A teacher complained about low teacher pay on the pages of the ever-shrinking Clarion-Ledger recently. Leland High School teacher Alexandra Melnick opined:
Several bills the Mississippi legislature is set to review this session propose increasing teacher salaries. I applaud this but can’t stop thinking about the educators, many of whom I know, who’ve left the profession and will never benefit from these changes.
Two of my friends worked as waiters after school to make ends meet and then came home to lesson plan and grade until midnight, then taught a full day sleep deprived. They loved their students and openly cried when they had to finally leave. They just couldn’t survive on a beginner teacher’s average salary of $28,079 per year....
Whoa. $28,079 per year? The Kingfish has studied enough teacher pay records to know something is not right about that statement. Yours truly checked with the Mississippi Department of Education and discovered (as suspected) the minimum beginning teacher's salary in Mississippi is $35,890. MDE is even kind enough to post the salary schedule online.
An annual salary of nearly $36,000 is not a great salary but it is substantially more than $28,000. The Leland teacher continues:
These educators should have never had to leave the classroom, or be forced to put their own needs against the needs of a school district. Teachers deserve to make a living wage, and the state of Mississippi needs to ensure equitable pay for talented, committed young professionals dedicated to educating our children.
According to a recent report, "Nothing in the Pipes: Educator Crisis in Mississippi," a $3,000 across-the-board pay raise would produce a living wage for teachers looking to pay off student debt and raise a family.
All teachers have earned undergraduate degrees and most have advanced degrees. The legislature has proposed a $1,000 pay raise ($1,100 for teachers with one to three years of experience). While I welcome this small step, it would not help entice new teachers into the profession or prevent current ones from leaving.
A $1,500 pay raise this year and another $1,500 pay raise next year would begin to make Mississippi teachers’ salaries on a par with other states. This, however, is just a start. In order to make teachers’ salaries truly equitable, legislators need to consider inflation, cost of living, and the other costs like student loans that teachers incur.
$36,000 per year is not a living wage? Mississippi is not Massachusetts when comparing the cost of living. As stated earlier, $36,000 per year is not a great salary but it is not dismal for someone starting her career right after graduation from college. Ask any cub reporters with journalism degrees what their salaries are*, but I disgress. She claims:
My husband and I are both teachers yet we do not make enough to ever hope to have children. How can we accept for our education system to pay its employees so little that it impacts their ability to have a family?
Mississippi cherishes its tradition of family values, but so many teachers who support the families of Mississippi cannot afford to start their own. Rest of column.
Assume this teacher and her husband are both certified teachers. Their combined salaries should be at least $72,000 per year. The Melnicks can't have children on $72,000 per year?
The Kingfish could be wrong. The Leland School District might pay Ms. Melnick under the state minimum. If that is the case, someone should ask the district why it is doing so. That is a story yours truly will be happy to write.
Kingfish note: Just one innocent little question. Has Ms. Melnick pursued the national board certification? She can earn a $6,000 a year stipend if she obtains board certification (although it requires at least three years of experience). Unfortunately, the Leland School District only has one such teacher and she is a counselor. Since she quoted an older pay scale, she probably has the requisite three years experience to begin working on board certification.
* I'll give you a clue. $37,000 was the threshold for furloughs at the Clarion-Ledger. If the reporter made less, he never went on furlough. If your favorite reporter never disappeared for a week at a time, that means he or she made less than a beginning teacher in Mississippi.
For the record, this website does not oppose teacher pay raises if the money is available. That is one of the reasons JJ scrutinizes PERS. There will be more money for teacher pay raises as well as other worthy needs if the taxpayers can quit bailing out PERS every few years. The last PERS bailout would have doubled the teacher pay raise that year from $1,500 to $3,000. Ponder that on the tree of woe.
51 comments:
Ask any cub reporters with journalism degrees what their salaries are*, but I digress.
You don't have to possess a high school diploma to be hired as a journalist. There is no journalist test, no journalist licensing, no certifications, no requirements for continuing education.
In what profession can you complain about your employer on the front page of the Clarion Ledger and still stay employed?
Preach it, King!
That's around $29,000 after state and federal taxes. After PERS it's $26,680.
$2200 a month after taxes and deductions, if you're lucky and don't have vision or dental insurance. In 2021 that's not a lot of scratch to live on. It's not enough for a teacher, it's not enough for a reporter (I don't get the analogy -- because reporters don't make a lot, teachers shouldn't make shit either?)
