Thursday, September 25, 2003
Below average? Up in Gurnee, elementary teachers and custodians are striking over the usual: more pay.
Parents are steamed at the school board for being too cheap. Most of their kids don't seem to mind the inconveniences the strike has caused, but did you expect them to cry over the words "no" and "school" used in the same sentence?
All I can think is I got into the wrong business. Just read a graph out of C.L. Waller's story:
Starting salary in Woodland Elementary District 50 for a first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree is $27,008, and the top salary for someone with 15 years of experience, a master's degree plus 30 additional hours of study is $64,341. The median salary is $39,298 at Woodland where 57 percent of the teachers have less than four years experience. The hourly pay range for support staff is $8.05 to $12.65.
OK, I had a bachelor's degree and my first job out of college was as assistant sports editor at the LaPorte Herald-Argus. OK, maybe I wasn't out educating the youth of America (or the youths near Great America), but my starting salary was $310 a week ($16,120 a year) and it peaked at $390 a week ($20,280 a year) after 2 1/2 years there.
I went on to Pioneer Press, where I made $455 a week to start ($23,660) and peaked at $525 a week ($27,308) when I was unceremoniously fired for publicly complaining about Hollinger's cost-cutting.
So, in March 2002, I had five years of experience AND a bachelor's degree, distinguished myself locally as at least a competent writer in my field, and only managed to make $300 a year more than a first-year Woodland teacher, who also has a couple months in the summer to make more dough tutoring or teaching summer classes. I worked here at Mohawk part-time while I was at Pioneer because it supplemented my income a little bit, so I was making a little more than $30K a year.
It wasn't until I started working full-time at Mohawk that I have made as much as the average teacher at Woodland (and I don't make too much more than an average teacher).
The H-A was non-union. Pioneer was part of the Chicago Newspaper Guild, which won't score as good a contract with Pioneer as it did when it brokered the deal I worked under.
I consistently worked more than 40 hours a week at both places. And at neither place did I qualify for as much as three weeks of vacation.
In other words, I can't muster much sympathy for these teachers. They're not living in squalor. Teachers claim to be in it for the intrinisc rewards of teaching and not the money. There are high-paying jobs out there for people talented enough to score them. There are higher-paying teaching jobs out there, according to the union.
Finally, to all the parents angry at the board for the strike, I propose this idea. Keep the contract as it is, but offer a bonus based on money donated to the "Teachers Bonus Voluntary Tax Fund."
In other words, don't raise property taxes, but allow all those guilt-ridden people who don't pay enough in taxes to pay the difference between what they should be paying and what they are paying to this fund.
What's left can be divvied up to the teachers at the end of the school year in the way the union finds most equitable. I'd be interested to see how many parents, who seem to want to write the school board's checks right now, actually contribute to the fund.
Anyway, I think I should look at becoming a teacher.
Parents are steamed at the school board for being too cheap. Most of their kids don't seem to mind the inconveniences the strike has caused, but did you expect them to cry over the words "no" and "school" used in the same sentence?
All I can think is I got into the wrong business. Just read a graph out of C.L. Waller's story:
Starting salary in Woodland Elementary District 50 for a first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree is $27,008, and the top salary for someone with 15 years of experience, a master's degree plus 30 additional hours of study is $64,341. The median salary is $39,298 at Woodland where 57 percent of the teachers have less than four years experience. The hourly pay range for support staff is $8.05 to $12.65.
OK, I had a bachelor's degree and my first job out of college was as assistant sports editor at the LaPorte Herald-Argus. OK, maybe I wasn't out educating the youth of America (or the youths near Great America), but my starting salary was $310 a week ($16,120 a year) and it peaked at $390 a week ($20,280 a year) after 2 1/2 years there.
I went on to Pioneer Press, where I made $455 a week to start ($23,660) and peaked at $525 a week ($27,308) when I was unceremoniously fired for publicly complaining about Hollinger's cost-cutting.
So, in March 2002, I had five years of experience AND a bachelor's degree, distinguished myself locally as at least a competent writer in my field, and only managed to make $300 a year more than a first-year Woodland teacher, who also has a couple months in the summer to make more dough tutoring or teaching summer classes. I worked here at Mohawk part-time while I was at Pioneer because it supplemented my income a little bit, so I was making a little more than $30K a year.
It wasn't until I started working full-time at Mohawk that I have made as much as the average teacher at Woodland (and I don't make too much more than an average teacher).
The H-A was non-union. Pioneer was part of the Chicago Newspaper Guild, which won't score as good a contract with Pioneer as it did when it brokered the deal I worked under.
I consistently worked more than 40 hours a week at both places. And at neither place did I qualify for as much as three weeks of vacation.
In other words, I can't muster much sympathy for these teachers. They're not living in squalor. Teachers claim to be in it for the intrinisc rewards of teaching and not the money. There are high-paying jobs out there for people talented enough to score them. There are higher-paying teaching jobs out there, according to the union.
Finally, to all the parents angry at the board for the strike, I propose this idea. Keep the contract as it is, but offer a bonus based on money donated to the "Teachers Bonus Voluntary Tax Fund."
In other words, don't raise property taxes, but allow all those guilt-ridden people who don't pay enough in taxes to pay the difference between what they should be paying and what they are paying to this fund.
What's left can be divvied up to the teachers at the end of the school year in the way the union finds most equitable. I'd be interested to see how many parents, who seem to want to write the school board's checks right now, actually contribute to the fund.
Anyway, I think I should look at becoming a teacher.
