Someone Had To Say It
This was actually a tough post to write, because like most of you, I have family and close friends who are public school teachers, a chosen profession that deserves every bit of respect that comes its way. But there come times when one has to put their personal loyalties aside and take a truly objective look at a given topic. For me, that topic was teacher pay in Texas, and if it passes the smell test.
According to a recent Dallas Morning News survey of active teachers, it doesn’t. But with all due respect, I have to enter a dissenting opinion. Bottom line, don’t listen to liberal blow hole Jim Dunnam, don’t listen to the militant teachers associations trying to terrorize Texas, because public school teachers in the lone star state are doing just fine.
Yes, I will concede that according to the Legislative Budget Board, average teacher pay in Texas ranks only 35th in a 50 state comparison. But I will submit to you that there are other factors to consider before jumping the gun on this one.
First off, you have to look at the actual average teacher salary in Texas, which in 2006 was $41,744. Then compare that to Texas’ 2006 average personal income, just $35,058. Doing so yields that in 2006, public school teachers in Texas earned 19 percent more in teacher salary than that of the overall state average income.
Lets take it one step further. That 2006 state average income ranked Texas 21th nationally, meaning that in a state doing well by average income standards, public school teachers are flourishing. In fact, if Texas’ 2006 average income level was as high as its teachers’ average income, Texas would have been in the top ten in the state by state income comparison, instead of 21st.
You also have to consider non-economical factors. Every profession has its ways of compensating its employees beyond their paychecks. For teachers, its the time honored tradition of time off. Teachers in Texas receive roughly 2 months off in the summer. They never have to ask for Christmas or Thanksgiving off because they are guaranteed holidays. And lets not forget spring break, another week off in the month of March.
Now, I’m not hating on public school teachers for having that much time off from work, I consider it to come with the territory. But when you consider that teachers in Texas earn more than a full $4,000 dollars a year more than there state and local government employee brethren (who receive only a fraction of that guaranteed time off), I believe it is very reasonable to conclude that public school teachers are adequately compensated in Texas.
So why, Dunnam, why? That staffer slaving 70 hours a week for you during session, the same one that you’re going to downsize after the Legislature gavels out, is making far less than your beloved teachers, yet you can’t surrender the fantasy. And with state mandated pay increases since ‘06 and newly created teacher incentive pay programs, the argument for increased teacher pay in Texas only loses more steam.
Give this one up, Jim. Unfortunately, on teacher pay in Texas, the comprehensive facts are not on your side.
8 Responses to “Someone Had To Say It”
By Gina on Apr 22, 2008
Do you realize that the teaching profession is one of the most important jobs that this country has, but we are not getting paid like it is. If you have been paying attention to the news lately you would have seen that there is a teacher shortage mainly due to the fact that teachers are not sticking around. I can make quite a bit more in many more industries but I CHOOSE to stay with teaching because I love it. I have had to make financial sacrifices because I love my job and couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. I don’t think it would hurt our economy any more to give teachers the respect that they deserve by paying them WHAT they deserve. I would love for you to come to my classroom and see what all it is that we teachers do before you decide that we are getting payed too much already.
By Jake Hatlin on Apr 22, 2008
Re: Gina
Sorry, Simpson and Seinfeld re-runs take up too much of my day to keep up with the news.
Actually, I appreciate your counter view. We may not agree, but this site is not in the business of oppressing opposing thoughts. But just so we are clear, I never said that teachers are paid too much. I happen to find the current average compensation to be suitable.
I’d love to hear more from you on this or other topics so feel free to hit me up at jake@oldgovernmentroad.com
I’ll leave you with one last question, Gina.
Your profession is critical, I do not dispute that. But do you think your profession is that much more critical than that of our state legislators, who get paid only 600 bucks a month to write our laws and determine how to appropriate 75 billion a year to fund such services as public education?
The point I reach for is that public school teachers are public servants in their own right, and a big part of public service is looking past the pay and doing something for the love of the service, as you yourself mentioned.
And by the by, I too have done my time at the head of the class.
By Mandy on Apr 23, 2008
I don’t know where to even start. I am amazed how ignorant people like you can be. First of all, teachers have one of the most important jobs in the world, to educate our youth. You say that you understand, however, I do not believe you truly do. I am astonished that you are complaining about teacher salaries and yet we have CEOs making more in one day than we make in a year. The hatred people have for teachers is beside me.
How can you even begin to compare the teaching profession to the average personal income. We are educated professionals. We are required to have a bachelors degree and many of us hold masters degrees. We should be paid higher due to our educational requirements.
The common misconception is that teachers have all this time off. Technically this is true, however, if you took a moment to do some research before you start spouting off your ignorant comments you would see differently. Every day I go home and I work for hours on my lesson plans. I do not get paid for all the work I do at home at night. I also come in on weekends to prepare because there is just not enough time during the week. Then take into account after school faculty meetings, parent meetings and staying late to make parent phone calls and copies. There is tons of planning time on the teacher’s part that is never considered or accounted for.
