Talk with a high school student -- a window into the schools

[KnightWhoSaysNit]

Sometimes. Sometimes not. Catholic high schools pay a lot less and get better results. Since teacher effectiveness & results are not individually awarded based on merit, less so in education. Of course, teacher unions (Leftie friends) oppose merit based pay.

Notice that Paoli never addresses how to measure merit. Lefties never do this. At their core they are socialists.

This is a key flaw in unionization. Within the union one does not have a good measure to separate high performers from low performers, so you wind up with a group of low performers. You wind up with measures for "merit" that have nothing to do with merit, such as degree level and seniority.

The degree level is pertinent for entry level consideration, but after that it is meaningless. What we have in the teaching profession are people getting advanced degrees after they are already in the workforce -- a place that should provide the ultimate performance measure. Instead they are sacrificing energy that could go into the classroom or into their family for energy at night to get a degree.

 

[PaoliLion]

Really? Or are you overlaying a national value, that blends in high cost coastal data, with data for a fly-over state?

Details matter.

Ohio is right in line with the national average. 130K isn’t even remotely close to the 90th percentile in a place like Washington.

 

[Darth_VadEER]

If you double salaries for teachers, you would very quickly improve the quality of teachers. Talented people would enter the field (or not exit the field), there would be more competition for jobs, and under-performing teachers would stand-out and get fired at a higher rate. It’s that simple.

I live in district where teachers retire making over 100K. I think the cap is around 120K, and awesome pension.

They aren't any better than the teachers working in other districts and school performance has been declining.

The truth is the district has become a giant nepotism ring. Teachers are married to other teachers in the district and their kids become teachers in the district.

I mentioned here once before that I have neighbors who are both retired teachers and their daughter is also a teacher and lived with them...their household pulls in around 300K yearly from the local tax payers.

Meanwhile, they've had to close elementary schools and threaten middle school closures because their budgets are entirely swallowed salaries.

During covid the schools were virtual. My sons teacher was up for retirement and threw the towel in for the year - 1 zoom meeting per week. She's walking away with a 6 figure pension and she's in her 50s. Taxpayers get a few more decades to fund her lifestyle.

We got my daughter into a private catholic school, where her teacher isn't making big money - and she was incredible.

 

[LionDeNittany]

I live in district where teachers retire making over 100K. I think the cap is around 120K, and awesome pension.

They aren't any better than the teachers working in other districts and school performance has been declining.

The truth is the district has become a giant nepotism ring. Teachers are married to other teachers in the district and their kids become teachers in the district.

I mentioned here once before that I have neighbors who are both retired teachers and their daughter is also a teacher and lived with them...their household pulls in around 300K yearly from the local tax payers.

Meanwhile, they've had to close elementary schools and threaten middle school closures because their budgets are entirely swallowed salaries.

During covid the schools were virtual. My sons teacher was up for retirement and threw the towel in for the year - 1 zoom meeting per week. She's walking away with a 6 figure pension and she's in her 50s. Taxpayers get a few more decades to fund her lifestyle.

We got my daughter into a private catholic school, where her teacher isn't making big money - and she was incredible.

This is why there is such a push against charter schools and school vouchers.

These schools would not stand on their own against other schools.

 

[Jerry]

The root cause of this “surrendering” to the education system, our children’s broader rearing, is the evolution from a single parent income, with one parent at home with the children, to a two parent income. We’ve given up, collectively, as parents, our responsibility to raise our own kids.

My wife and I decided early in our kids school years to have one parent at home to be involved with our kids. So my wife, a nurse, basically cut back her hours over a two yr period, so we could evolve our family economics, to the point that she was only working 1 day a week. After the kids were in HS, she got a job as a school nurse, which allowed her to work but have basically the same hours as our kids. So she was still at home and available for them when they were not in school. She could shuttle them when needed. She could attend all of the sports activities. She was available to help with homework. She had the summers off with the kids. It was the best of both worlds. She had a decent income and her medical benefits were better than mine, so we used her benefits.

Unfortunately not every couple can do what we were able to do. With my wife being a registered nurse, we had options not everyone has.

I think you hit the nail on the head...and Knight makes a key related point a few posts later.

Everybody has to make their own choices based on their own circumstances and priorities, but I do think people sometimes confuse what they want with what they need. The two are not the same.

My wife quit a good government job to stay home with the kids. For a time we lived in a townhouse with 3 bedrooms...1 bathroom...and 5 kids. Finally moved before the 6th kid was born to a 4-bedroom house where we stayed for almost 30 years. My wife eventually opened an in-home daycare which proved an extremely valuable source of extra income for the family.

Through it all, we didn't have everything we wanted, but we somehow always ended up with everything we needed. In fact, at the end of the day, all anyone really needs is some luck, the grace of God, and a good woman...in what order I'm not sure...

 

[KnightWhoSaysNit]

Ohio is right in line with the national average. 130K isn’t even remotely close to the 90th percentile in a place like Washington.

Is that household income or individual salary? Care to provide a source?

 

[bourbon n blues]

I think you hit the nail on the head...and Knight makes a key related point a few posts later.

Everybody has to make their own choices based on their own circumstances and priorities, but I do think people sometimes confuse what they want with what they need. The two are not the same.

My wife quit a good government job to stay home with the kids. For a time we lived in a townhouse with 3 bedrooms...1 bathroom...and 5 kids. Finally moved before the 6th kid was born to a 4-bedroom house where we stayed for almost 30 years. My wife eventually opened an in-home daycare which proved an extremely valuable source of extra income for the family.

Through it all, we didn't have everything we wanted, but we somehow always ended up with everything we needed. In fact, at the end of the day, all anyone really needs is some luck, the grace of God, and a good woman...in what order I'm not sure...

It's true.