Also, the National Board Certification costs around $2,000 to get. If you're clearing $2200 in the metro area, I doubt very seriously you're saving very much.
Not everyone has a blog to make ends meet.
So we're these teachers waiting tables during the summer, fall, spring or Christmas breaks? Teachers work less than 40 weeks a year. Do the math and your $36k comes to over $46k. And $46k is good starting salary for ANY public job in MS.
I never said otherwise. Most school districts will pay for the certification.
Everyone knows that is a gross figure but thank you for showing up to show how much you know, Captain Obvious.
It's all about the narrative. Keep repeating the mantra teachers are horribly underpaid and they hope the public will buy into it.
$36,000 is not a bad salary right out of four years of college and working nine months. Job security after just two years, really good retirement, and decent benefits. Guaranteed raises every year for 35 years, and you're making at least $50K per year by the time you're 50 years old. Substantial jump in pay just for getting a Masters degree with no change in duties. Stick around until you're 60 years old and you can retire while still taking home over $40,000 per year in retirement for the rest of your life.
Are you going to get rich as a teacher? Probably not. But you certainly can have a good life and not lack for anything if you manage your finances properly.
I meet plenty of teachers working second jobs.
As for Masters', if he has to pay for it, the teacher usually has to borrow the money for the tuition. In other words, is the extra $$ worth the cost of the masters?
10:25 said it right. How about a show of hands for all the college graduates that started off on the bottom of the pay chart and worked their way up. Yep, looks like a lot of hands. Life's a bitch, deal with it. OBTW, my wife is a teacher.
The state reimburses for the first attempt at Nat. Board Cert. Always has.
Surely the CL will run a follow up story pointing out this inaccuracy
That's around $29,000 after state and federal taxes.
So now taxpayers have to pay teachers enough to meet a minimum net?
Parents' Campaign paid Nancy Loon TY2018 $113,216. Does she work harder than teachers?
Teachers get off every holiday that rolls around, extended breaks during Christmas & New Year's, spring break & many weeks ff during summer. They're actually pretty well paid for the time they actually spend working. And if they want more money, institute standards-based requirements - the higher the test scores their students earn, the higher graduation rates, the more they get paid. Performance reviews are standard in private business, why not public schools?
Do teachers get paid better at the private seg academies all over this state? Most folks who have never left the metro may not know that nearly every county has at least one private school where the middle to upper class whites (and Asians) send their kids so they don’t have to go to public school with The Blacks.
Mississippi historically hasn’t valued public education for its citizens. They don’t pay teachers a fair wage (my mom was a teacher) or invest in their schools. If you’re poor, there’s no hope. Hard to “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” when you’re in such a shitty situation. Smart Mississippi kids quickly realize that education isn’t valued so they leave, contributing to brain drain. I mean why stay, why put your kids in that pathetic public school that the state can’t wait to underfund? GTFO and find greener pastures. You get what you pay for Mississippi and right now you’re fully invested in last place.
Governor Reeves has never sent his kids to public schools.
That’s all you need to know.
Telling teachers to fuck off and get a second job to make ends meet is the most Mississippi thing I’ve ever heard. No wonder this state is so fucking stupid.
@10:40 don't know if Loome works harder than teachers but she arguably produces far fewer effective results than teachers working in the trenches.
1. A $1,000 (per year raise) divided by 187 (teacher contract days)--NOT including morning duty, afternoon duty, sporting events duty, grading papers/lesson planning at night and continuing education in the summer) = $5.35 per day, BEFORE deductions.
2. Now, if only the MDE would publish the salaries of administrators (as they do the proletariat) taxpayers would see where public education funding REALLY goes.
3. Thank goodness we don't have teachers' unions...we see how well that's going...
Did I say they should have to have second jobs? Nope. I just said quite a few of them do.
KF is right to call out folks for not comparing apples to apples.
Gross and take-home salaries are totally different animals. For example, if my salary is set at $50,000/year, my actual take-home pay would be around the $37,000/year gross starting teacher salary depending on any pre-tax retirement savings/insurance. The $28,000 argument just doesn't hold water.
HOWEVER, teacher pay is an issue. Schools pay folks to EXTRA stipends "teach" two blocks of study hall and two blocks of sport a day. These "teachers" make way more money to do way less work than rank-and-file teachers. IMO, this is the most obvious public policy blunder our state makes when teacher pay is considered.
