@iShop123 wrote:
What do you consider "well paid," MF? Your state will have a $20,000,000,000 (that's BILLION) budget for 2020. That's for roughly 1,100,000 government school students (source: OSPI). The money comes from taxpayers. How much is "enough"? Should excellent teachers be paid the same as no-so-excellent teachers? Do you pay teachers in Mercer Island (ranked in the top 100 in the nation) the same as teachers in Everett-Hawthorne (worst according to Seattle Times)? Is it right to pay them the same when the conditions are vastly different, or when the taxes are disparate? There's not really a blanket answer..
"Well paid" is a completely subjective term. I believe that anybody with a good education who works full time should be able to earn enough to support a small family in a modest home. (Yes, I believe that should be true for other professions as well.)
Yes, we have a budget for education in our state that sounds large.. You can through "billion" around all you like, but very few folks have a concept of what a billion dollars really can and cannot do. It is more money than folks can really fathom. However, here is how we arrived at that budget:
* Your state constitution says that funding basic public education is the "Paramount Duty" of our state. In the process of a long battle in the courts -t hat lasted about ten years - it was determined that the state legislature was constitutionally mandated to fund "Basic Education" before anything else. The state legislature then defined "Basic Education," which includes everything from teacher salaries, to school supplies, to support staff, to buses to buildings up to modern codes, and more. They then went through and priced out what it would cost to fund what the legislature decided was "Basic Education." We now have a healthy education budget.
Your citing of Mercer Island and Hawthorne Elementary is a completely pathetic attempt to rank teachers. Hawthorne Elementary is located in one of the roughest neighborhoods in Western Washington. 87% of its students live in poverty. A large percentage don't speak English as a first language. Etc. Mercer Island is one of the wealthiest areas in our state. Comparing the test scores of schools in these neighborhoods (which the Seattle Times has been prone to do), is far from a measure of teacher skill. Having taught in schools with very different socio-economic demographics, I know personally that test scores very significantly between schools with such differences, even with the same level of teaching.
Median Home Price on Mercer Island: $1.5 M
Median Home Price in Everett: $372K
Starting Teaching Salaries in Washington: $49K-$57K, depending on education. Some districts offer more, based off cost-of living, but that is generally not more than a 10% boost
Yes, money comes from taxpayers. I am a taxpayer, too. Here is how you know when you are not paying teacher enough: You can't fill all your teaching positions. Before the McCleary Decision (the lawsuit I references above), it was very common for schools, especially those in rural areas, to not e ale to find math, science, special education and ELL teachers to fill teaching vacancies. We created "emergency certifications" (i.e.: Finding ways to "qualify" folks to teach who did not have the generally accepted qualifications) so that we could fill classrooms.
As to your list of why teachers leave... Consider this..
If they claim the reason is
"Administration," they are getting less than great evaluations and may have been facing eventual termination. Otherwise, they would have moved to a different school/district.
"Raising kids" - Yes, a few folks do this. However, only those who want to stay at home and have a partner with enough income to support a familiy. (In Seattle, most folks do not have such a partner.
"The Politics": This is generally an excused for something else. Nobody quits because of what is said in the press, etc.
"The Workload":: Translate: I am not getting paid enough to do this.
Hard work builds character and homework is good for your soul.