I love it when people make comments without having all the facts. Have you ever even stepped foot in a classroom? Teaching is not the same today as it was years ago. You cannot even begin to understand the day of an average teacher. Do you understand how hard it is teaching students who have learning disabilities and emotional disorders including ADD and dyslexia. Do you know what it’s like to have a chair thrown at you? I can show you. Do you know what it’s like to try to get a student to care about math when they’re coming from a broken home where they are beaten and neglected and they may not have eaten a hot meal last night? I think you would need some time off to keep your sanity as well. I don’t think people realize how hard teaching can be and toll it takes on you physically and mentally.
Teachers also must hold many hats. They are educators, secretaries, daycare providers, counselors, role models etc.. Because many of our students are not poperly cared for we must play more than one imporant role in their lives.
You say that we are public servants and we should do it because we love it. WELL, I DO LOVE MY JOB. Despite how hard it is and there are days I want to throw in the towel. HOWEVER, we have families and we must live. It is shameful how little respect teachers receive. It is very obvious that teachers don’t get into the profession for the money. I just saw a report on the news two nights ago about how a high percentage of teachers must get a second job just to make ends meet.
Oh, and then there’s our lovely benefits which are just WONDERFUL! Now let’s go back to those same government employees you were comparing us to. We don’t even have the same benefits so how are you even putting us in the same category. A good portion of our “huge salary” goes to pay for our poor health care. For example, they take $359.00 out of my pay check every month. I still have a copay of $30.00-$50.00 every time I see the doctor. I still have a $1,000 deductible to pay on top of that. THIS IS FOR A SLIGHTLY BETTER INSURANCE PLAN THAN AN HMO WHICH COVERS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! THIS IS NOT EVEN INCLUDING DENTAL! I still pay $19.00 for dental and IT DOESN’T EVEN PAY FOR CLEANINGS!!! The employer only contributes $285.00. I HAVE FRIENDS IN THOSE “GOVERNMENT POSITIONS” WHO GET CLOSE TO FREE HEALTH INSURANCE AND $10.00 COPAYS. ON TOP OF THAT, OUR PENSIONS DON’T EVEN BEGIN TO COMPARE TO THEIR’S.
Again, given this I still don’t understand your comparison. We are not close to being in the same category. WE ARE EDUCATED PROFESSIONALS!! Until you have walked in our shoes you have no right to speak about what we deserve. I wonder what you do since you have so much time on your hands to criticize. Why are you putting such a focus on teachers. I can think of a million other people taking advantage of the hard working American and this is the best you can come up with. Your mother should be ashamed of you. I am curious what your family has said. You claim to have educators in your family. I would love for you to go visit their classrooms. I challenge you to substitute teach in some schools and come back and then we can talk. See how far that dollar will get you. We’ll see if you were over compensated for your time. Spend some time and talk to those teachers. Actually listen to the issues they must face every day. Until then keep your uninformed, ingnorant comments to yourself.
By Jake Hatlin on Apr 23, 2008
Re: Mandy
We have one thing in common, I don’t know where to start either. But hey, thanks for being a reader.
By the way, all that pent up aggression is a turn-on, you want to go out sometime?
By Victoria on Apr 23, 2008
Your response to Mandy’s argument completely discredits anything that you say. Congratulations, you’re a jerk.
By LegeBoy on Apr 24, 2008
Re. legislator pay
They make $600 a month, but they also make ~$130 per diem during the 140 days of session and any following 30-day special sessions. They also have FAT pension plans, with full medical, if they can manage to hang around for 10 years. Those who are defeated or choose to leave before making tenure usually have a nice lobby position to fall back on, a la Todd “Time Warner” Baxter (nice hair - dude, seriously).
I will agree with you that staffers are grossly underpaid, especially on the House side. However, Dunnam is known for taking great care of his staff and he always feeds them through the winter, so to speak.
Glad I found your site. I look forward to future exchanges.
By Jake Hatlin on Apr 24, 2008
Re: LegeBoy
Really enjoyed your perspective. I have one thought to add to your comments on per diem. Even in a session year, if a lawmaker then takes max per diem in the interim and you combine that with their salary, you still only get about 34,500 a year, which is considerably less than the average teacher pay.
Plus, you have to concede that while there are some bad seeds out there, most legislators are not pocketing all of their per diem and instead use it for its intended purpose of making ends meet in Austin when in session.
To be fair, I have never heard anything that would counter your opinion that Dunnam is good to his staff. I hope you understand that I just used that as a broad example of the commonly accepted practice around the capitol of staffing up for session and then cutting a bunch of those staffers off once the interim rolls around. But Dunnam could be different. I hope so, I’ve been looking for a long time for a reason to somewhat respect him.
I, too, am looking forward to future exchanges. Thanks for reading.
By Roger on Apr 25, 2008
Some people believe that teachers have the most important job in the country, but what about plumbers?
Would you rather learn geometry and grammer or not die of the plague?
Now, I understand that plumbers must be taught about their profession, but my teacher was a meth-head named Gary. He could replace a ball-cock in no time flat, but I would not task him with educating our youngsters (though he did introduce me to the AWESOME burgers at The Yellow Rose)…
It is my belief that teachers should make $250,000 a year. What price can you put on stopping the next Hitler? Where was his education?
To play devil’s advocate…
Perhaps Hitler should not have been playing so many violent games. Few people know that his overwhelming hatred of others came from playing the zero-sum game of Chess.
This makes total sense, think about it…