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Texas teacher pay raise.


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14 hours ago, RexWilson said:

Horn4life nails it here.

12th year of teaching. I am not one of the "we are under paid" complainers. The starting salary for educators is pretty decent in my opinion.

The area I would like to see improved is a salary scale that would reward for qualified experience and system that makes it easier to get rid of shitty teachers.

Most districts, each year your salary goes up 250 to 500 dollars a year. If you have a masters degree, you get an extra 500 to 1200.  That sucks for good teachers who are willing to do so much more work.

For bad teachers, you have job security, little incentive to go above minimum effort. The appraisal system is a joke and as long as you dont get sexual with kids, are not likely to get fired or not get hired in a different  district.

I teach PE and coach multiple sports (stipend amounts are my only financial complaint). Most days the job is great and the students are awesome. I appreciate the winter and spring breaks and 2 months at summer.  I know I will never be financially wealthy but I get to spend lots of time with my family and will be able to retire at 54. So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

 

Serious question: Who would you replace them with? Because all I hear about is the "teacher shortage". Which is not surprising given what I imagine is a very difficult, stressful job with shitty pay.

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14 hours ago, horn4life said:

The basic problem is that education is far down the list when it comes to the Republican Party, and they have ruled Texas a long, long time.  Education is the first place to look for cuts and the last place to look to fund.  And you wonder why kids in Texas go into debt to go to college in Texas now, when you used to be able to work your ass off all Summer and keep a part time job and come out with a degree largely debt free.  Education of the Texas population simply has not been a priority at any level for a long time.  Yes with kicking and screaming minor funding tweaks are made.  Paying teachers more is a good start.  Hell you can make a shit ton more as a cop with a high school diploma, and I think most teachers could be trained to carry a gun a lot quicker than the average police officer could start teaching your kids.  Maybe not a fair comparison, but from a dollars and cents I think it's fair. 

Now.... the teachers that are good NEED to be rewarded for their abiliites.  Simply surviving for 15 years does NOT make you better, than a two year enthusiastic and motivated teacher.  Unfortunately unless you have a trust fund, have a working spouse that makes some pretty good coin, you are going to see your educated peers far outstrip your earning power in just a few years.  So attrition of the best and brightest is often the effect.

I wish we would invest in education.  It's honestly one of the best return for the dollar investments we can make. Maybe a few more election cycles and investments beyond the token, lip service variety will be made here in Texas. 

Our public schools in Texas are doing very well when you compare apples to apples.  Maybe the dumb old Republicans aren't doing so bad on that front.  From liberal think tank Urban Institute:

 

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17 minutes ago, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

I'm insinuating that any man who is interested in making $35k to teach K-3 should be psychologically profiled and vetted harder because it's a) not common and it's rare, despite your alleged specific experience and that's not even debatable in public school and b) in my opinion, because of how strange/rare it is, there is concern that there might be weird reasons for wanting to take a role teaching young children.

My experience, as both someone who was an elementary aged student and who had elementary aged kids in public schools at one point, is that it's very uncommon (I've never experienced it personally or seen it from anyone or any school I know) and weird. I would force my kids out of a classroom in the K-6 age range taught my a male. Full stop. But that's just me, I'm way more hyper-vigilant than most people, I get that.

Edit to add: I'm not saying that is you, as a one off, there are outliers and exceptions to everything, so don't think I'm personally insulting you. You are actually brave if you have/had a passion to teach Kindergarten as a 33 year old male and you followed that dream despite it being counter to social mores and norms and for you surely leaving money on the table for almost any other job you are surely qualified for.

So I should have been psychologically profiled for being a man in education? At this point I’m sure you are a troll or don’t live in the real world with the rest of us.

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12 hours ago, tantric superman said:

My two cents in this.  During the election I went to a couple of presentations where the majority of folks were teachers.  While I have always been of the opinion that teachers should get paid more, I also am of the opinion that 50% of any raise should go to bonuses that principals or some other administrator would award for performance/effort/commitment.

During the discussions, it also seemed to me that the teachers expected raises and wouldn't go near the idea that to improve education you might have to make it pretty easy to get rid of bad performers.  I don't think Texas is anywhere near the horror story of some of the unionized New York school districts where you can't fire anyone, but I'm wondering if we'd be better off if more teacher comp was "at risk". 

