Teachers COULD be paid more, but they SHOULDN’T be!

Co-Author Credit : Justin McKnight

A “Teacher” probably doesn’t accurately capture or represent all of the responsibilities of a “Teacher”. Teachers in fact are:

Babysitters

Correctional Officers

Counselors

Punching Bags

Teachers (eventually)

Social Workers

What a ‘Teacher’ IS NOT

1. A Parent
   1. Teachers spend incredible amounts of time with their students. 6 hours or more in most cases. More than the actual parents in most cases.
   2. Parents are still…parents. Teachers should never forget this fact. 
   3. The parent should also never forget that a teacher, in some ways, may know their child better than they do. 
   4. WHAT A HORRIBLE CONUNDRUM, on both sides.
2. A Therapist
   1. Teachers prepare themselves to arrive at work to teach, but instead, they arrive to crying, angry, sad, and frustrated children.
   2. WHAT A DISTRACTION! Let’s dissect this, and put on our “thinking caps”.
      1. Is this child ok physically? How about mentally?
      2. Is this problem large or small? 
      3. Could this be remedied quickly? 
      4. Can I help bring this child to acclimate to the larger group today?
      5. Should I reach out to their parents concerning their disposition?
      6. Is the parent the source of this ‘brooding/sad’ mood?
      7. What if this is a huge problem, that I’m not qualified to solve?
      8. Do I push them off to the guidance counselor?
3. Social Worker
   1. Was a crime committed? 
   2. Should investigators or protective services be contacted?

• You aren’t the kid’s parent, but you’ll likely try and act as one.
• You aren’t a therapist, but you’ll try and provide guidance and support. 
• You aren’t a social worker but you’ll try to make those decisions also.

Teacher Time vs. Parent time

As a parent, during the school year, I spend about 3-4 hours a day with my kids after school, if I’m lucky. While their teacher(s) spend potentially over 6 hours, PER DAY, with my children.

My 3 hours on the other hand, from 6-9 pm exist only to squeeze in homework, dinner, bathing, and maybe 15 minutes of quality time, as I attempt to wrestle them into bed. 

#unfair

It’s really unfair how much time a teacher gets to spend with my children vs. me, but that’s another story for another post. 

Teachers are ‘supposed’ to ONLY teach the curriculum. A curriculum sanctioned and approved by the state in which you live. i.e. Baltimore County Public Schools. 

A School curriculum refers to a particular set of courses that a school or governing body designates, but may also refer to a variety of activities designed to foster education and meet the needs of a learning community.

That is the principal job of a teacher, but teachers are thrust into all of those other jobs. 

Parent, Therapist, Social Worker, Babysitter, Correctional Officer, Counselor, Punching Bag, Teacher, Social Worker.

Let’s talk SALARY

Average starting teacher’s salary in Baltimore County.

Teachers with:

• Bachelor’s Degree = 48,383
• Masters Degree = 49,524
• Doctorate Degree = 54,381

Average salaries for the “other” jobs teachers perform 

• Therapists = 39K-60K 
• Social Workers = 39K-69K
• Babysitter = 22K-43K
• Correctional Officer = 36K-56K
• Counselor = 38K-76K
• Punching Bag = Unpaid!
• Teacher = 48K-54K
• Police Officer – Enforcer of rules = 37K-71K
• Parents = UNPAID, unfortunately.

The average of all these ‘other’ JOBS that a teacher does is…31K.

$31,000

Let’s Get Teachers a Raise!

With the average teachers’ salary being about 50K and all of these other jobs being 31K. Teachers could and should, earn a starting salary of around 80K. 

Doesn’t seem like that’s too much for what they are being asked to do, right? 

Let’s do a real-life example.

We will use my Son’s High School Alma Mater, Western School of Technology. Western has 909 students enrolled *at the time of this writing. 

Baltimore County sets aside link $14,789 per pupil budget. (2018)

In 2018 there were 60 teachers at the Western School of Technology?

Math Time

$14,789 (budget) x 909 (Students) = $13,443,201 (budget for Western School of Technology)

Ok, let’s divide the number of teachers at the Western by over 13 MILLION dollars. 

$13,443,201 / 60 teachers  = $224,053 per teach average salary. WAIT – That’s a lot of money, something’s got to be off?!?!

