Summertime For Teachers

Summertime and the living is easy--for all the good people who have the leisure and the money for easy living. But how about people with ten weeks of vacations and no money to spare on easy living, such as so many of America’s underpaid teachers?

Underpaid? According to a study (entitled “How Does Teacher Pay Compare?") by the Economic Policy Institute, remuneration for the nation’s teachers has fallen 11.5 per cent since 1993, compared to other occupations with similar education and skills. There also was no improvement in benefits that might have offset the increased wage disadvantage.

S ince 1996, all other college graduates saw their weekly income rise by 12 percent while teachers’ inflation-adjusted weekly remuneration rose just 0.8 per cent. Male teachers earned 23.1 per cent less and female teachers 8.9 per cent less than their counterparts in other fields.

By 2003, the average school teacher’s salary was $45,771, plus $500 to $2,000 more for a master’s degree. For all professions, however, the average beginning salary on the master’s degree level was $62,820. Considering that in 2003 America’s school boards awarded the average superintendent of schools an annual income of $170,000, it is difficult to understand why not more teachers were making the extra effort to acquire a school administrator’s certificate.

I certainly could have done that after I received my master’s degree in educational administration in 1953, but I decided that I would rather ride herd over hormonally challenged teenagers than over underpaid teachers and ambivalent school boards. By failing to choose a profession that pays more than teaching, I became one of hundreds of thousands of American teachers trying to make ends meet by spending most of that “good ole summertime” supplementing my income with temporary employment.

Here are some of my more memorable salary-supplementing exploits over the past fifty years: driving spikes into prefabricated gables at Pease Woodwork in Hamilton, Ohio; loading ice into refrigerator cars in Watsonville, California; tutoring the three children of the multimillionaire Altman family in Rye, New York; substituting for workers of a blast furnace crew at ARMCO Steel in Middletown, Ohio; offering an American history course at a teachers college in Germany; directing three consecutive National Defense Education Institutes for foreign language teachers at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania; holding a seminar in international relations at the University of Graz, Austria; and teaching summer school at MacMurray College--for fifteen years, seven of them in the program for gifted children.

I have had colleagues who spent their summers painting houses or working in construction. Others were moonlighting during the school year as part-time realtors, insurance salesmen, or exterminators. And then there was that young Mormon assistant professor at a private college whose six children qualified his family for food stamps.

Given the meager material rewards for teaching in America, only 18 per cent of recent college graduates told pollsters they would ever choose teaching as a profession. Considering the importance of his own qualifications for his job, President Bush wants all American teachers to be “highly qualified” by 2006, so that no child will be left behind. There is, however, one major flaw in the president’s plan. No Child Left Behind leaves the teachers behind because the measure fails to provide the funds needed to make teaching financially attractive enough for the best and brightest college graduates.

Worse yet, 45 percent of the beginning teachers leave their jobs within five years to try their luck elsewhere in the job market. Some run away from the challenges and the stress of the classroom and dissatisfied students, parents, colleagues, and administrators. Many simply quit because elsewhere they can earn more with less aggravation.

School boards frequently ask the taxpayers to approve the sale of bonds for new buildings, equipment, or even stadiums. Rarely, however, do they dare to request more money to raise teachers’ remuneration.

If Americans want better teachers, they will have to pay what it takes to attract and keep them. Until then, try not to turn a teacher down who seeks a summer job.

Wolf D. Fuhrig	Home	07-03-05
Summertime For Teachers
Summertime and the living is easy--for all the good people who have the leisure and the money for easy living. But how about people with ten weeks of vacations and no money to spare on easy living, such as so many of America’s underpaid teachers? Underpaid? According to a study (entitled “How Does Teacher Pay Compare?") by the Economic Policy Institute, remuneration for the nation’s teachers has fallen 11.5 per cent since 1993, compared to other occupations with similar education and skills. There also was no improvement in benefits that might have offset the increased wage disadvantage. S ince 1996, all other college graduates saw their weekly income rise by 12 percent while teachers’ inflation-adjusted weekly remuneration rose just 0.8 per cent. Male teachers earned 23.1 per cent less and female teachers 8.9 per cent less than their counterparts in other fields. By 2003, the average school teacher’s salary was $45,771, plus $500 to $2,000 more for a master’s degree. For all professions, however, the average beginning salary on the master’s degree level was $62,820. Considering that in 2003 America’s school boards awarded the average superintendent of schools an annual income of $170,000, it is difficult to understand why not more teachers were making the extra effort to acquire a school administrator’s certificate. I certainly could have done that after I received my master’s degree in educational administration in 1953, but I decided that I would rather ride herd over hormonally challenged teenagers than over underpaid teachers and ambivalent school boards. By failing to choose a profession that pays more than teaching, I became one of hundreds of thousands of American teachers trying to make ends meet by spending most of that “good ole summertime” supplementing my income with temporary employment. Here are some of my more memorable salary-supplementing exploits over the past fifty years: driving spikes into prefabricated gables at Pease Woodwork in Hamilton, Ohio; loading ice into refrigerator cars in Watsonville, California; tutoring the three children of the multimillionaire Altman family in Rye, New York; substituting for workers of a blast furnace crew at ARMCO Steel in Middletown, Ohio; offering an American history course at a teachers college in Germany; directing three consecutive National Defense Education Institutes for foreign language teachers at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania; holding a seminar in international relations at the University of Graz, Austria; and teaching summer school at MacMurray College--for fifteen years, seven of them in the program for gifted children. I have had colleagues who spent their summers painting houses or working in construction. Others were moonlighting during the school year as part-time realtors, insurance salesmen, or exterminators. And then there was that young Mormon assistant professor at a private college whose six children qualified his family for food stamps. Given the meager material rewards for teaching in America, only 18 per cent of recent college graduates told pollsters they would ever choose teaching as a profession. Considering the importance of his own qualifications for his job, President Bush wants all American teachers to be “highly qualified” by 2006, so that no child will be left behind. There is, however, one major flaw in the president’s plan. No Child Left Behind leaves the teachers behind because the measure fails to provide the funds needed to make teaching financially attractive enough for the best and brightest college graduates. Worse yet, 45 percent of the beginning teachers leave their jobs within five years to try their luck elsewhere in the job market. Some run away from the challenges and the stress of the classroom and dissatisfied students, parents, colleagues, and administrators. Many simply quit because elsewhere they can earn more with less aggravation. School boards frequently ask the taxpayers to approve the sale of bonds for new buildings, equipment, or even stadiums. Rarely, however, do they dare to request more money to raise teachers’ remuneration. If Americans want better teachers, they will have to pay what it takes to attract and keep them. Until then, try not to turn a teacher down who seeks a summer job.

Wolf D. Fuhrig

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07-03-05

Summertime For Teachers