The Imperial Dominion of the South's Legislature

[Pacific Councillor Big Wiggly Style]

Gentlemen,

I have compiled a state-by-state record of the average salary for a teacher of elementary, middle and high schools:

Average Salaries Of IDS Teachers

Texas

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Texas earns a base salary of about $48,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Texas earns a base salary of about $50,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Texas earns a base salary of about $49,000 per year.

Arkansas

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Arkansas earns a base salary of about $45,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Arkansas earns a base salary of about $45,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Arkansas earns a base salary of about $47,000 per year.

Louisiana

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Louisiana earns a base salary of about $48,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Louisiana earns a base salary of about $49,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Louisiana earns a base salary of about $51,000 per year.

Tennessee

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Tennessee earns a base salary of about $48,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Tennessee earns a base salary of about $45,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Tennesse earns a base salary of about $47,000 per year.

Mississippi

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Mississippi earns a base salary of about $44,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Mississippi earns a base salary of about $44,500 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Mississippi earns a base salary of about $45,500 per year.

Alabama

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Alabama earns a base salary of about $46,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Alabama earns a base salary of about $43,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Alabama earns a base salary of about $47,500 per year.

Florida

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Florida earns a base salary of about $49,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Florida earns a base salary of about $50,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Florida earns a base salary of about $51,000 per year.

Georgia

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in Georgia earns a base salary of about $47,000 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in Georgia earns a base salary of about $50,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in Georgia earns a base salary of about $52,000 per year.

South Carolina

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in South Carolina earns a base salary of about $42,500 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in South Carolina earns a base salary of about $47,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in South Carolina earns a base salary of about $42,500 per year.

North Carolina

Elementary School: On average, an elementary school teacher in North Carolina earns a base salary of about $40,500 per year.

Middle School: On average, a middle school teacher in North Carolina earns a base salary of about $41,000 per year.

High School: On average, a high school teacher in North Carolina earns a base salary of about $41,500 per year.

Sources:

http://www.salary.com/ (for various states)
http://www.rileyguide.com/ (for various states)


Thank you.

[Emperor SJoyce]

Thanks for pulling that together! Now we can get some real solution to this.

[VP Duke]

Someone needs to brief me on what is going on. Do legislators get secretaries like we did in the Senate?

[Emperor SJoyce]

Someone needs to brief me on what is going on. Do legislators get secretaries like we did in the Senate?

Right now we're debating/amending/discussing my education bill. And not to my knowledge.

[Yelnoc]

First of all, mega-thanks to 20RP12.  Those are definitely reasonable statistics, and once we get around to teacher pay they will be the bases of our legislation.  Also, welcome Duke.  Feel free to jump right in.

2.) I'm not going to kill summer vacation, I'm going to chop it down to a month and a half and add a week to spring, a week to fall, and a week or two (whatever's left) to winter; this'd give you six weeks of work to get your car (and if you wanted to work over the now month-long winter break, you can do that too), it'd slow learning loss , and it'd shorten summer vacation (not sure about up north, but down here in Florida, summer is a miserable sweaty weeks of 90 degree sun time of the year).

I still prefer the old way.  And everything they teach you in high school is meant to be forgotten because almost all of it is too general too ever be useful.  If I could have my way in this education debate, I would copy the Singapore model.

3.) I'd assume that schools may already be self-funding some clubs or such through fundraisers/PTA money; this'd be the region providing additional support to that.

Right, I'm saying we need to figure out how much.

8.) Florida did a 22:1 cap or something; I'd be open to an amendment that reduces it to 40:1 for teachers that aren't core academic teachers (PE, health, art, cooking, computing, etc)

That would be fine with me, considering no class room I have seen is meant to house 40 kids.

9.) Not like I know either. Shall we summon the SoIA to give us more numbers on this?

I'm wondering if this adds too much unnecessary complexity.  Remember, we're going to have to enter all of this into the regional budget.  I'm guessing the intern teachers are meant to be on a lower pay grade?

10.) Maybe put in a clause that "after attaining the degree they seek, degree recipient shall teach for at least five continuous years in an IDS public school." Ideally, we're not paying them, we're just letting them go to a public university (most likely a local community college or online college) without paying for it. In most circumstances, they'd already be teachers pursuing, say, gifted certification, and we'd just be making it easier for them to afford online classes or whatever they're taking.

