Are Public School Teachers Underpaid?
Via reason's @NickGillespie, a post by Lindsey M. Burke at JayPGreene:
My colleague at Heritage, Jason Richwine, along with co-author Andrew Biggs of AEI, has just published a groundbreaking new paper on teacher compensation. The authors find that public school teachers "make total compensation 52 percent greater than fair market levels, equivalent to more than $120 billion overcharged to taxpayers each year."...While it's true that public school teachers earn less, on average, than similarly credentialed non-teachers, Richwine and Biggs note that traditional skill measures, such as years spent in school or level of degree, do not lend themselves to an accurate salary comparison of teachers to non-teachers. The "wage gap" disappears when teachers and non-teachers are compared using objective measures of cognitive ability, as opposed to years of university education.
Beyond paper qualifications, comparisons of public school teachers to their private school counterparts provides more evidence that public school teachers are compensated above market value. The authors find that "With all observable skills held constant, public-school teachers nationally earn 9.8 percent more in salaries than private school teachers."
But it's the benefits that are the biggest factor. Biggs notes in NRO:
"The BLS benefits data, which most pay studies rely on, has three shortcomings: It omits the value of retiree health coverage, which is uncommon for private workers but is worth about an extra 10 percent of pay for teachers; it understates the value of teachers' defined-benefit pensions, which pay benefits several times higher than the typical private 401(k) plan; and it ignores teachers' time off outside the normal school year, meaning that long summer vacations aren't counted as a benefit. When we fix these problems, teacher benefits are worth about double the average private-sector level.
"Finally, public-school teachers have much greater job security, with unemployment rates about half those of private-school teachers or other comparable private occupations. Job security protects against loss of income during unemployment and, even more importantly, protects a position in which benefits are much more generous than private-sector levels."
The teacher who brings me in to talk to the inner city kids specifically told me she isn't underpaid. She gets a good salary, she said, and gets the summer months off.
Yeah, my wife teaches at a Catholic girls school, and makes about $10k less than she'd make at Venice High. Not only that, she misses out on the benefits they have there, like metal detectors for the students, armed police on campus, weekly graffiti removal, drug-sniffing dogs....
franko at November 7, 2011 6:54 AM
What degree do i need for the job of passing out napkins and checking their safety restraints in the lunchroom?
Storm Saxon's Gall Bladder at November 7, 2011 6:59 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/11/07/are_public_scho.html#comment-2747939">comment from frankoA friend of mine was a teacher at a private school in LA and made FAR less money than public school teachers, yet was a great teacher (she was also my French teacher when I could still afford my French group).
It seems a lot of us have gone through a lot of belt-tightening, and it makes me especially enraged when some public employee is unhelpful (I regard their unhelpfulness then picture myself working in a donut shop at 90 to pay their public sector pension).
Amy Alkon
at November 7, 2011 7:08 AM
My ex father-in-law taught high school physics in a public school in a well-off area and made over 100k a year. The salary can be very, very good.
Despite all the benefits, though, I would never be a teacher. The parents are awful. One parent with an ax to grind can ruin your career.
MonicaP at November 7, 2011 8:24 AM
The public/private isn't a good comparison. Public school teachers have far more rigid qualifications, and private schools have more flexibility in who they can hire, ie uncertified teachers. Private schools can kick out unruly students, making discipline less of an issue than in public schools, freeing the teacher up to earn more.
Having said that, I think I was fairly paid when I was a public school teacher. I wasn't well-paid, no, but I had enough to get by. I would not, however, by any stretch of the imagination say I was overpaid.
100k is an unusual amount, but kudos to your FIL. I was making less than half that.
NicoleK at November 7, 2011 10:11 AM
The problem I have with these sorts of pronouncements is that they don't show a RANGE of pay. Sure, there are rich cities whose teachers make a lot... or cities with such strong unions that they are able to get a lot. And then there are poor cities, or inner cities where a teacher with 25 years experience and a master's degree in teaching and special ed. can make $42K a year. That'd be my mamalady who works in Phoenix Public.
Much as people on both sides of the coin would like to treat teaching as if it was some kind of monolithic thing throughout the US, it just isn't. Some places good, some places not... the difficult part is: where is the money flowing?
Still the bottom line is, do you get what you pay for? Throwing money at a problem, but not having a better outcome is a really big deal... and all to often this is what happens in schools.
SwissArmyD at November 7, 2011 10:27 AM
I did teach in a public school in a place which is the equivalent of the inner city. That wasn't an easy ride, I wasn't overpaid as in the previous example, and I would really love to see all the people complaining do this job, I am sure I would have a good laugh.
My message to all the complainers: why are you complaining and not doing it, if it is that easy and well-paid?
If one day I hear of a job which is a "sinecure", I won't complain, I'll try to get it!
nico@hou at November 7, 2011 9:11 PM
My message to teachers:
Why are you complaining about your job and your pay?
Who held the gun to your head and forced you to become a teacher?
You knew full well what it entailed going in, yet you still complain. Why?
And by the way, both - yes, both - of my parents are retired K-12 teachers. Not only didn't they bitch and whine like today's teachers, they want nothing to do with current teachers, the unions, the administration or anything remotely associated with the entire mess.
jimg at November 7, 2011 11:11 PM
I sometimes do living history show&tell programs for middle schoolers, and I have to take my hat off to the regular teachers who do this sort of work EVERY DAY, ALL DAY.
After I've been on my feet for six or seven class periods, speaking nonstop, I am useless the next day!
I don't see how it's possible to name a good salary for this.
Jefe at November 7, 2011 11:15 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/11/07/are_public_scho.html#comment-2749733">comment from JefeUm, Jefe, you might need to learn to pace yourself.
Amy Alkon
at November 7, 2011 11:19 PM
Jefe, like most things, your body & mind will get used if you do it every day. After being out of work for some time, when I went back it was totally exhausting. After a month it was no big deal.
It is so variable how do you make a determination.
I remember when there was a teacher strike the news interviewed a teacher and she complained. Someone public requested her & her husbands salary (they were both teachers on strike) and found that their combined salaries from teaching placed them in the top 1% for the county. Now if they lived in a big city, their combined salary would not be at all not worthy. Note that those so teaching jobs would have only paid slightly more if they actually worked in the city.
The Former Banker at November 8, 2011 12:02 AM
When I was a public school teacher, I thought the pay was adequate. However the stress and frustration was more than adequate. You could not pay me $100,000 a year to go back and do it again. BTW, by and large, most teachers do not go into the field knowing that they are going to be on the bleeding edge of social deterioration--which they are.
ken in sc at November 8, 2011 11:19 AM
"most teachers do not go into the field knowing that they are going to be on the bleeding edge of social deterioration--which they are."
When did "Up The Down Staircase" get taken off the reading list for ed majors?!
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at November 8, 2011 4:58 PM
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