We All Know Teachers Are Underpaid. But Who Imagined It Was This Bad?

[Jilly_in_VA]

Just before her 16th birthday, Cara Rothrock got her first job working at a 1950s roadside restaurant and ice cream stand, only a few miles from her parents’ house in a small town in Floyd County, Indiana.

She poured soft serve. She cooked burgers and fries. She cleaned counters and took orders and ran food out to customers seated at picnic tables. All behind the glow of a bright, neon-lit parrot and a sign that read, “Polly’s Freeze.”

That was 199​​4. A few years later, Rothrock went off to college in Bloomington, Indiana. And because her parents—both teachers—couldn’t afford to help out much with her expenses, she held onto her job at Polly’s, commuting two hours home on weekends to pick up shifts. She spent the money as she earned it, investing in her education so that she could pursue her dream of becoming an elementary school teacher, just like her mom and dad before her.

After graduation, she landed a teaching position close to home. But with a starting salary of $29,000 and nearly that much in student loans, she didn’t feel comfortable enough financially to leave Polly’s. Not yet.

“As I tried to get a house of my own, a car, I found that, as a teacher, there was really no choice. I kind of needed to work a second job,” she explained in January from her third grade classroom at a public school near her hometown.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/03/we-all-know-teachers-are-underpaid-but-who-imagined-it-was-this-bad/
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In South Korea, teachers are called "nation builders" and given the pay and respect that titled deserves. In Finland, only the best students are selected for teacher training and a master's equivalent is required. Pay is commensurate. Here......

[fierywoman]

1. There's a book about the Finnish ed system:

"Finnish Lessons" -- VERY interesting.

[IllinoisBirdWatcher]

6. Also a great film - The Finland Phenomenon

Linked at several sites but the quality isn't great.

This video below breaks the film into four Youtube parts and is amazing to watch.

[fierywoman]

7. Thanks for this! I didn't know about it.

[PittBlue]

2. And we wonder why this country is such a mess.

In 1986 I was hired as a high school librarian at $14,000 a year. The custodian hired the same night was hired at $15,000 a year.

[rsdsharp]

3. I'll never forget taking a ride early one summer with my dad.

I was probably just out of fourth or fifth grade. Dad stopped at B&L Shell to fill up with some 23 cent a gallon gas. The pump jockey who came out in grease stained coveralls to pump the gas and clean the windows and check the oil and air was my elementary art teacher.

He, along with the music teacher, taught at all five elementary schools in my small town; a different school each day. And still needed to work another job, at least in the summer.

[appalachiablue]

8. +1 Friends in Seattle met a HS history teacher 15 yrs ago

who was cleaning carpets in the McMansions of young Tech junior executives during summer to supplement his income. He said the owners rarely used the homes which were mostly empty except for spare furniture and left over pizza boxes. The properties were mainly an investment.

[Turbineguy]

4. Under the GOP education model

We need people who know which button to push to create wealth for the 1 percent.

[happybird]

5. I dated a teacher and was shocked at his salary

One morning I was puttering around in his kitchen and his W2 was sitting on the table. I was making more than him, a lot more, as a bartender in a dive biker bar.
😳

He taught in a northern Virginia elementary school and had been there for six years, so a “highly paid” area and not a rookie teacher. His kids and their parents loved him.

Disgusting.

[appalachiablue]

9. The ugly reality & disgrace. #8

[Solly Mack]

10. I worked two jobs when I was teaching. This was over 20 years ago.

Fortunately, I had people who would help with supplies for my classroom. Supplies I shared with the other teachers. We all had to buy supplies with our own money, and we all shared donated items.

Most of us worked two jobs. There was no such thing as disposable income, with every penny earned already belonging to someone else.

It's a disgrace. Still.