That's another thing as well, there's the line that teachers have to provide their own supplies. But the degree to which is left up to the teacher.
And then there's the months off.
I'm pretty orthogonal to it now considering my wife is an elementary school teacher. And there is a degree of truth to the complaints, but they are often exaggerated as well. She still complains about how much I work.
https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-p... https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-p...
If I found myself continually grousing about my low pay relative to other professions, and all of the indignities and hardships I suffered, I'd find another job.
I understand that teaching isn't a highly paid profession, but when you only work ~75% of the year, that doesn't seem so terrible...
In an absolute sense I'm well paid and I'm happy with my situation. If I were to engage in a keeping up with the Jones' attitude then I'd probably be bitter. I don't have kids so my need to keep up is greatly diminished from those who do have kids.
This is the real issue with inequality. Seeing so many other people have it much better than you despite relatively the same level of education and intelligence makes people angry. It's hard not to compare but it's much healthier emotionally not to compare.
Not only that, but that assumes single income, with mandatory union membership and three months of vacation a year, during which time one can pursue higher education, work a side job or relax. That's a better deal than most others get at the finger-chopping factory or slaving away in a call center.
Thanks to recent education initiatives over the last few decades everything is about teaching to a handful of standardized tests so the job is automated to the point of being glorified babysitting anyway.
It's a cushy gig with benefits most would kill for. I don't have sympathy for teachers anymore.
50,000 * .65 = 32,500 / 12 = $2,708.
$700 for health insurance, dental, life insurance.
Home in a neighborhood where you feel reasonably safe : $900 month. Hopefully in an OK neighborhood, because you can't afford a private school.
$300/month for a car that actually starts reliably in the winter for the next five years.
Child care for a couple of small children ($500/mo per child).
You won't teach in the state of Nebraska without a four-year degree. $18,000/year*4, $72,000 of debt.
Let's hope nothing major comes up.
[1] https://financialaid.unl.edu/budget.html
[2] http://www.collegecalc.org/colleges/nebraska/university-of-n...
While it's only for a few years that's still off by 3 times in my experience.
Why would a public school teacher not send their kids to public school? A private school will typically offer tuition discounts for the children of employees.
$300/month for a car? Really? You can get a decent car cheaper than that.
In state tuition is going to be closer to $6k - $7k a year.
Nebraska's average salary is $36k.
That's a salary better than the national average.
I mean, I respect the hustle. Get paid and all that. No shame in the game. But pretending that you already aren't doing better than most people is kind of being dishonest.
The woman I wound up marrying said much the same. She heard other teachers complaining about the pay and how they need summer jobs, etc. She was like, "This already pays better than any other job I've had, if I could survive off of that, this is no problem".