Teachers Making the Big Bucks (Thing #5)

I read with intrigue the At Charter School, Higher Teacher Pay about teachers receiving a much higher salary than average.   How many times have we heard, “you teachers should make more money.” I also admit that I can get engrossed in conversations about how much more money we should be making for what we do to prepare kids for the future. “Teaching is a such a noble profession,”  is another way of saying “wow you sure don’t get paid that much, do you?” I absolutely LOVE what I do and I love where I’m doing it. Our faculty is brilliant, collegial and really good at what we do. Our school nurtures kids and the parents are really involved in their kids’ education. This is a place for teachers who love to teach, and who would, if they could, probably do it for free. The reality is that we can’t do it for free. We need to earn a living to support ourselves and our families.If you visit The Equity Project’s website, the school featured in the New York Times article, it becomes clear that these would be teachers will undoubtedly earn their pay. The pluses: you get three (count’em 3!) planning periods per day, you get to observe another teacher daily, and you make $125,000 plus the opportunity to earn $25,000 more in bonus pay. Oh yeah, and they practically force you to take a sabbatical every 5-6 years (wouldn’t that be nice?!) The drawbacks:  You work year round, including a six-week institute every summer, you teach until 6:00p.m. most days, and you have many non-teaching responsibilties including attendance, discipline issues, etc.(you know, the things teachers ususally have to do for free.)I worked for one year in a pilot school in Boston similar to The Equity Project in New York City. We did not make more money than other public school teachers, but we did lots of extra work including hiring, observations, home visits, facilitating. It was gratifying work but it was so much work! It was non-stop. There wasn’t a minute in the day that you weren’t thinking about school. The investment that the teachers made to the school was enormous. In turn, the school was extremely popular. There was a lottery and a very long waiting list. I think teachers should make a six-figure salary for doing exactly what we are doing right now. A six-figure salary should be baseline.Do I wish we made more? Yes. Does it need to be $1 million per year? No, but a tenth of that would be nice. We are worth at least that.

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