Also, kind of what Rex said above.

A solid base to attract good teachers.

A great bonus system to reward committed teachers.

And easy way to get rid of ineffective teachers.

 

I believe this already exists. Is Texas not a right to work state? Aren't teachers on yearly contracts? Do teachers have any appeal if their contracts aren't renewed?

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2 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

I believe this already exists. Is Texas not a right to work state? Aren't teachers on yearly contracts? Do teachers have any appeal if their contracts aren't renewed?

Teachers enter the profession on a probationary contract that is easy to terminate. Once they have a term contract, it’s possible to fire them but harder assuming they are not doing anything illegal. They have protections that require a lot of documentation for that to happen. They can also appeal it to the school board. I have gotten rid of a few bad apples with term contracts but most just resign.

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35 minutes ago, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

I'm insinuating that any man who is interested in making $35k to teach K-3 should be psychologically profiled and vetted harder because it's a) not common and it's rare, despite your alleged specific experience and that's not even debatable in public school and b) in my opinion, because of how strange/rare it is, there is concern that there might be weird reasons for wanting to take a role teaching young children.

My experience, as both someone who was an elementary aged student and who had elementary aged kids in public schools at one point, is that it's very uncommon (I've never experienced it personally or seen it from anyone or any school I know) and weird. I would force my kids out of a classroom in the K-6 age range taught my a male. Full stop. But that's just me, I'm way more hyper-vigilant than most people, I get that.

Edit to add: I'm not saying that is you, as a one off, there are outliers and exceptions to everything, so don't think I'm personally insulting you. You are actually brave if you have/had a passion to teach Kindergarten as a 33 year old male and you followed that dream despite it being counter to social mores and norms and for you surely leaving money on the table for almost any other job you are surely qualified for.

 

That is exactly what you are doing, personally insulting him. You are also insulting every decent, thinking individual who reads your ignorant drivel.

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14 minutes ago, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

for being a man interested in teaching kids K-6, yes. If for no reason that to just keep the bad eggs out.

Like i said, you are a liar if you are trying to say it's normal and common in the public school system. It's also counter cultural. You are not being honest here.

1. We need more positive male role models in education. 

2. I know you are a troll but these attitudes are what keep men out of the profession. I mean who doesn’t want to be assumed to be a pedophile for 45k a year?

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3 minutes ago, Larry T. Spider said:

Teachers enter the profession on a probationary contract that is easy to terminate. Once they have a term contract, it’s possible to fire them but harder assuming they are not doing anything illegal. They have protections that require a lot of documentation for that to happen. They can also appeal it to the school board. I have gotten rid of a few bad apples with term contracts but most just resign.

Term contracts? Meaning contracts that are longer than one year? How long is a "term"? How common are term contracts vs year to year contracts in Texas? Is your district the exception or the rule?

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8 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

Also, honestly, how often would an appeal to the school board actually get the principal's decision overturned?

It almost never goes that far. Here is a decent breakdown although more districts are offering longer contracts now.

https://tsta.org/for-members/legal-information/information-for-teachers/rights-under-types-contracts

Edit to add: getting your contract not renewed is basically the end of your career. It’s on the first page of every districts application process and will very likely bar you from employment. It’s not something taken lightly.

Edited by Larry T. Spider
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10 hours ago, tantric superman said:

And the only way that getting rid of dead weight will work is if you make the salary high enough to attract better people. 

 

28 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

I believe this already exists. Is Texas not a right to work state? Aren't teachers on yearly contracts? Do teachers have any appeal if their contracts aren't renewed?

My wife is an admin.  She taught elementary grades for 10 years.  The way I've heard the issue framed is that the pool of available teachers is huge, there are always teachers looking for jobs and always good teachers who get turned away.  The bottleneck, if you will, is the inability for principals to get rid of ineffective teachers without going through a long and documented process of inadequacy.  More often than not instead of outright terminating a contract, a principal will have to reassign the bad teacher to another position or pawn them off on to another school.  There's no real easy way to sift them out of the system and until there is the quality of teaching isn't going to be as good as it can be.

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11 hours ago, Coors yellow belly said:

early education is very important, and very fucking easy to teach.