That would be fine with me.  Let's get some input from other legislators before putting the amendment up to a vote.

11.) Summon the SoIA! And maybe add in something like "and are available for student use" (I just realized that they could give the administration a bunch of computers and say they have computers, even though students can never use them).

Will do and yes, that will go in the omnibus of amendments.

13.) Perhaps just create the review board and have them pick out which textbook made by Pearson/Houghton-Mifflin/McGraw-Hill or whoever submits textbooks that they think is most accurate, and/or make editing suggestions to enhance historical accuracy (I know that companies already make textbooks according to state standards; Florida Edition, Texas Edition, California Edition, New York Edition are the most common, so the board could just set textbook standards that the companies would then meet).

Sure.  Would you mind writing up these amendments, by the way?  I figure since it's your bill, you know what you want better than me.

14.) I'd say three years or even four years of language in high school would be a good amount (pretty sure that's the FL standard), but that it can include foreign language classes taken in 7th/8th grade, so it adds up to at most 2 years in high school.

What I would rather do is rearrange the entire education structure.  Plumbers and welders don't need three years of a foreign language, but anyone seeking a higher education ought to have one.  By that same token, not everyone needs to go to college.  I have a rather fuzzy idea of where I would like to take the IDS schools if you are interested.

[Emperor SJoyce]

Omnibus Amendmentizations:

Amendment 1 to Is Our Children Learning Act: Strike Section 2 and insert the following amendment:

2.) In an attempt to minimize time spent away from education, and in recognition of the climate of the IDS, summer vacation shall be shortened to ten weeks, with an addition week off in November for Thanksgiving, two weeks off for Christmas and New Year's, two weeks off in March or April starting on Lazarus Saturday for Spring Break, a week off in February for President's Day, and a week off in October for Fall Break during the week of Columbus Day.

Amendment 2 to Is Our Children Learning Act: Strike Section 8 and insert the following amendment:

8.) Class size in schools shall not exceed a 25:1 student-teacher ratio for core academic subjects (including science, mathematics, English, foreign language, and social studies); class size shall not exceed a 35:1 student-teacher ratio for teachers not in those subject areas.

Amendment 3 to Is Our Children Learning Act: Strike Section 10 and insert the following amendment:

10.) In order to teach, teachers must hold a bachelor's degree with a major in an area related to the field in which they wish to teach, or be National Board Certified. The region shall subsidize tuition for teachers studying for a higher degree related to their chosen field (such as a Master's or Doctorate). If a teacher has their tuition subsidized by the region, after attaining their degree, said teacher must teach for at least five continuous years at an IDS public school unless terminated by school district before that time.

Amendment 4 to Is Our Children Learning Act: Strike Section 11 and insert the following amendment:

11.) All schools shall have Internet and computer access to a level of 10:1 students per computer available for student use at least.

Amendment 5 to Is Our Children Learning Act: Strike Section 12 and insert the following amendment:

12.) Schools shall be reviewed by an engineering contractor in order to assess the integrity of the building upon request of the principal or 40% of teachers; in the event that the school is found to be inadequate infrastructure-wise, steps will be taken to either fix the problems or to create a new building.

Amendment 6 to Is Our Children Learning Act: Strike Section 13 and insert the following amendment:

13.) An independent textbook review board, including notable professors such as James W. Loewen, Richard P. Feynman, representatives of the Atlasian Academy of Arts and Sciences, and others, shall be created to select standards for IDS textbooks and then select the most accurate textbook submitted by a textbook corporation.

[Emperor SJoyce]

So there's your omnibus amendments thingy. I now only cut summer vacation by a couple weeks to be offset by President's Day/Columbus Day breaks. Hope that's an acceptable compromise. And ir we're discussing foreign models to copy, I'd prefer Finland.

But do give out your fuzzy ideas on reforming the IDS school system, and all you other legislators (Duke, Kal, Mecha), feel free to throw in your ideas too.

[VP Duke]

I'm just going to add my thoughts whenever I can find the bill because it seems like a mess otherwise. We need to reformat how we debate these bills so they are easier to follow and improve efficiency. But that is for a later date.

