According to today's Wall Street Journal, "combining salaries, fringe benefits and job security, we have calculated that public school teachers receive around 52% more in average compensation than they could earn in the private sector."
The next time teachers unions come, tin cup in hand, begging for more money, we need not only to say "No," but to ask for a refund.
HT: Carpe Diem
11 comments:
If you follow the links to the WSJ article, you find what it's saying.
1) Public-school teachers make more than the median worker.
Response: Considering they have a four-year degree, they are better-educated than the median worker. Teachers make well under the median for four-year degrees.
2) The "private sector" they are being compared to are private school teachers, not business people.
Response: Private school teachers earn less, in part, because their schools can select fror the better students, meaning they have fewer issues in a number of ways.
3) The claim is based in taking the 180-day work-year of teachers and pro-rating it to 260 days (meaning 5 days a week with no vacations).
Response: I doubt the median vacation/sick time in the private sector is zero, and teachers don't generally have second jobs that pay at the same rate as their first job.
Thank you for the example of why you recommend Carpe Diem so highly.
One Brow:
Considering they have a four-year degree, they are better-educated than the median worker. Teachers make well under the median for four-year degrees.
You're calling and education degree a 'degree'? Have you seen the statistics on the intellectual accomplishment of ed majors? In fact, the article address this very point: "...teachers score only around the 40th percentile of college graduates."
It doesn't help your point for you to express such a high regard for such a questionable academic achievement.
One Brow:
The "private sector" they are being compared to are private school teachers, not business people.
So what are they supposed to be compared to, doctors? Why wouldn't you compare them to comparable employees in the private sector?
Private school teachers earn less, in part, because their schools can select fror the better students, meaning they have fewer issues in a number of ways.
Excuse me, but private schools have far more limitations than public schools. They have far less money and far inferior facilities. And the private schools that I run into (and I run into a lot of them) will accept most any student who applies because they need the tuition.
I'd love to see your evidence for this point.
The claim is based in taking the 180-day work-year of teachers and pro-rating it to 260 days (meaning 5 days a week with no vacations).
What difference does this make? Even if you didn't monetize the incredible 3 months off a teacher gets, it's still a huge benefit that private sector employees don't get.
Martin,
The 40th percentile is still far better educated than the median worker. Do you have a link on a conprehensive list of majors and percentiles? Further, middle-school and high-school teachers take their subject matter in the same upper-level math, science, English, etc. classes that those majors take. Getting 75% of a math degree to teach high-school math (at least, that was the requirement when I was in college) is not that far an accompishment from the remaining 25%.
When private school accept teh severely retarded, the felons, the teen mothers, and the parents who don't care enough about their kids to provide lunch money, let me know. The very ability to get tuition means you are dealing with a minimum level of interest from the parents. I'm very curious how you can get tuition from people in the last three groups. I acknowledge my experience is anecdotal. Share yours.
The difference is that the numbers are dishonest. I'm not surprised you don't care.
"...teachers score only around the 40th percentile of college graduates."
Dollars to donuts that Martin doesn't really understand what this sentence is saying, what statistic is missing from the purported analysis, and how the quoted passage contradicts his baseless insinuations.
We are reminded rather often on this blog how classical Christian educators have no use for quantitative reasoning - as shown, in the case of the blog entry, by the implication that $30,000 (the approximate entry-level salary for a teacher in KY) is an outrageously high salary for the holder of a 4 year degree. This innumeracy is enough to make a right wingnut talk show host go off on a rant about the silliness of a classical education as offered in the 21st century.
We are reminded rather often on this blog how science professor have no use for qualitative judgment - as shown, in the case of the comment on this blog entry, by the implication that $30,000 (the approximate entry-level salary for a teacher in KY) is an accurate reflection of the total benefits package of a public teacher.
Just keep repeating it so that you forget about the health care benefits and retirement packages that figure in to total compensation.
You'll also want to continue to ignore the fact that a four year education degree is a joke conferred on students who study after study show are ill-educated themselves by departments that are intellectual backwaters at best.
Anyone who thinks such a degree constitutes a respectable academic achievement has erased any grounds he has for criticizing anyone else's intellectual level.
We have raw data from the GRE. Secondary education majors rank 25 or better out of 50 on each of the three tests.
If you're really going to tie pay rates and GRE scores, high school teachers should be near the top of the scale.
Mmhmmm. And how did those going into early childhood education do on the GRE?
Definately they rank near the bottom. It's almost as if they being one of the smartest people in the nation isn't an important skill for an elementary/special education teacher. Perhaps you should join that group, and show how important a foundation in the classics is to teaching second grade.
Just keep repeating it so that you forget about the health care benefits and retirement packages that figure in to total compensation.
So, just how much do health care and retirement add to the compensation for an entry-level teacher in a KY public school? $10,000? $25,000? $50,000? Let's have some numbers, Martin. I'd like to know just what level of compensation you consider to be outrageously high.
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