You Think Athletes Are Paid Too Much?

how about those teachers...

Published on March 26, 2004 By wnx_decoy In Sports & Leisure

"Teachers Are Paid Too Much"

I am fed up with teachers and their hefty salary guides. What we need here is a little perspective. If I had my way, I'd pay these teachers myself.... I'd pay them babysitting wages. That's right... instead of paying these outrageous taxes, I'd give them $3.00 an hour out of my own pocket. And I'm only going to pay them for five hours, not coffee breaks. That would be $15.00 a day - each parent should pay $15.00 a day for these teachers to babysit their child. Even if they have more than one child, it's still a lot cheaper than private day care.

Now, how many children do they teach a day - maybe twenty? That's $15.00 x 20 = $300 a day. But, remember they only work 180 days a year!! I'm not going to pay them for all those vacations. $300 x 180 = $54,000. (Just a minute, I think my calculator needs batteries.)

I know now you teachers will say what about those who have ten years' experience and a Master's degree? Well, maybe (to be fair) they could get the minimum wage, and instead of just babysitting, they could read the kids a story. We can round that off to about $5.00 an hour, times five hours, times 20 children. That's $500 a day times 180 days. That's $90,000....HUH???? Wait a minute, let's get a little perspective here. Babysitting wages are too good for these teachers. Did anyone see a salary guide around here??

Author Unknown - it could have been any one of America's 2.5 million "overpaid" public school teachers

Again, it's not a Cornbread, original but I really liked this letter because of the overly abundant amount of sarcasm and truthfulness at the same time. It really made me feel like buying something for each of my teachers just for being my teacher. If you want to know where I found it you can go and just search for "teachers are paid to much" and you'll probably get about 10 matches to your search. There are a few sites that have other stories in them too so I would recomend looking it up just because.

P.S. -- Yes, imajinit this is my reply to your article.

Capt. over and out!

Comments (Page 2)

imajinit

on Mar 28, 2004

it's a damned good thing that teachers aren't in it for the money if you think about it... I mean, if they were, what kind of message would that send to students?

JillUser

on Mar 28, 2004

Ah, I can add something here since I started out college pursuing a teaching degree. I asked a lot of fellow students why they chose teaching. You know what the #1 response was? "I didn't really know what else to do". Sure, there are those good teachers that chose the field due to a "calling" but there are a lot of them, and I think we have all had those stinko teachers, that just went into teaching for lack of a better idea or because they get summers off.

As far as making the money stretch over the months they don't teach, they can make money some other way during those months if they can't get by on what they bring in the rest of the year. The fact of the matter is, they are not working 40hrs a wk for as many weeks of the year as other professions. I know, teachers out there are thinking "I don't just work 40hrs/wk. I take work home with me every day. I still have to check in to work over the summer too." To that I say, many other professions, including but not exclusively businees owners, never get away from work. People have the idea that teaching is a much more noble calling so they make excuses for them.

Don't get me wrong, I have a huge appreciation for teachers. I have help out in my son's classroom. Teachers are essential to society but then again, every profession is. Do people go on endlessly about how important morticians are? Maybe it is partially because we all have experience with teachers. We can all relate to having had a great teacher. I can personally say I had a lot more mediocre ones than great ones but the memory of the great ones is much stronger. There are teachers in some areas of the US who are over paid and there are some that are under paid. To say that all teachers are not getting paid enough is just incorrect. I think pay should be based on how well you do your job not how long you trained to do it or how long you have been doing it.

As for there not being enough teachers, that might be true for secondary ed but there is no shortage of elementary ed teachers currently.

Draginol

on Mar 28, 2004

I think becoming a teacher is a calling. I don't think you could find anyone who is teaching who chose it as a career for the money and career potential growth.

Most I've met became teachers for the summers off.

wnx_decoy

on Mar 29, 2004

I think my sister is looking into it for that reason too. At the same time, I think she might also be interested because she THINKS it will be easy.

Capt. over and out!

Wahkonta Anathema

on Mar 30, 2004

A great post. About as good a piece as one can find. It makes the point 'for' by using the argument 'against' it, then makes one laugh at the self-evidence of it - genius. I will give a copy to a teacher friend, but am sure it is in the break room already. Thanks.

wnx_decoy

on Apr 04, 2004

Hey, no prob. I just fealt I had to share this genious paper my teacher showed to me.

Capt. over and out!

Cathy P

on Apr 10, 2004

Captain Cornbread with all due respect this is much more appropriate.

Mrs Tenure: "Thanks Sally for coming over on such short notice to babysit our
three children. Its still $3.50/hour, right?"

Sally: "Well no, its actually $21.25/hour. I have a different rate for
teachers."

Mrs. Tenure: "$21.25?!? That's outrageous! I'm a teacher, and we all know
how underpaid teachers are. What makes you think I should pay such a
ridiculous price?"

Sally: "I read something on the internet about how nice it would be if teachers
were paid like babysitters. So I figured I should be paid like a teacher."

