Spending 25 to 30 years living just above the poverty line in many states, taking abuse from admin, parents and students, all so you can continue to get that same pay for life after you retire. Not really great benefits.
Health care is gold for "health care providers", NOT the person receiving the services. I've a submission about how health insurance pays for the most expensive medical interventions possible, but not for things people actually need: meals, transportation, etc.
Moat of this "living below the poverty line" rhetoric has been debunked. In most states it's only achievable when combining the starting wages for inexperienced teachers and combining them with extra hours and personally purchased classroom supplies few teachers actually partake in. They also prefer to take the wages of teachers who choose to be paid an annual rate rather than for the months they actually work and present that as some sort of injustice.
The teachers I know barely make enough to live alone even after years and having multiple degrees. If they do they have to be thrifty about it.
God forbid they have an unexpected big expense.
I’ve seen the raise schedule. It’s basically peanuts for a very long time. Pay might be ok after 15 years, but that’s a lot of sacrifice. And assumes low inflation/no new contract ruining things.
Everything about the job seems to suck. But 80% of it seems like the parents. Between those they treat the teachers and how many don’t control/discipline their kids making the teachers life miserable… this isn’t going away.
Walter, do you realize how absurd this sentence looks like from the point of view of people that don't live in the US? Those two things should be the norm, and presenting them as the prize to win after suffering for decades from poor pay, entitled parents and lack of autonomy comes as very tone deaf in my opinion.
I'm aware of the entitlements Europeans have and that they view the US as uncivilized :-)
I'm also aware that Europe allows the US to spend a lot of money for the defense of Europe and much of the world.
I did neglect to mention that the pension for life for WA teachers starts at 20 years of service. Isn't a working life 20 to 65? How sustainable can an economy be if a career is 20 years, while society supports you for the other 65 years?
That depends on the state. I knew teachers in new york state and they made very good money with glorious retirement benefits and tons of vacation. Seems teacher pay is similar to police pay. In some states it’s really low but in others it’s fantastic. See salaries of cops jn CA for example.
