Overall, should teacher salaries in the US be increased?

[TDAS04]

Yes (sane)

While bad teachers exist, most teachers in the US deserve more than they make.

[politicus]

It is necessary to increase the status and benefits of teachers to attract better people to teaching, so yes. In a knowledge based society you should have some of your best and brightest involved in education.
At the same time it needs to be easier to fire incompetent teachers.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Vastly. Doubled at the minimum.

[ElectionsGuy]

Absolutely. At the same time, I think teacher pay should be individualized. Most good and bad public school teachers get paid around the same, which I think is ridiculous.

[TDAS04]

In my state, I would increase average teacher pay by about 150%.

[AggregateDemand]

Yes, and most of the administrators and specialists need to be eliminated. The redundancy of school administrators is unsustainable, and it's the reason for the extraordinary cost of compulsory education in the US.

Once upon a time, the people with Master's degrees and PhD's were in the classroom. Now they often sit in a backroom somewhere, making pointless bureaucratic policy decisions that make school districts worse.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Obviously. Teachers should be paid like doctors.

[RR1997]

Of course (sane)

I've heard that teacher salaries are around $45,000 a year in Illinois (correct me if I'm wrong). That's a ridiculously low payment. Good public school teachers deserve to make at least around $100,000-$120,000 a year.

Absolutely. At the same time, I think teacher pay should be individualized. Most good and bad public school teachers get paid around the same, which I think is ridiculous.

^
I also have to agree with ElectionsGuy on this issue.

[RR1997]

Obviously. Teachers should be paid like doctors.

Although I do believe that teachers should be paid more, I don't think that they should be paid as well as doctors are. First of all doctors have to go through MUCH more schooling than teachers do (much more college debt), being a doctor is a much more stressful job (especially cardiac surgery and neurosurgery, one little screw up and you're done), doctors have MUCH longer work hours and days worked a year than teacher do, doctors have to pay for malpractice insurance and typically face quite a few lawsuits, the on-call schedule (working all day) that doctors have to sometimes go through is a pain, doctors have to face much more excessive bureaucracy, and the list goes on and on.

I mean the average neurosurgeon makes $500,000 a year and nuerosurgeons can make up to $800,000 a year. Doctors typically make around $160,000 to $800,000 a year (depends on speciality). Should there really be public schools teachers making that kind of money?

[user12345]

$100,000-$120,000 a year.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Agree with R1997 on the stress of being a doctor, aside from GP's. I hardly think that the huge stress of talking to old people and reasoning with people begging for antibiotics is comparable with the unenviable life of an inner-city teacher.

As for teachers definitely paid more. Perhaps I'm biased, as my dad and paternal grandparents (and a large number of family members) are in the profession. But the money paid to teachers is an investment into the future. It's no different to an individual placing their savings into an ISA. I agree with politicus in that lousy teachers shouldn't be kept on the books though.

[krazen1211]

Someone seems to have missed the skyrocketing amount of wealth drained by the government education industry complex over the last few decades.

Link

[Goldwater]

Absolutely. At the same time, I think teacher pay should be individualized. Most good and bad public school teachers get paid around the same, which I think is ridiculous.

^^^
I completely agree with this.

[Oakvale]

Obviously. Teachers should be paid like doctors.

Like American doctors?

[DC Al Fine]

Nova Scotian teachers start at about $50 000 and cap out around $80 000 plus generous benefits. That's a bit much in my mind, but its in the ballpark of what American teachers should be paid. I was quite surprised to hear what American teachers make.

I'm not sure why people think teachers should make doctor wages though. I mean, the lady who taught me in 4th grade was a smart dedicated woman, but I just don't see her services being worth $120k.

[7,052,770]

Duh.

[Miles]

Duh.

[KCDem]

Of course. This shouldn't even be a question.

[bedstuy]

I don't think it makes sense to pay teachers more on average.

But, you have to factor in the whole picture.  If someone just has a bachelor's degree, they get the summer off and a large amount of vacation time, pretty normal and decent hours, they get good benefits and tenure, that all factors in.  So, it's really a range.  For a teacher in South Dakota fresh out of school, $40k might be perfectly reasonable.  For an experienced teacher in New Jersey who has a masters in chemistry, is on a professional development committee and coaches football, $100k might be reasonable.  But, this idea that we should increase all teacher salaries by 50%, that's bonkers.

[IceSpear]

Duh.

[Simfan34]

No, of course not. We know that throwing money at education doesn't improve quality.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Obviously. Teachers should be paid like doctors.

Like American doctors?

Nah, more like European doctors.

[DemPGH]

Yes, absolutely.

It is necessary to increase the status and benefits of teachers to attract better people to teaching, so yes.

That's really crucial, especially when you consider what the job market looks like for PhD holders these days!

[ingemann]

Yes, absolutely.

It is necessary to increase the status and benefits of teachers to attract better people to teaching, so yes.

That's really crucial, especially when you consider what the job market looks like for PhD holders these days!

PhD? What kind of teacher need a PhD, is a American PhD worth a lot less than I thought it was?

While I personal prefer a specialised teacher education, a barchelor are more than enough for primary schools and even for high schools (through you could argue for a masters being needed for status reasons).

[DemPGH]

Yes, absolutely.

It is necessary to increase the status and benefits of teachers to attract better people to teaching, so yes.

That's really crucial, especially when you consider what the job market looks like for PhD holders these days!

PhD? What kind of teacher need a PhD, is a American PhD worth a lot less than I thought it was?

While I personal prefer a specialised teacher education

The value of an American PhD is dependent entirely on where it is from. Don't be so smug as to assume they are all equally worthless. My point was that teaching, especially in a good district, beats pissing around with unstable adjunct work, post docs, and the like. You're right, a high school teacher does not need a PhD, although it's been known to happen, and certainly in areas like administration and counseling (they like for principals to have these although it's not required).

Masters degrees are all but required these days, and from what I hear from those who know is that preference in hiring is given to people who already have them. I don't know about ghetto schools, though. They may well assume that an already highly educated person won't last but a couple days or a week, and they're probably right.