Yep.  Why don't you try going into a classroom, in a good school district, and teach 22 fucking 5 year olds to sit down, learn how to spell, read, do math, listen, and not shit themselves.  It's a fucking zoo in there.  Parents don't teach kids shit these days on a general basis.  Teaching young children is hard as shit. 

Wife is 35 (no pics), 13 years of experience (albeit 3 of them were at a private school) teaching in a solid district and makes about 42k/year.  She works from 6:45-5 everyday.  She goes in a lot of saturdays for an hour or two.  She does lesson plans on Sunday evenings.  She's at home finishing shit up from the day.   She teaches kindergartners.  She goes for training 1-2 weeks during the summer.  

Easy to teach?   GTFO

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It's not too difficult to get rid of bad teachers.   If a teacher is found to be deficient in any area found during his/her evaluations, they can be put on a 'growth plan' and if the issues are not corrected, they don't get an offer for the following year.  Bad teachers will eventually show themselves (poor district/STAAR testing results, classroom management, etc).   

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5 minutes ago, Trey3216 said:

Yep.  Why don't you try going into a classroom, in a good school district, and teach 22 fucking 5 year olds to sit down, learn how to spell, read, do math, listen, and not shit themselves.  It's a fucking zoo in there.  Parents don't teach kids shit these days on a general basis.  Teaching young children is hard as shit. 

Wife is 35 (no pics), 13 years of experience (albeit 3 of them were at a private school) teaching in a solid district and makes about 42k/year.  She works from 6:45-5 everyday.  She goes in a lot of saturdays for an hour or two.  She does lesson plans on Sunday evenings.  She's at home finishing shit up from the day.   She teaches kindergartners.  She goes for training 1-2 weeks during the summer.  

Easy to teach?   GTFO

Your wife is amazing and people need to understand that while she may be above avereage, people like her are more the norm than the bad teachers out there. 

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40 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

I believe this already exists. Is Texas not a right to work state? Aren't teachers on yearly contracts? Do teachers have any appeal if their contracts aren't renewed?

You mean "employment at will".  Yes, unless there are contractual provisions in which case the contract determines if there is only "for cause" terminations. 

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6 minutes ago, Gunsup said:

It's not too difficult to get rid of bad teachers.   If a teacher is found to be deficient in any area found during his/her evaluations, they can be put on a 'growth plan' and if the issues are not corrected, they don't get an offer for the following year.  Bad teachers will eventually show themselves (poor district/STAAR testing results, classroom management, etc).   

As an administrator, I have a few more hoops to jump through than that but it is very possible if you have the time to deal with it.

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1 hour ago, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

I'm insinuating that any man who is interested in making $35k to teach K-3 should be psychologically profiled and vetted harder because it's a) not common and it's rare, despite your alleged specific experience and that's not even debatable in public school and b) in my opinion, because of how strange/rare it is, there is concern that there might be weird reasons for wanting to take a role teaching young children.

My experience, as both someone who was an elementary aged student and who had elementary aged kids in public schools at one point, is that it's very uncommon (I've never experienced it personally or seen it from anyone or any school I know) and weird. I would force my kids out of a classroom in the K-6 age range taught my a male. Full stop. But that's just me, I'm way more hyper-vigilant than most people, I get that.

Edit to add: I'm not saying that is you, as a one off, there are outliers and exceptions to everything, so don't think I'm personally insulting you. You are actually brave if you have/had a passion to teach Kindergarten as a 33 year old male and you followed that dream despite it being counter to social mores and norms and for you surely leaving money on the table for almost any other job you are surely qualified for.

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19 hours ago, Spankytoes said:

"Sometimes I work spring break. I work Christmas break. I work Thanksgiving break. I work summer break. I don't get to spend much time with my family," Caldwell said. "I have a bachelor's degree and master's and I still make not much more than a general manager at McDonald's."

I get paid for 40 hours a week despite the fact that I can work 60 or 70 hours, including weekends and long stretches of travel. I knew the deal when I took the job, and if it doesn’t suit me, I am free to find another one. Being an adult is hard.Teachers are a step above SAHMs when bitching about this kind of thing.

If only your kid got treated with the same level of respect and commitment that you give to teachers.

