School calendars are calculated on 20 day months--I do not know of any full time position of more than 240 days. Does anyone remember the old "bird books"?

A few things that seem to be ignored.

 

One, there was a time a generation ago where teachers did part time work in the summer, odd jobs, etc. Today, you just do not see it.

 

Teachers are given 187 day contracts. End of story. They are paid to those amount of days only. Many elect to take their pay over the year.

 

Two, in many standards the Kentucky Teacher Retirement System is rated as one of the best, if not the best in the nation. Given our overall economy in this state that is simply unreal. Teachers are very short sighted to not acknowledge this huge benefit.

 

Are they overpaid? It is the market. I question anyone who wishes to enter into this field with full knowledge of compensation standards and complains about it later. The teaching industry will never be fairly compensated. Our society will simply not accept the tax obligation to do that.

 

Very few industries are you pretty much assured and can plan on a pay scale from your first year until you retire with the very real fact that pay scale will actually go up every year. Yes teachers, a step increase is a pay raise. Yes, you can be paid more in many private sectors but with the risk of being laid off, let go at any given time. You can have your job reassigned right out from underneath you. And change, it happens daily, deal with it.

 

Dealing with horrible students is not for everyone. Dealing with trying to work hard and by no effort on your own you are let go, it is the way of business.

 

There are trade offs. Most telling, you know what you are getting before you decide to be a teacher.

A few things that seem to be ignored.

 

One, there was a time a generation ago where teachers did part time work in the summer, odd jobs, etc. Today, you just do not see it.

 

Teachers are given 187 day contracts. End of story. They are paid to those amount of days only. Many elect to take their pay over the year.

 

Two, in many standards the Kentucky Teacher Retirement System is rated as one of the best, if not the best in the nation. Given our overall economy in this state that is simply unreal. Teachers are very short sighted to not acknowledge this huge benefit.

 

Are they overpaid? It is the market. I question anyone who wishes to enter into this field with full knowledge of compensation standards and complains about it later. The teaching industry will never be fairly compensated. Our society will simply not accept the tax obligation to do that.

 

Very few industries are you pretty much assured and can plan on a pay scale from your first year until you retire with the very real fact that pay scale will actually go up every year. Yes teachers, a step increase is a pay raise. Yes, you can be paid more in many private sectors but with the risk of being laid off, let go at any given time. You can have your job reassigned right out from underneath you. And change, it happens daily, deal with it.

 

Dealing with horrible students is not for everyone. Dealing with trying to work hard and by no effort on your own you are let go, it is the way of business.

 

There are trade offs. Most telling, you know what you are getting before you decide to be a teacher.

 

While I won’t argue with anything posted here, I’ll add a few more things that have been ignored. On this board, I have yet to see a teacher discuss their compensation with indignation. A few teachers have jumped in this thread to defend themselves and their profession, but I haven’t seen the bellyaching that continues to be stereotyped on them.

 

The “market” does not set their pay. I would argue that is one of the problems with education.

 

When I was in high school, I had an AP teacher who gave 200% to our class so we could pass the AP exam. They were available an hour before school began and an hour after school, so anyone could make it for help or the many required tests and meetings we had outside of the normal class time. We even met several Saturdays for multiple hours to work. So, for around 10-15 students, this teacher was devoting an extra 2 hours a day, plus untold Saturday hours, on top of their other obligations and other classes, so that a couple of ungrateful kids wouldn’t have to take a few hours of class in college. I got out of six hours from this class, to be exact.

 

I had another AP teacher who didn’t teach anything. They didn’t care if class was skipped, if class was spent sleeping, talking, or doing anything else. When class was taught, it was rote reading from the textbook. Word for word. I’m sure this person walked in at first bell and out at the last bell. When our class took the AP exam, there was noticeable laughter throughout, as none of us had any clue what we were being tested on. It was a joke.

 

Both of those teachers are paid the same, or at least on the same scale, one was considerably older so I’m sure that affects salary. Regardless, if pay were increased, among other fixes in the system, and thus the market more competitive, which of those teachers would be out of a job? Simply, we rely too heavily on attracting good, dedicated teachers whose devotion supplements their pay, while we allow easy entrance to those who are in it for the summer vacation and job security.

Actually their teacher organization has great influence on competitive pay for critical fields. Why don't teachers force their organization to acknowledge the difference? Great things would happen.

The 2007-2008 JCPS schooly Calendar...

 

JCPS Calendar

 

Per the above link. Teachers are required to be at work for 193 days. Even if you add a week of continuing ed, that is really a joke.

The 2007-2008 JCPS schooly Calendar...

