When I was in high school back in the day, during one of our 'career days', one of the teachers spoke for the teaching profession. He said something that stuck with me. He said that if you are a teacher, unless you teach in one of the poorer areas, like inner city or Appalachia, it's highly likely that most of the kids in your class will have parents who make more than you. You better see it as a labor of love.
That was then:
In the September 2014 Census Bureau report on income and poverty in the U.S., the median household income in America across all jobs was $51,939.
For example, preschool, primary, secondary, and special education teachers earn an average of $54,740 per year.Not now. Today there is a decent chance that, if you are a teacher, you are likely making more than most of the kids' parents in your class, unless you're in one of the richer school districts in the country.
That's just a fact. True, the idea that teachers are rich or rolling in money is certainly a myth, as the Forbes article admits. But long gone is the day when educators were the brave and heroic martyrs, living on scraps while the families of their students dined on steak, just so the kids could have an education.
Nope. We personally know many teachers in our local schools who speak of their annual vacation cruises and trips to Disneyland, while the parents of their students have to ask what it's like.
Just keeping it real.
BTW, the same goes for college professors. Sure, like teachers, they do have to put the time and expense in to get there, but their average is leaps and bounds beyond what your average American makes today, as opposed to when even I was in college.
Full professors at public doctoral institutions made $126,981 in salary in the 2013-2014 academic year
Your use of average salary for teachers is misleading. ‘Average’ pay includes teachers from wealthy suburban school districts in blue states that fund public education as well as the scraps wrung from the clenched fists of red state legislatures. (I live in Texas. We have had a budget surplus for decades which is always spent on tax breaks for the 1% and never, ever on services.) The striking teachers are in those miserly red states, and they are striking for other reasons besides pay.
ReplyDeleteConsidering how many of those blue states are on the edge of bankruptcy because of lavish pensions and worker pay, it probably for the best the red states haven't crippled themselves.
DeleteBut then I've never expected much understanding of budgets or economics from leftists.
Which ones? Lousiana, as red as they come, elected a Democrat in 2015 because the Republicans destroyed the state finances so badly they were faced with losing LSU football. Kansas hasn’t switched parties, but they did kick out their most horrible Tea Partiers for destroying their finances. Most of the opiod crisis, infrastructure crisis, and education crises are in red states, most of which have complete toilet economies. In Texas, the red welfare counties in east Texas and the Panhandle are parasites off of us in the blue urban counties. We make the money which your lot hands over to billionaires.
DeleteReally? Your "evidence" is voter reactions? You know if voters were perfectly in tune with finances, then we'd never have government debts or deficits in the first place.
ReplyDeleteBut let's just look at the numbers...
Bottom 5 state fiscal rankings: Maryland, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Illinois, New Jersey.
With California at 43 and New York at 39 (as well as most other blue states in below average).
Kansas hasn’t switched parties, but they did kick out their most horrible Tea Partiers for destroying their finances.
Um... the governor was replaced because the prior one was hired to work in the Trump administration. Unless you're thinking of someone else but this statement is so vague who can say.
We make the money which your lot hands over to billionaires.
Really? Someone is taking your money, and handing it to rich people? Because once you take into account government payment transfers, the top two quintiles are the only ones actually paying taxes. (You can also see the graph here where the bottom two quintiles get more back than they put in.)
I read the George Mason report. One of the things they included was oil and gas revenues, which are not available to every state. Further, four of the five best states in that list have tiny populations. Florida is an interesting exception, but the pattern holds that their model favors really small states over large, complex ones, and any model ranking Wyoming as a model has issues.
ReplyDeleteDid not mean to take so long to reply, got busy with work.
DeleteOne of the things they included was oil and gas revenues, which are not available to every state.
. . .
"Well I wouldn't have so much debt if I was paid more!"
Yeah - no duh. So if you don't have extra sources of revenue, maybe one shouldn't spend like they do!
Further, four of the five best states in that list have tiny populations. Florida is an interesting exception, but the pattern holds that their model favors really small states over large, complex ones, and any model ranking Wyoming as a model has issues.
Yeah... most people would probably figure out there might be a lesson there...
But then what should we expect from someone who complains about red states underpaying teachers ("The striking teachers are in those miserly red states") then complains about red states taking too many government funds ("are parasites off of us in the blue").
Maybe try putting those two thoughts together sometime and process it.
Also, on the state level it's not true. MAYBE it's true on the county level, but given the general argument flaws and lack of evidence I remain dubious.
Oh right, and you were wrong again. The states on the Georg Mason report. It's not just Florida that's "an exception" but Utah (#4) is only 1.3 mil people away from Kentucky (#47). Heck Tennessee is at #8 and has a population more than 2 on the bottom 5 and is just under Massachusetts (#48) on the state pop list. Our own blog host's Ohio (#13) has more people than EVERYBODY on the bottom five except for Illinois (#49).
So try harder next time you invent reasons to ignore data.