It sounds silly, but part of the teacher pay issue comes down to paying talent/knowledge. The state has a ton of people in the classroom who have absolutely no idea how to teach. Said plainly, talented young people will not choose to major in education when they see the projected salaries of literally any other profession. The state should consider a pay structure that encourages teachers to enroll in teacher-preparation college programs instead of continuing to hire math majors who couldn't find a job anywhere else.
Also, many of the districts in the State of Mississippi provide a local supplement. For example, a new teacher with a bachelors degree in Rankin County would earn an annual salary of $39,190 (local supplement of $3,300). For a new teacher holding a masters degree the starting salary is $41,580 with the local supplement. These figures represent teachers who are on a 187 day contract. I know many early career professionals who earn less salary working more days/hours.
Link from RCSD website showing pay scale.
https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1571922739/rcsdms/criyrhvymotdmivbjczc/GBA-E1RCSDTeacherSalarySchedule052219.pdf
@kingfish that’s what you’re suggesting my friend. Get a second job.
That is the oldest excuse in the book that has been used for years. "I have to work all day only to go home to grade papers and work on lesson plans." I continuously ask my child how school was and what she did. A majority of time her answer is "We were told to get our computers out and work on module XX." Time after time I am told the teachers don't teach or even talk at all during class but just have the students work on their computers. All grading is done by computer. Even math which is stupid.
So do teachers deserve a raise. Maybe they do as I still value public education. But please don't continue to use those same worn out lies. We all know what's up.
You can pay teachers a million per year, but if there is not someone at home that wants their child to succeed in life they dont have a chance. That is why society is in the shape it is now.
All public employees in Mississippi have lagged over the last decade. Raises have been very small and have not kept pace with inflation. There were some pretty substantial increases for teachers in the early 2000's, but they have stagnated since. Average teacher pay has gone from somewhere around 45th in the nation to dead last by a wide margin.
The time-honored journalist/reporter, Kingfish, forgot to say his quickly researched figure is current starting pay while the lady who wrote the article is referencing people she knew who had left the system, perhaps several years back, who knows.
And as to employees who can speak publicly (including in a letter to the editor) about their place of employment, particularly government employment, there's that pesky little ordinance referred to as The First Amendment To The U.S. Constitution.
"36,000 per year is not a living wage?" $17 bucks an hour!!??
No, it's not.
Calculations show that for this teacher and husband to earn an actual living wage and have only one child it would need to be $55078.40 per year.That's 29 dollars an hour.
We're talking about college grads, in charge of education of our children, earning $17 an hour, on an 2080 hour basis. Target pays $15. Costco is paying $16, starting. Do you think those store jobs are equivalent?
Let's play the "they get off all summer and can earn millions more in side jobs" game.
That's a lie. Teachers average 250 days a year (2000 hours as opposed to a whopping 2080 in a 40 hr week job), and get paid for 180.
Every afternoon, they aren't shooting off in their luxury Kias to the mansion to lounge poolside. They are there still. Extracurriculars, help for students, professional development, making copies, prepping the classroom, etc etc. 25 minutes for lunch, spent helping kids and trying to get a bathroom break. Weekends grading papers and making lesson plans.
They'll spend 100 hours a summer just in PD and extra mandatory training.
Our teacher salaries are a joke. $17 bucks a friggin hour, and some untaxed sit on their assets geezer in Northeast Jerkson imagines they're getting rich? Geezer needs to be schooled.
50,000 a year at age 60!!!! writes one geezer. Golly bejezummms! They's getting rich. That's a pathetic take. Think, son, about what you are saying.
Son, the median salary in the US is higher than that. Not one of my kids has STARTED at as low as 50k. A summer job at a firm will pay 35K.
An Army Private First Class, just in BASIC pay, not including benefits, earns 24,000 dollars a year just in base pay, not housing or meals or jump pay or anything else. At age 18 with a GED.
A 23 year old, with a GED, in the Army? Total salary and benefits :$57,738 with Free Health Care as a buck sergeant, same age as beginning teachers.
Should GED types be getting paid nearly 20 grand a year more than new teachers? Should Target clerks be getting more?
You tightwad "taxpayer" "watchdogs" are delusional, and hypocritical. Yeah, let's pay rock bottom teacher salaries, have roads unpassable, AND eliminate SIT. Nutjobs.
