LOS ANGELES - The typical starting salary for teachers should be $40,000, the head of the country's largest education union said Sunday, pledging a renewed fight for higher pay.
But the National Education Association's challenge is enormous. Not a single state pays its new instructors an average of $40,000, with the U.S. average hovering close to $30,000 for beginning teachers, according to the American Federation of Teachers, another teachers union.
NEA president Reg Weaver, speaking to reporters at the union's annual meeting, said his officers will work with their state and local chapters to lobby state leaders and school boards.
Weaver, poised to begin his second three-year term as the union's president, said higher pay for veteran teachers and classroom aides will also be a political priority for the NEA. No cost for the ideas was given, but they would likely require hundreds of millions of dollars or more.
"The issue is where the money is going to come from," Weaver said. "And to respond to that, my answer is I don't care. I don't care where the money comes from. Because when this country thinks and decides that something is important, they find the money."
Teacher pay has long been a point of contention within education. Salaries are often seen as an important reason why schools struggle to hire and keep teachers, which is particularly true for young instructors, men and minorities, Weaver said. But an increasing number of states and districts want to make classroom performance or student scores a bigger factor in teacher pay.
Overall, teachers were paid an average of $46,752 last year, a slight raise that did not keep pace with inflation, the NEA says. Pay is usually based on teacher seniority and education.
The pay proposal is part of a broader NEA priority list to close the achievement gap between white and minority children and reach out to minority communities. The NEA push comes as it is at odds with the Bush administration. The union has sued the federal government over Bush's No Child Left Behind law, arguing that it puts unfair financial burdens on states and districts..
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nea.org, Challenges facing schools require public support, delegates told.
Delegates attending NEA"s 2005 Advocacy Symposium yesterday heard about challenges facing public schools"ranging from the impact of low pay to persistent achievement gaps among students. And speakers urged them not to go it alone.
"Teachers need partners," the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. told delegates at a session on minority outreach. "They shouldn"t have to do their job in isolation. My mama, my teacher Mrs. Robinson, and my minister formed a love triangle around me. Not having partners makes a difficult job harder."
The symposium kicked off with a session on NEA"s new campaign to gain a minimum starting salary of $40,000 for all teachers and an appropriate living wage as starting pay for all education support professionals. There"s considerable room for progress, noted Larry Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute. Despite often repeated myths about teacher pay, "teachers work more hours per week than workers in other comparable professions, and make $116 less per week, or 14 percent less per hour worked." Sarita Gupta of Jobs with Justice detailed a strategy for a successful living wage campaign, emphasizing the need to "involve labor and community allies quickly and early."
Other sessions at the Advocacy Symposium zeroed in on students who aren"t well served by the public school system. At a session on closing the achievement gaps, for example, Eugene Garcia, dean and professor of education at Arizona State University, noted that English language learners "fall through the cracks. They don"t wave their hands and shout, "I"m not learning, teacher!"" Garcia said. "They slide away."
Delegates attending the session on minority outreach heard about the challenges facing growing numbers of students from minority communities"and the importance of honoring their culture. "Nowhere in the public education equation should students ever have to give up who they are," said David Beaulieu, president of the Board of Directors of the National Indian Education Association.
At a session on The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, delegates were briefed on efforts by the partnership"an organization of business community, education leaders, and policymakers"to create a model of learning that encourages students to think critically and analytically. "We see many of these skills being taught in gifted programs," noted NEA Executive Director John Wilson. But, "all kids need these skills."
$30,000 is about $577 a week and about $14.50 an hour for 52 weeks.
$30,000 is about $728 a week and about $18.20 an hour for 9.5 months.
$40,000 is about $770 a week and about $19.20 an hour for 52 weeks.
$40,000 is about $970 a week and about $24.25 an hour for 9.5 months.
I did a HotJobs salary search and the median expected base salary for a typical elementary school teacher in Milwaukee, WI is $48,244.
$48,244 is about $927 a week and about $23 an hour for 52 weeks.
