You may be right. I know from experience I would not spend thousands of dollars for a degree and four to six years to get it and then put up with what they have to. I have four in the family that do , and beleive me ,they can have it.

Exactly! If anything, their salaries should be doubled! :ylsuper:

Teachers are all college grads, many with masters.

 

Do you think the same can be said of the rest of the Kentucky work force? Makes the argument a little silly, doesn't it.

 

Compare their rates with their matriculated peers. They are not over paid.

 

Exactly....that would be like saying that the President is over-payed, based on comparisions with the nation's average income!

 

Make the comparison based on similar education obtained.

I make less then the average teacher.

 

I have a degree, in fact I have a degree in education and at one time held a teaching certificate. My profession requires a degree and special certification.

 

My profession requires me to get continuing education every year.

 

I'll be working next week while schools in Jefferson County are on spring break. That means the teachers are off for the week.

 

In June, July and August I work while teachers are on summer vacation.

 

I get a whopping 6 paid holidays a year (New Year's, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas). Unfortunately because of the nature of my job I usually end up working in Labor Day and Thanksgiving so I guess in reality I get 4 paid holidays) Teachers get those PLUS a few others.

 

I get a whopping 3 weeks of vacation a year and 10 sick days. I would LOVE to have an entire summer PLUS a Spring and Christmas (oops Winter so as not to offend the PC) break.

 

I don't get the artificial job protection of tenure. If I do a bad job I get fired and it doesn't matter how long I've been working. (You want a reward for being required to get a Masters Degree, well there you go) I don't know what it's like in other counties but in Jefferson County it is so hard to terminate an incompetent teacher that most of them get "promoted" to a non-teaching position.

 

Now I don't know that I would say teachers are overpaid but I certainly don't think that they are grossly underpaid as many (particularly the union leaders) would have you believe.

Studies show that a male college graduate in Kentucky can expect to make 60 percent more per week than a man with only a high school diploma.

 

 

For women, the difference is even more dramatic: A woman with a four-year degree will earn a weekly salary that's DOUBLE what a woman with a high school diploma earns.*

* Based on statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, 2001.

According to EKU and your own numbers, the teachers are dragging the average down.

Teachers are all college grads, many with masters.

 

Do you think the same can be said of the rest of the Kentucky work force? Makes the argument a little silly, doesn't it.

 

Compare their rates with their matriculated peers. They are not over paid.

The argument is not silly at all. Compared with their non-teaching peers, Kentucky teachers are relatively better off in Kentucky than in other states. Teachers' pay ranks 37th in the US and Kentucky's median household income ranks 45th in the US. Many Kentuckians are more underpaid than teachers are.

I make less then the average teacher.

 

I have a degree, in fact I have a degree in education and at one time held a teaching certificate. My profession requires a degree and special certification.

 

My profession requires me to get continuing education every year.

 

I'll be working next week while schools in Jefferson County are on spring break. That means the teachers are off for the week.

 

In June, July and August I work while teachers are on summer vacation.

 

I get a whopping 6 paid holidays a year (New Year's, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas). Teachers get those PLUS a few others.

 

I get a whopping 3 weeks of vacation a year and 10 sick days. I would LOVE to have an entire summer PLUS a Spring and Christmas (oops Winter so as not to offend the PC) break.

 

I don't get the artificial job protection of tenure. If I do a bad job I get fired and it doesn't matter how long I've been working. (You want a reward for being required to get a Masters Degree, well there you go) I don't know what it's like in other counties but in Jefferson County it is so hard to terminate an incompetent teacher that most of them get "promoted" to a non-teaching position.

 

Now I don't know that I would say teachers are overpaid but I certainly don't think that they are grossly underpaid as many (particularly the union leaders) would have you believe.

 

What do you do?

The argument is not silly at all. Compared with their non-teaching peers, Kentucky teachers are relatively better off in Kentucky than in other states. Teachers' pay ranks 37th in the US and Kentucky's median household income ranks 45th in the US. Many Kentuckians are more underpaid than teachers are.

And what is Kentucky's rank in percentage of 4 year college graduates? 48th.

 

I refuse to except the basis of your analysis. It's flawed. By your logic, if teachers were the only people in the state that had college degrees, and everyone else were a highschool dropout working at McDonalds, the fact that teachers made over $7.50 an hour would make them overpaid.

I'll keep that to myself because if I said it would probably identify me to some people and I prefer my anonymity.

 

If you doubt the veracity of my claims Rockmom and the Guru both know me and what I do, they can vouch for me.

According to EKU and your own numbers, the teachers are dragging the average down.

Household median income the salary of a single teacher

 

I am not sure of the basis form which you drew your conclusion but it should not be based on the numbers that I posted. I see no relevance of a high school graduate's income vs. a college graduate's income to anything that I have posted above.

Household median income the salary of a single teacher

 

I am not sure of the basis form which you drew your conclusion but it should not be based on the numbers that I posted. I see no relevance of a high school graduate's income vs. a college graduate's income to anything that I have posted above.

Because, most people in Kentucky (79%) do not have college degrees. Therefore, they can't expect the same earning potential on average, should they, to a profession that requires post-secondary education.

 

Doctors make a whole heck of a lot more than the median household income in the state... are they over paid?

And what is Kentucky's rank in percentage of 4 year college graduates? 48th..

Exactly. Kentucky's teachers rank 37th in the US, while according to your statistics, Kentucky's college graduates rank a lowly 48th. So why are the engineers, geologists, computer programmers, and other college graduates who work in Kentucky not constantly whining about being underpaid?

 

Thank you for filling in a gap in the statistics that I cited. Kentucky teachers are doing better for themselves financially than Kentucky's other college graduates.

 

As for your second point, which I missed in my quote because of the malformed HTML, in none of my posts have I asserted that teachers should make the median income. None. In fact, I had already clarified this position in a previous post. I will repeat it here for your benefit. It is irrelevant where teacher salaries rank in comparison to the median income level. If good teachers can be hired and retained, I do not care if they make half the median income or five times the median income.

I'll keep that to myself because if I said it would probably identify me to some people and I prefer my anonymity.

 

If you doubt the veracity of my claims Rockmom and the Guru both know me and what I do, they can vouch for me.

 

Ok...what is the minimum educational level required to obtain your job? What is the minimum level of education required to keep your job?

Kentucky is also 44th in high school graduates.

Exactly. Kentucky's teachers rank 37th in the US, while according to your statistics, Kentucky's college graduates rank a lowly 48th. So why are the engineers, geologists, computer programmers, and other college graduates who work in Kentucky not constantly whining about being underpaid?

 

Thank you for filling in a gap in the statistics that I cited. Kentucky teachers are doing better for themselves financially than Kentucky's other college graduates.

Sorry, you're wrong.

 

My link shows how few college graduates there are in this state, not what they're paid. It kills your argument. Open it next time.

Exactly. Kentucky's teachers rank 37th in the US, while according to your statistics, Kentucky's college graduates rank a lowly 48th. So why are the engineers, geologists, computer programmers, and other college graduates who work in Kentucky not constantly whining about being underpaid?

 

Thank you for filling in a gap in the statistics that I cited. Kentucky teachers are doing better for themselves financially than Kentucky's other college graduates.

 

Thanks. That makes the job so worth it.

 

By the way, I have former students that are engineers, geologists, computer programmers, doctors, nurses, etc...they come back to speak to my current students...when they mention their salaries....they all make more money than I do. I don't begrudge it of them and I have never WHINED about it.