Where is the original bill? Education reform is probably my lease knowledgable area, but I can give my thoughts when I find the bill.

[Fmr. Emperor PiT]

I'm just going to add my thoughts whenever I can find the bill because it seems like a mess otherwise. We need to reformat how we debate these bills so they are easier to follow and improve efficiency. But that is for a later date.

Where is the original bill? Education reform is probably my lease knowledgable area, but I can give my thoughts when I find the bill.

     The original bill is here. While we have not been consistent in doing so throughout the history of the Legislature, new bills are typically proposed there.

[VP Duke]

Is Our Children Learning Act?

1.) In an attempt to produce better students through the recruitment of better teachers, pay for teachers shall be $15 per student per day taught.

Seems a bit, um, confusing to calculate. How about we just raise the pay per grade? I tend to think that each higher grade requires more expertise, and with more expertise comes a higher salary demand. Many of my upper level teachers in high school had PhDs.

2.) In an attempt to minimize time spent away from education, and in recognition of the climate of the IDS, summer vacation shall be shortened to six weeks, to be offset by an increase in the lengths of spring, fall/Thanksgiving, and winter breaks, in particular the former two due to climate being nicer during those times.

Terrible idea. I have never been in favor of year long schools. Granted, I think I once heard those students do better, but often times people's schedules cannot work to where their kids are out of school for so long during winter months and not during summer. Plus, summer is when memories are made. I don't want to be responsible for ruining those kids memories. Plus, our southern girls demand a summer time of fun on the beach. I am a man of The People.

3.) After-school sports, performing arts, creative arts, and/or academic activities shall be supported by the government of the IDS through an increase in funding for such activities, designed to keep children active and thus away from criminal or delinquent behaviors that may arise from them being alone/bored/unsupervised.

Sure, I am all for funding the arts. I think they are a vital part to a proper education.

4.) A tax credit shall be created for personal and corporate income taxes, allowing individuals/corporations to deduct a certain amount of income taxes to donate to education, which shall go to public schools to assist in paying for after-school programs, field trips, and/or school supplies. Individuals may deduct up to $500, couples filing joint returns may deduct up to $1000, and corporations may deduct up to $5000.

Works for me. How is our budget looking? If we even have one...

5.) Regardless of school district, if transportation can be arranged by the student or their family, children may be enrolled in any public school that has not reached maximum capacity for students.

I don't know anything about busing or public school problems like that, but I tend to favor choice, so that's fine.

6.) Magnet schools (defined as public schools with specialized courses or curricula) shall be established throughout the region as a draw for gifted, talented, or otherwise extraordinary students, in order to challenge these students academically. A model for this system would be the Governor's Schools of Virginia.

Magnet schools tend to be full of strange people with no social skills, but if it means keeping them out of our private schools, I am all for it. Are magnet schools mostly government funded? I knew a girl from one once. What a creep she was.

7.) After-school tutoring shall be supported by the region for struggling students to bring them back up to grade level.

What does this mean? Supported as in financially? Don't most schools tutor students who are falling behind, or am I simply out of touch?

8.) Class size in schools shall not exceed a 25:1 student-teacher ratio.

Agreed. I hate large classes, and the larger the class, the higher chance a student falls through the cracks.

9.) Teachers shall first undergo a two-week-long observation period of several classrooms, then a three-month-period as a teacher's aide, then a year-long period as an "intern teacher", during which they shall be treated as a full teacher. After that year, evaluations of the teacher from parents, other teachers, and administrators shall be compiled in order to determine if the teacher should be hired. Review of teacher performance shall be performed every five years after date of hiring to determine whether said teacher is still performing to an adequate standard.

tl;dr

But seriously, should this be a separate bill? Do we want to include a teacher training problem inside a bill that generally deals with education? Or is this an omnibus type thing and I just don't understand?

10.) In order to teach, teachers must hold a bachelor's degree with a major in an area related to the field in which they wish to teach, or be National Board Certified. The region shall subsidize tuition for teachers studying for a higher degree related to their chosen field (such as a Master's or Doctorate).

This should be mandatory, yes. There may be a risk they would leave after obtaining their degree, but we can include a clause in their contract that bounds them to teach up to 5 years or if they take federal school funds to pay for their education.