Let’s be fair about this

That’s almost 225K per teacher. We do have custodial staff, lunch staff, clerical people, and principals. 

Let’s Overestimate our numbers 

Let’s pretend there are 60 additional employees at the school. THERE AREN’T, but if we were to do the same math… 

I think it’s fair because you have lawn workers, teachers aids, principals, counselors, resource officers, police officers are sometimes on patrol also. I’m not sure if that’s something the school should pay for, but someone is, so let’s factor that in also. 

There are also other costs, energy bills, repairs to the building, snow removal, sidewalk repairs, parking lot repairs and plenty of other things that go into running and keeping a school building operational.

Back to the FAKE overestimated Math

$13,443,201 / 120 (fictional) employees  = $112,026 average salary.

Each and every teacher person at the school could make over 112K on that money….

Let’s be even more fair to the corrupt school system and their horrible appropriations of money.

If we take the salaries down to the 81K we said earlier. The 81K was based on the STARTING salaries of a teacher with a BS, MS, or PHD, plus the average of those salaries of the teachers ‘unassigned’ duties of a therapist, social worker, parent, life-coach, etc…

That’s a difference of:

$112,026 – $81,000 = $31,026

Now let’s take that delta $31,026 and multiply that by the 120 fictional employees at Western.

$31,026 x 120 employees = $3,723,120 AS LEFTOVER MONEY.

3.7 MILLION DOLLARS after EVERY SINGLE EMPLOYEE Makes over 81K. 

WHAT THE HELL?!?! This system is totally corrupt. 

At the time of this writing 2019, the Western School of Technology, still only had air conditioning in ½ of the school building. This school has been there since 1970 according to Wikipedia.

Having that potential surplus of 3.7 MILLION dollars a year. After 5 years that’s $18,615,600.

After 10 years that’s $37,231,200, and we can’t scrape together enough money to retrofit the building with Air conditioning for the 909 students, some likely have disabilities at the school? 

#missmewiththoselies

FYI the 2019 Spending per pupil for Baltimore county is now going up to $15,231 that’s a difference of +$433

So, if the starting salary for teachers and ALL support staff could be 81K but for teachers, they ONLY MAKE around 50K. Someone’s got some splainin’ to do!

Money is NOT the Issue

Our school systems are rich institutions, filled with more than enough money for whatever any student or teacher could ever need. I simply used my son’s former high school and used that as an example. You can do this math for ANY school in ANY State and school district. Here’s how:

1. Find the cost per pupil for your county
   1. Google “cost per pupil (or student) in ________ county/city”
2. Multiply that by how many kids attend a particular school 
   1. Total from number 1 above x students at ______ school, where your child attends.

DO NOT DO THIS if you DO NOT WANT TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK

I hope you are sitting down…

If you are looking for a pulmonary embolism or something do that math on the entire number of kids in a minimum multiply the entire population of Baltimore county:

113,814 x $14,798 = $1,684,219,572 that’s $1.6 BILLION if you can’t count the commas! 

According to the Baltimore County Public Schools website. 

Whenever ANYONE tells you that the school system has a money problem, or money is the solution, do not believe them. I REPEAT DO NOT BELIEVE THEM

If ANYONE says teachers are underpaid – let them know that you know we have the money. 

Parents, it’s OK to get UPSET

At the start of each school year now, we (parents) get huge school supply lists, forcing us to spend $60 to $200 additional dollars each school year for school supplies for your kids. You can find them here.

• Knowing that teachers are underpaid 
• Knowing that some schools may not even have air conditioning
• Knowing the amount of money the system brings in

YOU NOW KNOW

The school system actually has enough money to provide EACH kid a care package, consisting of an iPad ($900), backpack ($50), supplies ($200). So for somewhere about $1500 – $2000, if you wanna throw in school uniforms ($200). Students could have everything they need, each year BRAND NEW. A literal care-package could be delivered to your door days before the upcoming school year. 

Detailed numbers 

$1,684,219,572 (total money in A.K.A. BUDGET) / 18,202 (total employees) = $92,529 is what EACH AND EVERY EMPLOYEE COULD EARN by the numbers (Appropriations A.K.A. What happens to the BUDGETED money.)

EACH and EVERY employee could make over $90,000. Yet, they start $40,000K less than that. This isn’t about money, it’s about choices. Bad ones.