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1 hour ago, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

I'm insinuating that any man who is interested in making $35k to teachK-3 should be psychologically profiled and vetted harder because it's a) not common and it's rare,...

1

So how about men who want to homeschool their own kids.  What would a psychological profile reveal about them? Incest fetish? Just sayin.

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Anyway, I can't fucking stand anybody under the age of about 20 or so, my own excepted of course. Except babies. I actually like babies.

I simply cannot imagine supervising 20+ kids (of any grade or level), much less actually teaching them, caring for them, being a role model to them, or dealing with their parents. Doing that, even if its only for 9 months of the year, for 50k is unfathomable. And unconscionable.

 

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6 minutes ago, RollLeft said:

So how about men who want to homeschool their own kids.  What would a psychological profile reveal about them? Incest fetish? Just sayin.

I love this argument.

"We pay teachers too fucking much to just babysit kids!"

"Okay, why don't you home school them then?"

"NO WAY! You couldn't pay me enough to give up my career to teach my kids all day long." 

And yet, they expect teachers to make garbage money to do it for them.

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2 minutes ago, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

No, this is obviously the best route if you can't afford a great private option or your kid can't get into a quality STEM or Arts magnet of some sort.

YMMV, but I told the admins at the elementary school it was unacceptable for my kids to get a male K-6 teacher. Maybe that's an old way of thinking or something, but that's how I feel about it. Plus it frees up a spot for the kids who don't have dad's or whatever and need a positive male role model.

I would have moved teachers around just to make sure your kid had a male teacher every year. They clearly need a positive male role model in their lives. Somebody not bigoted and psychotic.

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6 minutes ago, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

YMMV, but I told the admins at the elementary school it was unacceptable for my kids to get a male K-6 teacher. Maybe that's an old way of thinking or something, but that's how I feel about it. 

what?  that's crazy, why?

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Imo, if teachers only babsat your miserable snotty kids all day they would be worth their pay.  What does daycare go for these days 200 per week per kid?  Do the math.  Nevermind they have to get your little Johnny to sit still, behave, concentrate and learn for 8 hours.  You know your kids.  It takes most of you two hours to get them to do 30 minutes worth of homework.    Now imagine your kids and 25 of their fuckin friends over but not for a party but to sit still and learn, with all their varying issues and variables.  Oh and you have listen to their parents opine on what is best for them having little context of the rest of the class and curriculum.  GTFO.  Most, not all, teachers are worth their pay and a raise.  Fuck the duds, i really hate them also, but more than them fuck anyone who is not appreciative of the job most educators do.  They work many hours by choice and because typically it is in their disposition to do what is best for all the kids even when their parents have little patience and shitty attitudes regarding others.   

Edited by RollLeft
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38 minutes ago, Larry T. Spider said:

Your wife is amazing and people need to understand that while she may be above avereage, people like her are more the norm than the bad teachers out there. 

Thanks.  And I didn't even mention the fact that they have a partner teacher and switch kids for 1/2 the day.  So she gets to teach 44 of those raging assholes on a daily basis, and has a partner that doesn't do shit.  She gets to deal with 44 sets of parental figures of whatever variety, and has to pick up the slack of her partner teacher who doesn't have the desire to keep things in order.  

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5 hours ago, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

I'm really not trolling. It's weird to me. And you are lying, if a parent politely requested that his young children not have a male teacher you would have politely approved, as is what happened. Because it's not an insane thing to request for comfort; just like when a person requests a specific man/woman for their doctor or their piano teacher or their masseuse or any number of things where it's an option.

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I have two kids in public school in Texas and each had 4 separate male teachers between Kindergarten and 5th grade.  All were amazing gentlemen who had and are still having a significant positive impact on my kids. 

Oatmeal and Coors can go fuck each other.

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So is the village idiot implying -

All male elementary teachers are gay?

That all gay men are pedophiles?

That all male elementary teachers are pedophiles?

Because the father from “Abducted In Plain Sight” had a homosexual relationship. With an adult male. And neither one was a teacher.

What a disgusting insinuation. I feel sorry for that idiot’s children. Growing up with such a gross father is a tragedy. They need a male teacher to model a healthy male influence.