11.) All schools shall have Internet and computer access to a level of 10:1 students per computer at least.

Again, too out of touch to know how big of a problem this may be. We never had an issue at my school.

12.) Schools shall be reviewed by a (something) in order to assess the integrity of the building upon request of the principal or 40% of teachers; in the event that the school is found to be inadequate infrastructure-wise, steps will be taken to either fix the problems or to create a new building.

See above. I think most schools have a staff that keeps them in order, but what do I know?

13.) A new line of textbooks shall be authorized, to be created by an independent textbook review board, including notable professors such as James W. Loewen, Richard P. Feynman, representatives of the American (Atlasian?) Academy of Arts and Sciences, and others, and sent to school systems to replace previous textbooks.

Are textbooks really the problem? And is such an initiative worth spending money on for at best a marginal improvement? Private companies make solid textbooks. I don't see the need for the government to set up a committee for it.

14.) To graduate high schools, students shall be required to take at least three years of a useful foreign language; such a language is defined here as: English (for non-English speakers), French, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, German, Italian, Malay, Chinese, Dutch, Persian, Romanian, Serbian, or Swahili (not all languages are available at all schools).

I had to take 3 years in college and 4 years in high school, but that is really uncommon. I favor learning foreign languages even though I am awful at it, but I think making it mandatory for everyone is a bit much. I think you'd see a lot of people fail to graduate because of it. I think 2 years is fair but I wouldn't go any further than that.

At any rate, those are my thoughts on the bill as it stands, although, as I said, I am not very well versed on the education system. I have never attended a private high school or middle school so your milage may very with me here.

[Fmr. Emperor PiT]

     This sort of thing is not my forte, though I do suspect that including a dead guy on the textbook review board might be problematic.

[Emperor SJoyce]

     This sort of thing is not my forte, though I do suspect that including a dead guy on the textbook review board might be problematic.

Just be happy that I didn't put Howard Zinn on it like I almost did

[Emperor SJoyce]

Seems a bit, um, confusing to calculate. How about we just raise the pay per grade? I tend to think that each higher grade requires more expertise, and with more expertise comes a higher salary demand. Many of my upper level teachers in high school had PhDs.

That+the data we just got from 20RP12 is what we're actually going to do instead.

Terrible idea. I have never been in favor of year long schools. Granted, I think I once heard those students do better, but often times people's schedules cannot work to where their kids are out of school for so long during winter months and not during summer. Plus, summer is when memories are made. I don't want to be responsible for ruining those kids memories. Plus, our southern girls demand a summer time of fun on the beach. I am a man of The People.

Would you be open to shortening summer just by two weeks instead of six, adding on a week during Columbus Day and a week during President's Day?

Sure, I am all for funding the arts. I think they are a vital part to a proper education.

We just need to crunch some numbers on this.

Works for me. How is our budget looking? If we even have one...

We do have one, it is looking like this.

I don't know anything about busing or public school problems like that, but I tend to favor choice, so that's fine.

This wouldn't be any kind of busing, it's more of a "If you live in a bad school district and want to drive to another/if you live on the edge of a school district border and it'd be easier to go to another, you can" type of thing.

Magnet schools tend to be full of strange people with no social skills, but if it means keeping them out of our public schools, I am all for it. Are magnet schools mostly government funded? I knew a girl from one once. What a creep she was.

Magnet schools are indeed mostly government-funded; my county (Pinellas) has quite a lot of magnet schools. This proposal would actually most be in line with Yelnoc's ideas for reform. My school system has a variety of magnet schools; I personally attend a gifted magnet (which basically sucks all the smart kids from one part of the county so they can all take challenging classes together), one of my engineery-type friends attends a technology magnet, there's an arts magnet near my house, there's a journalism magnet, IB magnet (where I'm going for high school), there's a business magnet, there's a Cambridge program magnet, construction magnet, medical magnet, marine science magnet, architecture magnet, cop magnet, and a national guard magnet. It's basically a way to allow more kids to specialize during high school so they know what they want to do and can do coming out of high school (medical magnet kids I think are certified physical trainers coming out of HS).