$48,244 is about $1170 a week and about $29.30 an hour for 9.5 months.
This doesn't include all the benefits that they recieve.
I think that the union feels that teachers should be treated like professional athletes, to be paid before they play.
If $30,000 isn't good enough to start, then shouldn't Senator John McCain classify this as another "job that Americans won't do?"
A teaching degree is a basket weaving degree, you get a bachelors in psycology which you can do drunk and hungover, then a year more for a credential. Thats why theres no shortage of psyc majors.
What does an engineering major ask?
How do we make this work?
What does an accounting major ask?
How much will it cost to make this work?
What does a psycology major ask?
You want fries with that?
What state are you from, metro? Would you care to post a list of your state's college course requirements for a degree in elementary or secondary education?
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Maybe this is a starting point for combining higher salaries AND teacher performance??
Can get a "Hell yeah!" on that one ? I'm really sick of the teacher's union demanding ever increasing salaries when they refuse to weed out the dead wood in their own ranks . Turn out better students and I'll be more than happy to side with you .
No offense to the teachers who post here , but if I turn in a substandard performance I know better than to ask for a raise . Sorry , but I also agree that starting out at $25-30,000 is more than enough for 9 months work unless you really outshine your peers .
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What does an engineering major ask?
How do we make this work?
First off (as an engineer) if a bachelor's degreed engineer with honors can actually find a job the starting salary is somewhere in the area of about $40K -- IF they can find a job.
The benefits are typically very basic, if you cut off an arm you'll get a band aid, most companies use crappy HMO type deals.
I know of several guys with PhD's in engineering who are making in the mid 40's with 15 to 20 years experience. Engineers are considered to be dog schit in industry because they can ship those jobs to india or china -- like they have been.
Sorry , but I also agree that starting out at $25-30,000 is more than enough for 9 months work unless you really outshine your peers . ****[/font][/i]
Kevin, I mean no offense by this, but the notion that teachers work nine months per year, 8-3 per day is based on ignorance.
If you disagree, I'd invite you to our house. My wife is a teacher and I can tell you that many nights, when 8 p.m. rolls around, the floor of our living room looks like the production line at Bowater with all the paper lying around. As a journalist, I put in a lot of hours, but she puts in more than I do. Yes, they do get more time off than normal professions, but it's hardly two months or three months. Teachers spend a lot of time in training during the summer months. And, let's not forget extracurriculars that require coaches, instructors, leaders, etc. . . . many hours for which the supplimental paycheck breaks into literally pennies per hour.
Finally, if you think that $25-$30k is plenty enough salary for teaching a room full of kids, why don't you try it for a week and then tell me what it's worth to you?
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Maybe this is a starting point for combining higher salaries AND teacher performance??
I agree. It should be. The NEA is a joke anyway, but they really create a bitter taste in the mouths of the general populus by constantly demanding this or that while fighting every attempt to bring accountability into the classroom. The NEA is so dead-set against NCLB because it creates accountability. The A-word is a VERY frightening word to 95 percent of public school teachers.
Tenure? A good concept in idea, but in need of MAJOR reform. Unfortunately, once a teacher is rehired for his or her fourth year in the classroom, they're pretty much set for life. They can spend the next 20 years doing a little bit of nothing, get paid for it, and then retire on a halfway decent draw. It's ridiculous and the NEA would do themselves a huge service if, instead of blocking attempts to reform tenure, they'd embrace and demand that reform. But they'll never do that, because they're not interested in the welfare of their teachers. Not really. All they're interested in is the $$$ (I think dues are about $700 per year now, which is outrageous) and getting their political ideas into public education. The NEA ranks right up with the ACLU on my list or worthless organizations.
Thankfully, NCLB, even with all the major flaws it has, will bring about some accountability that is sorely needed, if we can get politicians to keep their hands off of it long enough for it to start to have an affect.
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Teachers Union Eyes $40K Starting Salary
