Bob
SoWal Insider
a proper base salary would be enough to buy a stater home in the community in which they live. without checking i would say starting pay in walton county is low mid 30s, and i would pay for it with a state income tax.
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Learning and Teaching Do Matter
- Thread starter GoodWitch58
- Start date
Winnie
Beach Fanatic
I disagree. They are paid around $45,000 a year average? They have every major holiday and Summer off. They work less days and their work day is shorter than many other professions. I agree that working with children is a challenging proposition. It's really more of a calling than a career.
What is a proper base salary for teaching? I read (in an old article) that overall teachers make about $30 an hour. Isn't that fair? The same article puts dentists at about $44 an hour. It looks fair to me. I'll bet many teachers make more. There is potential for even better pay if we are allowed to reward good teachers financially. Do teachers have it easy? - Jul. 28, 2003
Every profession is a choice. Individuals have to decide for themselves what career choice is "worth it" to them. I'm glad there are people who choose to teach and are very good at it. If a person feels more comfortable making $90,000 yearly average, teaching is probably a poor choice of careers.
And as to not basing bonus money on test results; have you come up with a more efficient evaluation of progress? Your earlier idea of peer review would be abused. Even when honestly carried out, there is too much bias and subjectivity for that. Results need to be quantified and then rewarded. We could wait until the class graduates and see how their lives turn out, but it would be a long wait for elementary teachers to realize rewards for their hard work in those cases. Right now, testing is the best way I've seen to judge student knowledge. I'm open to better ideas.
Bob
SoWal Insider
are you a teacher?
30ashopper
SoWal Insider
Current salaries (administrative):
http://walton.k12.fl.us/Employees/contracts/a/aschedule.pdf
Instructional:
http://walton.k12.fl.us/Employees/contracts/i/insss.pdf
So what adjustments would you make to these rates, and since you will not be able to pay for it through a state income tax, I assume you would be willing to accept higher property taxes or some other local tax increase like the sales tax?
Bob
SoWal Insider
$34,700. that will get you great talent? you could pay a proper starting salary by amending the state constitution to include a highly graduated state income tax. or you can keep cranking user fees, imposing a poverty tax through the lottery, and starving local government with the property tax shell game currently in place.
Bob
SoWal Insider
so you are not a teacher?
30ashopper
SoWal Insider
Susan Horn
Beach Fanatic
I just have to chime in about the use of teacher evaluations. I think it's a great way to assess performance, especially in schools and communities with stable populations.
On the other hand, in schools and communities with high transient populations (such as ours--last time I checked, student turnover from one year to the next in Walton County was abut 50%), and the lack of nationwide core curriculum for schools that would help all students in a certain grade level to have learned the same materials at the same time, it's not fair to students or teachers to rely solely on standardized test scores as indicative of teacher quality. (And there's the whole problem of teaching to the test rather than educating the students, that I won't even go into just now.) The only way I've been able to think of to balance that unfairness would be some sort of weighting system to account for high transience and other variables beyond a classroom teacher's control.
As for fat, there is PLENTY of fat in the education system as best I can tell. In many localities, the school district is more of a jobs program than a venue for educating children. It's very political, very old school (pun intended), very head-bangingly frustrating if you have a child in school in such a place and come up against the circle of public-school-powers-that-be wagons.
I do not know how to fix it because if you want to get elected to positions of hiring and firing authority, you have to make all those cushy job folks happy, and really the whole machine, or they will make sure you don't get elected. Especially true in communities where the gov't and school district are among the biggest employers.
On the other hand, in schools and communities with high transient populations (such as ours--last time I checked, student turnover from one year to the next in Walton County was abut 50%), and the lack of nationwide core curriculum for schools that would help all students in a certain grade level to have learned the same materials at the same time, it's not fair to students or teachers to rely solely on standardized test scores as indicative of teacher quality. (And there's the whole problem of teaching to the test rather than educating the students, that I won't even go into just now.) The only way I've been able to think of to balance that unfairness would be some sort of weighting system to account for high transience and other variables beyond a classroom teacher's control.
As for fat, there is PLENTY of fat in the education system as best I can tell. In many localities, the school district is more of a jobs program than a venue for educating children. It's very political, very old school (pun intended), very head-bangingly frustrating if you have a child in school in such a place and come up against the circle of public-school-powers-that-be wagons.
I do not know how to fix it because if you want to get elected to positions of hiring and firing authority, you have to make all those cushy job folks happy, and really the whole machine, or they will make sure you don't get elected. Especially true in communities where the gov't and school district are among the biggest employers.
30ashopper
SoWal Insider
I'd be willing to accept a hike in local taxes in return for educators coming together to define a performance system designed to act as an incentive program that 1) attracts better educators, 2) keeps good educators on the payroll and continually pushes them to do better and be more involved, and 3) unconditionally weeds out bad educators over a period of time.
As far as local salaries go, $34,700 starting really isn't all that bad. But I think making that a base and providing the opportunity for involved and committed teachers who do a good job to earn much more makes good sense and is a good investment. I don't even have any kids but I understand the long term value good education provides for everyone.
As far as local salaries go, $34,700 starting really isn't all that bad. But I think making that a base and providing the opportunity for involved and committed teachers who do a good job to earn much more makes good sense and is a good investment. I don't even have any kids but I understand the long term value good education provides for everyone.