What does this mean? Supported as in financially? Don't most schools tutor students who are falling behind, or am I simply out of touch?

Yeah, as in financially. Most do, but some don't.

tl;dr
But seriously, should this be a separate bill? Do we want to include a teacher training problem inside a bill that generally deals with education? Or is this an omnibus type thing and I just don't understand?

This was intended to be an all-encompassing education bill; the original bill was where I just vomited my ideas for reforming education onto a Textedit document and copied it over.

This should be mandatory, yes. There may be a risk they would leave after obtaining their degree, but we can include a clause in their contract that bounds them to teach up to 5 years or if they take federal school funds to pay for their education.

There's an amendment that says they have to teach in an IDS public school for 5 years after they get the degree if the region subsidizes tuition for them.

Again, too out of touch to know how big of a problem this may be. We never had an issue at my school.

Not really a big problem, but there's probably a few school districts up in the Ozarks or somewhere in rural Mississippi or something that don't, so it'd help those schools.

See above. I think most schools have a staff that keeps them in order, but what do I know?

Most schools have a janitorial staff but they're not really trained for this kind of structural-integrity-checking.

Are textbooks really the problem? And is such an initiative worth spending money on for at best a marginal improvement? Private companies make solid textbooks. I don't see the need for the government to set up a committee for it.

We're just setting up a review board for private textbooks in the latest amendment, to set standards for what'll be in IDS textbooks and then having private companies make books to those standards (which they already do; most of my school textbooks say "Florida Edition" on them).

I had to take 3 years in college and 4 years in high school, but that is really uncommon. I favor learning foreign languages even though I am awful at it, but I think making it mandatory for everyone is a bit much. I think you'd see a lot of people fail to graduate because of it. I think 2 years is fair but I wouldn't go any further than that.

I've taken two years in middle school and'll take 4 in high school, so maybe just have em take it freshman and sophomore?

[Senator Napoleon]

I'm just going to add my thoughts whenever I can find the bill because it seems like a mess otherwise. We need to reformat how we debate these bills so they are easier to follow and improve efficiency. But that is for a later date.

Where is the original bill? Education reform is probably my lease knowledgable area, but I can give my thoughts when I find the bill.

Sorry to butt in, but this is one of the changes I pushed for in the Northeast. I don't think you will hear anyone asking to revert to this style of legislature.

[Emperor SJoyce]

I'm just going to add my thoughts whenever I can find the bill because it seems like a mess otherwise. We need to reformat how we debate these bills so they are easier to follow and improve efficiency. But that is for a later date.

Where is the original bill? Education reform is probably my lease knowledgable area, but I can give my thoughts when I find the bill.

Sorry to butt in, but this is one of the changes I pushed for in the Northeast. I don't think you will hear anyone asking to revert to this style of legislature.

So we should move to the independent threads for each bill?

[Fmr. Emperor PiT]

I'm just going to add my thoughts whenever I can find the bill because it seems like a mess otherwise. We need to reformat how we debate these bills so they are easier to follow and improve efficiency. But that is for a later date.

Where is the original bill? Education reform is probably my lease knowledgable area, but I can give my thoughts when I find the bill.

Sorry to butt in, but this is one of the changes I pushed for in the Northeast. I don't think you will hear anyone asking to revert to this style of legislature.

So we should move to the independent threads for each bill?

     I don't know that we debate enough bills to make it worthwhile.

     For other suggestions, I think we should try to go back to quoting bills when we open debate on them. I'd also suggest changing the topic title to reflect the bill currently up for debate & the page that the debate starts on, but the topic creator is no longer active in Atlasia. I guess we could close this thread & start a new one if we really wanted to do that.

[VP Duke]

Let's just worry about this bill for now and possible changing the way the legislature works eventually. I don't want to take away from the business at hand.

[Yelnoc]

Omnibus Amendmentizations:

Amendment 1 to Is Our Children Learning Act: Strike Section 2 and insert the following amendment:

2.) In an attempt to minimize time spent away from education, and in recognition of the climate of the IDS, summer vacation shall be shortened to ten weeks, with an addition week off in November for Thanksgiving, two weeks off for Christmas and New Year's, two weeks off in March or April starting on Lazarus Saturday for Spring Break, a week off in February for President's Day, and a week off in October for Fall Break during the week of Columbus Day.

