) is $89,354.00.
I know, I know... seems like a lot for a teacher, right? Does it seem like a lot for someone with 27 years of experience in their field and a PhD? 'Cuz that's the only way you'll hit this rare territory. I'm willing to bet there are few outside of teaching with those qualifications who make that little... and even fewer who are entrusted with the responsibilities of a teacher.
But the bigger point is, 80% of 89,000 will never be six figures.
This doesn't mean no teacher in that district could ever retire with a six figure pension. All he or she would have to do is pick up a mere $36,000 in supplemental contracts, like coaching, class advisor, band director, department head, etc. Given that the average supplemental contract runs somewhere in the $1,500 neighborhood (according to the district's April 2010 board minutes) this teacher would merely have to coach 24 different sports each year... for three straight years, after teaching for 27 years and earning a PhD. That sounds do-able.
I'm calling this one busted.
While the other conversation referenced this same district, it was in relation to "tenure." Another popular myth when it comes to teaching these days. If by "tenure" what you refer to is a "continuing contract," then yes, tenure still exists in the teaching profession - as it does in just about every profession. But here's where the misconception begins. New teachers are typically offered one-year contracts. Like all contracts, upon termination, there is no expectation of renewal. Do your job, and you will likely get renewed, but there's no obligation either way. You don't have to stay. They don't have to keep you. Various districts then have procedures to move returning folks into two- or three-year contracts, typically for the first five to ten years of their career. Once you reach that stage, you are then eligible to be offered, or to ask for a "continuing contract."
This, apparently, is what folks think of when they say "tenure." What most folks outside the profession don't realize is that this is where MOST employees OUTSIDE of teaching start. You may have to survive a probationary period of between 30 days and a year, but once that's over, you become a "permanent" employee... just like teachers on a continuing contract. This doesn't mean you can't be fired. It just means your employer must show cause to fire you. As long as you perform according to your job standards, it's pretty tough to show cause for termination. Again, this is no different for most employees than it is for "tenured" teachers on a continuing contract. The only difference is that few employees outside of teaching need to prove themselves for three-five years AFTER getting a degree AND a license to achieve this "tenure."
So yeah, teachers in this district could retire with six-figure pensions, but it's pretty unlikely. And yeah, teachers can still achieve "tenure," but I don't think what you think is what I think we were really thinking. What?
Luth
Out
3 comments:
Not that big of a stretch:
($89,354.00 / 9 month) X 12 =
($119,138.66) X 0.80 = $95,310.93
The 119K is a projection of actually working all year (like I do)
Things to think about:
I pay into Social Security (5% of my gross pay), teachers do not
My retirement is a 401K at the mercy of my employer
I do not accrue sick days, teachers do
I have a bachelor’s degree and no collective bargaining
If my employer has no money I do not get a raise
Tiffin
The 89,000 figure is for 12 months.
As to the rest of your nonsense, it's worth moving up to the main page and another post on myths about teachers... perhaps even another post about collective bargaining. You whiner!
Wow, man, were you drunk when you posted this? It's like shooting fish in a barrel:
1. You will collect social security, teachers will not
2. teachers' retirement (to which they contribute just like you do to your 401k) is at the mercy of the STRS board, just like yours is at the mercy of your employer/investment managers - and STRS has been gutted over the last decade, just like your 401k
3. you "accrue" vacation days you can take whenever you want, most teachers do not. Most salaried professionals don't need to take sick leave for a dr. appt. while teachers are charged leave for it, or expected to only see a doctor during their summers "off"
4. non sequiter - what do degrees have to do with what Ronald Reagan called the most basic of human freedoms: the right to bargain collectively??
5. if teachers' employers have no money, they don't get raises either. Seriously, do really want to compare your salary with that of a similarly educated teacher and see who's had the better raises over the years? Remember the 80s and 90s when everyone else was getting rich? School budgets were being cut in Ohio as a string of governors wrestled more and more control away from an elected state school board into appointed (ie non-elected, non-accountable to the public) positions. Teacher raises across the state didn't even match inflation, let alone the increasing cost of their benefits...while the rest of the world got richer and richer!! No one gave a shit about these cuts until the recession. Now, no one seems to remember that schools were already broke, had already dealt with dwindling budgets long BEFORE the recession.
Listen, if it's truly the goal to just do away with public schools, then let's do it, but this slow death shit has got to stop.
Oh, and before it happens, we'd better start shitting out some magical for-profit schools to do a better job, cuz right now these "better" commercial schools only exist in the mythical world that Tea Baggers dream up.
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