I dislike taxes as much as anyone, but the Rich are NOT paying their fair share, the "working class" is bought off by EITC and "stimulus checks" and the rest of us pay double as a result.
Stop screwing the teachers, the engineers, the productive middle class in this state, to let Richie Rich sit on his assets and carp about that "extravagant" teacher pay or pension.
Because it's KILLING our state. To make you even more (laughably) "richer" so you can lease an S Class and think you're special.
As every out of state person passing you on the Interstate laughs at you.
I can see the thought process among our new age Republicans:
We have several crises, gentlemen. I'll name them, and you give the solution:
1) Pandemic - Tax Cut
2) Lowest Test Scores in the nation - Tax Cut
3) Global Warming/Winter Storms/Floods - Tax Cut (but Send some tax money for Pumps!!!)
4) Poverty - Tax Cut
5) Gun violence in Jackson - Tax Free Firearms Day
6) Sewer backed up - Tax Cut
7) A possum is stuck in my engine - Tax Cut
8) Sucking chest wound from .51 cal round - Tax Cut
Well, we have it, Tater. The answer, as always, is to have a Massachusetts Millionaire come down here and tell us, Tax Cuts, and Donald Trump seconds it. But, don't let no Yankee tell you what to do.
Suck it up girls...after 35 years in the system you could be making $40,000 a year. Right? You make that starting out operating a backhoe or racking balls if the tips are good.
A decent, hard-working 'correspondent' might have called the lady to ask about her figures instead of jumping into the deep end making her out to be a villain. Far be it from the Kingfish to do something like that. Meanwhile, he hopes for a CL retraction. Stir that pot - Rile up the natives!
11:32 hit the nail on the head. It's a societal issue. Spending more money is not the answer. Parents need to step up and take responsibility for their kids' education. Schools only have the kids for a number of hours each day and can't be expected to teach students the basic life skills that kids are expected to learn at home to be a successful or at a minimum, functioning adult in society.
Tying teachers' salaries to outcomes does not help the situation. Teachers in districts with parents who could not care less about their kids' educations are punished and the good teachers will avoid these districts.
In ten years after AI and other high-tech automation have shrunk more of the manufacturing, middle management, and service sector jobs, these teacher's children will be glad to get a teaching job, if they can...The times they are
a changin'
Someone (a teacher) has to work 2 jobs? THE HORROR!
Yeah, I was replaced as a truck driver 10 years ago by a robot, just as predicted. Uhhh, no, that didn't happen. In fact, truckers are earning MORE than teachers and in high demand.
Sure, in 10 years, AI will.....
In 12 years, global warming will.....
Blah blah blah.
"Those darn 'greedy' teachers ought to be grateful for their jobs....," "When I was a boy, we earned 3 cents a year and walked uphill both ways to school...." "If clay tablets and styluses were good enough for us...."
"king: Did I say they should have to have second jobs? Nope. I just said quite a few of them do."
Exactly right.
And the exact thing can be said about cops and firemen. They don't HAVE to have a second job to make ends meet (unless boats and beach cabins constitute making ends meet). They choose to and it's easier for them to nab a second job (especially cops) than any other profession. They're practically guaranteed.
Again Mississippi is in its current shitty situation bc the above logic has dominated for the past 150 years. You get what you pay for, and in Mississippi that isn’t much. Have fun finishing first in the bad polls and last in the good ones. Thanks Kingfish!
i teach at MC. most of our education majors end up in AL, FL, TN, and TX. why teach here when you get a lot more one or two states over?
Retired state employee here.
I had to start working a second job in my last 15 years starting in the late 1990s as inflation increased my cost of living beyond my compensation. I am still working despite retiring from my state job. It’s just the way things are in Third World America and they aren’t getting any better.
March 1, 2021 at 11:42 AM
TL;DR
The median household includes me in Leland is $25 k. Teach or don’t, your choice.
@11:42 am
That Private First Class earning 24K a year may be ordered to march 12 miles with 60 pounds on his back just to get shot at. He's earning his pay.
At least we pay Carey Wright $300k a year so that she doesn't have to work a second job. That allows her to dedicate all of her time and "skills" to making our education system the envy of the rest of the U.S. (Extreme Sarcasm)
Meanwhile...Has The King called the lady to ask where she got her figures? Wouldn't a first year journalist actually DO that?