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4 minutes ago, TexEx15 said:

Thank you for posting this. ^^^

Average teacher pay in Texas for 2017-18 was $53,167, compared with the national average of $60,483, according to the National Education Association. There are about 350,000 classroom teachers and librarians across the state.

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I'm insinuating that any man who is interested in making $35k to teach K-3 should be psychologically profiled and vetted harder because it's a) not common and it's rare, despite your alleged specific experience and that's not even debatable in public school and b) in my opinion, because of how strange/rare it is, there is concern that there might be weird reasons for wanting to take a role teaching young children.
My experience, as both someone who was an elementary aged student and who had elementary aged kids in public schools at one point, is that it's very uncommon (I've never experienced it personally or seen it from anyone or any school I know) and weird. I would force my kids out of a classroom in the K-6 age range taught my a male. Full stop. But that's just me, I'm way more hyper-vigilant than most people, I get that.
Edit to add: I'm not saying that is you, as a one off, there are outliers and exceptions to everything, so don't think I'm personally insulting you. You are actually brave if you have/had a passion to teach Kindergarten as a 33 year old male and you followed that dream despite it being counter to social mores and norms and for you surely leaving money on the table for almost any other job you are surely qualified for.


Just because you fuck kids or wish you could doesn't mean everyone else does.
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Oatmeal cookie guy is a fucking moron for his male teacher take. What a profoundly stupid post.

As for pay, average teacher pay in Texas is a bit of a misleading stat. That number is inflated by large suburban districts that are so flush with cash they pay tens of millions to build football stadiums, ag complexes, etc. Relative to cost of living, a teacher in a big suburban Houston or DFW district is among the best paid in the nation.

In real terms, there is a pay disparity between those jobs and the big urban districts (higher COL for same/lower pay) and rural districts (shit pay).

Where do we need to incentiveize the best educators to go? We need them in the big urban districts and rural areas. And yet the way things work in this state, the incentive for an educator works the exact opposite way. I used to teach in Houston - the starting salaries are actually pretty good. But there is so little growth in the pay scale. Plenty of the good educators move out to the burbs after getting their start in HISD because staying means doing more challenging work for less money.

Starting salaries in Austin, on the other hand, are laughable compared to COL. I left the field because I had to move back to Austin and AISD salaries were a pittance for younger teachers (and they didn't get much better as you went on). If I recall a small pay raise (like 2-3 percent) was enacted somewhat recently, but as of 2015 their salaries were non competitive with RRISD, Leander, etc. Looked more like a rural district. I can't imagine they can recruit a lot of young, educated people that aren't on their parent's payroll. And those young, educated people with options are exactly the folks we need in our schools.

HISD, DISD, AISD... They all send hundreds of millions to the state through recapture despite having the most challenging populations to educate. As long as that's the case, we're going to continue to have what amounts to an educational caste system. And that equates to a societal caste system.

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I wasn’t accusing the other guy was, so by nature of the truism, he’s confessing (by way of projection). Let’s all join in a round of “ewwwwee”’ing at him. Thank you.


Are you accusing male teachers in elementary schools?

Also, aisd pays roughly the same as rrisd, lisd, gisd, pfisd, etc. There’s a bubble right there in central Texas where “big city” teacher pay is low compared to Houston, DFW, San Antonio
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27 minutes ago, deft said:

 


Are you accusing male teachers in elementary schools?

Also, aisd pays roughly the same as rrisd, lisd, gisd, pfisd, etc. There’s a bubble right there in central Texas where “big city” teacher pay is low compared to Houston, DFW, San Antonio

 

It’s about 20%, not factoring in Austin has a higher cost of living. After 10 years in Austin isd a teacher makes 48,900. In Allen the same teacher would make 57,700.

Edited by Larry T. Spider
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23 minutes ago, Larry T. Spider said:

It’s about 20%, not factoring in Austin has a higher cost of living. After 10 years in Austin isd a teacher makes 48,900. In Allen the same teacher would make 57,700.

Yes, Austin sucks for teacher pay. Don't know why. I'm in NB and starting is at about 50k with the surrounding area being about equal. The one outlier is Schertz-Cibolo which is about 3K higher with a longer scale increase. 

Edited by Winona's Big Orange Bevo
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