Amendment 2 to Is Our Children Learning Act: Strike Section 8 and insert the following amendment:

8.) Class size in schools shall not exceed a 25:1 student-teacher ratio for core academic subjects (including science, mathematics, English, foreign language, and social studies); class size shall not exceed a 35:1 student-teacher ratio for teachers not in those subject areas.

Amendment 3 to Is Our Children Learning Act: Strike Section 10 and insert the following amendment:

10.) In order to teach, teachers must hold a bachelor's degree with a major in an area related to the field in which they wish to teach, or be National Board Certified. The region shall subsidize tuition for teachers studying for a higher degree related to their chosen field (such as a Master's or Doctorate). If a teacher has their tuition subsidized by the region, after attaining their degree, said teacher must teach for at least five continuous years at an IDS public school unless terminated by school district before that time.

Amendment 4 to Is Our Children Learning Act: Strike Section 11 and insert the following amendment:

11.) All schools shall have Internet and computer access to a level of 10:1 students per computer available for student use at least.

Amendment 5 to Is Our Children Learning Act: Strike Section 12 and insert the following amendment:

12.) Schools shall be reviewed by an engineering contractor in order to assess the integrity of the building upon request of the principal or 40% of teachers; in the event that the school is found to be inadequate infrastructure-wise, steps will be taken to either fix the problems or to create a new building.

Amendment 6 to Is Our Children Learning Act: Strike Section 13 and insert the following amendment:

13.) An independent textbook review board, including notable professors such as James W. Loewen, Richard P. Feynman, representatives of the Atlasian Academy of Arts and Sciences, and others, shall be created to select standards for IDS textbooks and then select the most accurate textbook submitted by a textbook corporation.

I still oppose section 2.  The others are fine by me though.  Let's try and wrap up discussion on these other points quickly so that we can go back to 1.

[Emperor SJoyce]

Anyone else have anything to say?

And I can see objection to a six-week reduction, but now it's only two weeks...

[Emperor SJoyce]

I propose the following amendment:

Strike Section 1 of the Is Our Children Learning act and insert the following amendment:

1.) In an attempt to produce better students through the recruitment of better teachers, a minimum starting salary of $57,000 (to be adjusted yearly for inflation) for teachers shall be instituted throughout the IDS. A minimum starting salary of $28,000 (to be adjusted yearly for inflation) for full-time education service professionals (custodial, security, food services, health/student services, paraeducational, clerical, technical, skilled trades, and transportation workers in the full-time employ of a public school system) shall be instituted throughout the IDS.

[Yelnoc]

Hmm....

That's nearly double the base salary for a janitor.

Does anyone else think we should just let schools hire their support staff at whatever rates they choose to set?

[Emperor SJoyce]

Changed to $28,000. And these are just baselines for lowest pay, so they have upwards flexibility.

[VP Duke]

A minimum salary of $57,000 for ALL teachers? Is that a feasible amount to pay? I don't know many kids starting in other professions making that much, like in banking (not big banks). If we can afford that, then fine, but that seems like a lot for a starting salary.

[Fmr. Emperor PiT]

A minimum salary of $57,000 for ALL teachers? Is that a feasible amount to pay? I don't know many kids starting in other professions making that much, like in banking (not big banks). If we can afford that, then fine, but that seems like a lot for a starting salary.

     Well that has been changed.

[Emperor SJoyce]

A minimum salary of $57,000 for ALL teachers? Is that a feasible amount to pay? I don't know many kids starting in other professions making that much, like in banking (not big banks). If we can afford that, then fine, but that seems like a lot for a starting salary.

Data from Charlotte says that the average teacher starts at $32,000, compared to $55,000 for technical/computer support and $47,000 for public accounting. In Houston, teachers start at $39,000, while project engineers start at $51,000 and registered nurses start at $47,000. In Austin, teachers start at $22,500, while project engineers start at $55,000. In DC, teachers start at $30,000, compared to $57,000 for public auditors. So yeah, $57,000 is a feasible amount to pay; the goal is to make teaching as good as (or better) than those other professions, so that kids aren't turned off of teaching due to the low pay; now it's comparable.