Their Pay Has Stood Still. Now Oklahoma Teachers Could Be the Next to Walk.
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ExodusNirvana
Change is inevitable...
Union problems huh? Remind me who that stated voted for in 2016 again? 
They had similar pay in NC, but after years of fighting I believe they finally received a pay raise. The story here was similar to there with teachers moving to different states for better pay. Something I found to be interesting is that private schools are actually paying less than public schools on average.
Teacher Salaries in America
Teacher Salaries in America
This is a difficult one for me. On one hand, some of you know that I'm a teacher, an in that sense, obviously I think I deserve higher pay for the work that I do. But, on the other hand, and sadly, I don't believe that the majority of the people I work with deserve higher pay. Frankly, I think a lot of them get paid too much for the half assed effort they put forth.
From a long term perspective, I think higher pay would result in higher expectations and eventually better teachers. So, in that sense, I also think higher pay would reflect a society that actually values education, and more qualified people will enter the profession. Where I get hung up, though, is the higher expectations, and the degree to which the union protects sub par teachers.
From a long term perspective, I think higher pay would result in higher expectations and eventually better teachers. So, in that sense, I also think higher pay would reflect a society that actually values education, and more qualified people will enter the profession. Where I get hung up, though, is the higher expectations, and the degree to which the union protects sub par teachers.
This is what I wondered. Don't higher paying jobs tend to be more competitive or attract a higher talent pool? However, my concern splits from yours in that most jobs that pay their employees well also put money in the infrastructure as well. I wonder how that would play out with schools.
AnonymityX1000
Veteran
Don't over think it. You and all your sub par colleagues deserve it. There are people actively hurting society that make way more than you.
It's a great point. Facilities is a huge expense that also needs to be better funded. Every year these schools that were built in the 70's or whatever are getting older and more unacceptable. I think that's more a local issue, where the communities need to approve higher budgets for facilities. I understand being skepticle of proposed school budgets because of the money that gets squandered, though, so that's a tough one too.
Frankly, the largest budget pressure recently is from special education, which is a whole other can of worms with no easy answers.
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Good point.
Killah Ray
Carolina hail to thee....
I've been keeping an eye on this as my wife is a teacher. SC isn't unionized so I'm uncertain if a walkout would even be possible. But there are some school districts around here with a starting salary of 26k...like seriously that is just insulting.
the cac mamba
Veteran
my parents teach, this sounds like some of the shyt my dad says ( i know that will shock a lot of you
)he says its awful to watch the incessant trait of these unions to protect anyone and everyone no matter what they did or how badly they're performing. he was always in the private sector, so thats probably where his disgust comes from
. plus the fact that they extort him into paying union dues and then give it to the democrats 
the cac mamba
Veteran
its definitely bad, but you have to take into account that their employer (the state, us) is on the hook for 80 percent of their salary from about age 55 til the day they die, for doing absolutely nothing in those 20 years
ive always said that we need to pay teachers more up front and renegotiate this pension bullshyt that's bankrupting states. in the real world, they would call that a ponzi scheme
The problem is the base pay for teachers is too low.
You could always attempt increase incentive pay for teachers, but that is still an issue of funding and you'd also increase turnover in what may already be a diminished pool.
Regardless, teacher pay isn't low because teachers are bad
Sure, my question is could you pay good teachers(individually) more? Or does the union prevent that?
Edit: and I think the perception that they(teachers) are bad hurts the push for higher teacher pay... buts that’s just my opinion.
I agree with the underlined.
I'm sure you could pay teachers more based on merit. I think the system in place in some areas use metrics that suggest certain teachers should be better more so than are they actually better. For example, years teaching, degrees, type of courses they teach, type of students (EC), and other factors. I'm not sure if any place gives raises based on merit such as students grades, passing, or stack rankings. Could be interesting to see. A concern of the top would obviously be corruption or just teaching students to meet those metrics like we see now with a lot of standardized testing.