[geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: wa2egp at att.net
>Date: 2007/04/16 Mon AM 10:29:31 CDT
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore

>-------------- Original message ----------------------
>From: Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at verizon.net>
>>
>> >From: wa2egp at att.net
>> >Date: 2007/04/15 Sun PM 12:38:51 CDT
>> >To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>> >Subject: Re: [geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore
>> 
>> ><snip>
>> >
>> >> In my town, the average teacher salary is about $62,000/year, PLUS benefits 
>> >> (including no employee health insurance contribution) - I think that is a 
>> >> fair day's pay, and their crys of being underpaid are ignored by me.
>> >
>> ><snip>
>> >
>> >> He heads off for an MCSE certificate and the promise of secure career making 
>> >> $60K+/year! (just like they said on the radio last night ;^)
>> >> 
>> >> Lionel
>> >
>> >Average salary of $62K after, what?, 10-15 years.  Other guy starts at $60K.
>> 
>> District average - budget divided by head count - $62K
>
>If it's a district like mine where 80% are at the top, it skews 
>the average when you compare to another job where few get to the top.
>Be careful using averages.

Well, let's see then, if 80% get nearly $62K (the average, some above, more below), then starting pay is bad, but only 20% of the teachers make significantly less than that figure...

>> >And you think teachers do get paid enough?  Hoo boy!  Obviously, teachers
>> >did not do their job in the math skills department. :)
>> 
>> I think they do, yes. Teachers don't start at $62K, but most end higher when 
>> they retire from our distict.
>
>I started at $13K.  My wife started at a major company two years later at $25K.
>Same education.  This is my 27th year.  Only a few years ago did my pay 
>exceed hers due to a balloning in the last two years before top scale.  BTW,
>before I taught at my present job, I left a factory where I got $16K.

27 years ago, teacher pay sucked, now it doesn't - it is pretty reasonable, IMHO, if not excessive in SOME cases. Very few on this list (or in my home town) get guaranteed pay raises in spite of annual performance. Job security is another alien concept to most of my neighbors, but those are just certain elements of the jobs - it takes a different person to teach than it does to say, program, engineer, etc.

Lionel