Mrs. Tenure: "I won't pay $21.25 for babysitting!"

Sally: "Suit yourself, we're on strike! Just try to find a babysitter!"

Mrs. Tenure: "Ok, fine. We'll be gone for three hours."

Sally: "That's $210."

Mrs. Tenure: "$210? You said $21.25 per hour!"

Sally: "Yes, but I need an extra hour of preparation time. Your oldest might
want to play ball, so I'll need a coaching stipend. Oh, and don't forget
Babysitter Institute time, retirement contributions, and my free health care.
Then there's the education bonus since I just got my grade school diploma..."

Mrs. Tenure: "Yes, yes, but even all that can't add up to $210!"

Sally: "It doesn't, its only $105. The other $105 is for Joanne."

Mrs. Tenure: "Who is Joanne?"

Sally: "Joanne is the other babysitter. We need smaller babysitting classes to
provide the best babysitting possible. You don't really expect me to babysit
three kids at a time, do you?"

Mrs. Tenure: "Why not? You used to babysit for three, four, even five children
at a time. What's different now?"

Sally: "Times have changed. Kids just aren't as good as they once were. With
all these 'new' problems, like broken families, drugs, and rock music, we're
just swamped. Then there's the 'unfunded mandates'"

Mrs. Tenure: "Wait a minute, what 'unfunded mandates'?"

Sally: "The state requires that we cook meals for children in our care during
mealtimes. And we are required to put children in bed within 30 minutes of
the parent's prescribed bedtime - WITHOUT ADEQUATE STATE FUNDING!"

Mrs. Tenure: "But that's your JOB! What do you think we're paying you for in
the first place?!?"

Sally: "Oh we agree with the goals. After all, our Association fought to
require
these mandates, but the state won't step up and provide the necessary
funding to make it happen."

Mrs. Tenure: "Wow, that's quite a racket! But I guess we have no choice. We'll

be back at 10:00pm."

Sally: "Just a minute, what about the $210?"

Mrs. Tenure: "You want it NOW? We used to pay afterwards."

Sally: "The Babysitter Association contributed to the campaign of State
Senator Mary Rose. She's not running for reelection, so she pushed through
a bill requiring babysitting to be paid for in advance. Its for the kids."

Mrs. Tenure: "You win. Here's the money. See you later."

(Mrs. Tenure returns later that evening to a house in shambles)

Mrs. Tenure: "My god, what happened here?!"

Sally: "We're all done here, goodnight Mrs. T."

Mrs. Tenure: "Hold on, this is totally unacceptable!"

Sally: "If you're unhappy, let your Babysitting Board know."

Mrs. Tenure: "That's not good enough! My children weren't cared for at all!
And what is Joshua doing up?! I said 9:00pm for him!"

Sally: "We got the other two into bed. That's over 66% success, isn't that good

enough? Oh, I know, you're one of those radicals who thinks that EVERY
child should get appropriate care! It's just not realistic!"

Mrs. Tenure: "I've had just about enough of you. You're fired!"

Sally: "I don't think so. I've been babysitting since 6th grade, so you can't
fire
me!"

Mrs. Tenure: "So let me get this straight. You cost too much money, do a poor
job, refuse any form of responsibility for results, and I can't fire you?"

Sally: "That sums it up nicely."

Mrs. Tenure: "I can't believe the outrageous deal your Association got for you
babysitters! I'm stuck unless I want to pay a private babysitter. Since I seem

to have no choice, can you come back next month?"

Sally: "No dice, Mrs. T. My three month break starts next week, but you can
send the checks directly to my parents house."

Mrs. Tenure: "I will NOT pay 12 months of babysitting fees for only nine
months of babysitting? Just who do you think you are?"

Sally: "I'm a babysitter, at least until next year."

Mrs. Tenure: "What happens next year?"

Sally: "I'm retiring. Heck, I'll be almost 17 by then! But I'll pull in 70% of
my
latest salary for the rest of my life, that's why my rate went up so much."

Mrs. Tenure: "Retiring? Nobody in the real world retires that young, much
less making almost as much as they made while working! How can the state
afford that?"

Sally: "It can't. Every year, the state has to kick in about a billion dollars
to
keep our retirement system running. But most people don't know about it, and
we like it that way!"

Mrs. Tenure: "But you simply can't continue to make this kind of money without
annoying local taxpayers. Pretty soon, they'll refuse to give you any more."

Sally: "Its covered, Mrs. T. We finance a few front organizations working to
raise state taxes so people don't get a chance to vote on it. Mr. Tiremart is
working hard to bypass the public and get us our money. Goodnight."

(Sally and Joanne leave)

Joshua: "Mommy, why are you so upset?"

Mrs. Tenure: "Those babysitters are an outrage! We should stand up to them!
I'm so glad our teachers union doesn't pull stuff like that!"

Wahkonta Anathema

on Apr 12, 2004

Ah, touche !
wanted to put this back up. The discussion is joined and well done also, cathyP.

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