Other Meanwhile: The 'teach or don't' clown has a son who is destined to work at O'reily Auto Parts. And the parents are thrilled.
Why should I? She wrote an opinion column. I wrote my own.
10:21 -- all of us have to pay federal and state taxes, if we are working, so claiming net take home pay as a salary just proves your (or her) ignorance.
And as to PERS, I would love to be able to pay into a retirement system, any retirement system, especially a defined benefit one like PERS (nobody that works for a private employer has such an opportunity to get the benefits of PERS, much less the annual 3% cost of living compounded, and guaranteeed).
Nor do I get the benefit of having a subsidized medical insurance plan - yes, it comes out of 'her' paycheck, but mine comes out of my pocket.
Preach on about 'net' take home pay and trying to equivacate it to the salary. Unless you are a street drug dealer, the difference between gross and ent applies to all.
Only career field that I know of that allows everyone who pursues it to know exactly what they are going to make when they graduate and get their first job.
Hell they know what they will make as a teacher when they are still in high school but pursue the career anyway and start Bitching about their salary immediately.
If it’s not enough money for you to live the lifestyle you want simply pursue another degree.
Teachers should definitely be paid more. As a teacher with a decade of experience with a Masters degree, I cannot even afford to buy a house as a single person. I do work a second job to make sure that all ends are met. While we do get holidays and summers off, do realize we are only paid for the days we are scheduled to work so it is not like we are getting paid holidays. Then you have to consider other factors. We have required PD days that are not part of your paid days, you have required duties at dances such as prom or homecoming along with extracurricular activities. These are requirements to keep our job, yet we are not compensated for our time. This time also helps each of your kids have the school experience you want them to have that isn’t just about academics. In fact, especially in covid times, many schools aren’t even meeting the minimum federal requirements for break/lunch time or the state laws in regarding to planning and the number of class preps you can have. The state limit is three but your school can get around this if you’ll sign a piece of paper accepting more and your job isn’t safe if you don’t sign it. (For those who don’t know education well, that’s three different preps such as English I, English, II, and English III as an example, not only three class times). A typical week for many teachers (not including their extra duties) is 50 hours on campus plus the many hours spent at home working. Most teachers even use many days in the summer to come in and prepare for the upcoming school year.
While other jobs may have a comparable starting salary, most of the jobs allow employees to earn a higher salary faster rate than teachers with a max of a possible $500 increase per year, and that’s in a good district. People can say all day that teachers should choose another career, well good news is that they are starting to do this. Bad news is that there will be very few good teachers left in time to teach your kids. And remember, we needs our kids to be well educated because they will be the ones taking care of us and running this state one day! Also, don’t forget that some of the money earned from the MS Lottery is supposed to be dedicated to education in our state which includes teacher pay raises.
As far as the one who stated his kids just do stuff in their modules on their computers every day in class. I challenge you to actually look at your kids’ school work and assignments. Sometimes kids just give their parents the easiest answer. If the teacher is doing that day in day out, though, it may be due to district mandates to help cut down the spread of covid by limiting the materials exchanged between the teachers and students. And in some cases it may be a bad and/or lazy teacher, but that would apply to that specific teacher - not all teachers. I can assure you my classes are not solely computer based except for the class I have designated to our virtual school which has only virtual students!
PSA, those online modules didn't create themselves.
Hey Kingfish---
"I never said otherwise. Most school districts will pay for the certification.
Everyone knows that is a gross figure but thank you for showing up to show how much you know, Captain Obvious."
I'm unaware of any district who will PAY for it up front, in fact, I believe it's a violation of state law to do so. But go ahead, prove me wrong, Captain Obvious. I'll wait.
Why should you? Probably because half the time you refer to yourself as a correspondent. If you're going to cherry pick a well written letter to pieces, at least have the balls to get back up for your criticism. Or don't. Attacking the messenger seems popular. And here comes my getting 'my due' in 3..2..1
She is the one who wrote the column. She used bogus numbers, period. I confirmed that with MDE and other school districts. That MAEP schedule is mandated by law. The school district HAS to pay that minimum salary to a teacher. If she is quoting $28,000 as a starting salary, she is going back several years.
She made the claim and based her whole column on the numbers she used. What you don't like is I caught her on it and I called her out on it. You haven't disputed my numbers one bit. Not one.
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