 

JCPS Calendar

 

Per the above link. Teachers are required to be at work for 193 days. Even if you add a week of continuing ed, that is really a joke.

 

That is probably not including the days the teachers are "off" but still have to work (grading papers, tests etc).

How do the teacher assistants fit into the equation?

That is probably not including the days the teachers are "off" but still have to work (grading papers, tests etc).

I'm sorry but this doesn't fly. Every salaried job out there requires work outside of work.

I'm sorry but this doesn't fly. Every salaried job out there requires work outside of work.

 

Ya think?

A few things that seem to be ignored.

 

One, there was a time a generation ago where teachers did part time work in the summer, odd jobs, etc. Today, you just do not see it.

 

Teachers are given 187 day contracts. End of story. They are paid to those amount of days only. Many elect to take their pay over the year.

 

Two, in many standards the Kentucky Teacher Retirement System is rated as one of the best, if not the best in the nation. Given our overall economy in this state that is simply unreal. Teachers are very short sighted to not acknowledge this huge benefit.

 

Are they overpaid? It is the market. I question anyone who wishes to enter into this field with full knowledge of compensation standards and complains about it later. The teaching industry will never be fairly compensated. Our society will simply not accept the tax obligation to do that.

 

Very few industries are you pretty much assured and can plan on a pay scale from your first year until you retire with the very real fact that pay scale will actually go up every year. Yes teachers, a step increase is a pay raise. Yes, you can be paid more in many private sectors but with the risk of being laid off, let go at any given time. You can have your job reassigned right out from underneath you. And change, it happens daily, deal with it.

 

Dealing with horrible students is not for everyone. Dealing with trying to work hard and by no effort on your own you are let go, it is the way of business.

 

There are trade offs. Most telling, you know what you are getting before you decide to be a teacher.

I think the bolded part is the point many are missing.

Man .. you miss a couple days on the site and you miss some great threads. This one is already at 4 pages. I used to work for a school system and was considered staff because I did not have a degree. I worked in the custodial department. I got to compare pay with one of the teachers that had been there 2 years and was very shocked to see he only made about 2000 more a month than I did. I was blown away.

 

I know for a fact that he wasn't making no 40,000 a year plus. He was barely making half that. He was an English teacher too. High school level. The nonsense that he and a lot of the others put up with convinced me that I never would pursue a degree in this field.

 

I will say that I have personally seen plenty of teachers that deserve more than what they get but I have also seen plenty that don't deserve a teaching job. They want to be buddies with the kids and be their best buds. You can't do that and have the respect you need. Some will put a video in and then get on the computer for the rest of the period. It's really amazing.

5 days a week for 12 months is 260. There are more than 48 weeks in our 12 month calendar.

 

The other time is UNPAID Vacation time. Or do you want them to work year round with no vacation?:sssh:

The other time is UNPAID Vacation time. Or do you want them to work year round with no vacation?:sssh:

 

Do salaried positions all consider their vacation time unpaid? I am salaried, I will make the same amount whether I take vacation or not.

I'm sorry but this doesn't fly. Every salaried job out there requires work outside of work.

 

One view point on salaried position is that teachers are salaried position when needed to be salaried position and hourly when needed to be hourly.

 

Give you a perfect example, last year many districts added 30 minutes to the day to make up for snow days. The time was ADDED BEFORE CATS TESTING to get the time in to prepare kids for the CATS test, not to simply the number of days in school.

 

Since this did end up cutting short the days for the school years and the teachers worked that time, the teachers had to come in for 3 days and do PD work to make up the 3 days that were made up for the students in the 30 minutes.

 

On your job outside of work.

 

My mom worked for a bank and I remember one incident in 25 years of her bringing work home. She was short $5,000. That was IT.

 

My mother-in-law works for an insurance company. She brings no work home.

 

I worked for the concession company that runs concessions for the Reds. Salaried position. NEVER brought home anything for the 2 years I worked for them. Except the smell of hot dogs and beer on my clothes.

 

I worked for JCPenny's in the management trainee program. Was given time to complete my assignments at work and never had to take home anything.

 

My dad was a construction manager on a salaried position. Never brought anything home.

Do salaried positions all consider their vacation time unpaid? I am salaried, I will make the same amount whether I take vacation or not.

 

Will you receive a check for the time that you are on vacation?

 

My father received 4 weeks of paid vacation time. So did my mom. She would take vacation time and get paid.

 

Summer time is UNPAID time.

The 20 days of fulltime positions are UNPAID.

My district does give 1 vacation/personal day per year. I usually take mine to chaperone my child's school field trip.