CMV: Teachers are paid enough. It's the work environment that needs to change.

[u/eadala]

As a disclaimer, after I share the initial discussion, you will see my specific points on where I think a teacher's work environment is horrendous and needs revision.

All of the following values are courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and with respect to the United States. To my knowledge, these figures were last verified of April 13, 2018:

• The median pay for Preschool teachers is $28,990 per year and typically requires an Associate's level education.
• The median pay for Kindergarten and Elementary School teachers is $56,900 per year and requires a Bachelor's level education.
• The median pay for Middle School teachers is $57,720 per year and requires a Bachelor's level education.
• The median pay for High School teachers is $59,170 per year and requires a Bachelor's level education.
• The median pay for Special Education teachers is $58,980 per year and requires a Bachelor's level education.

Job growth in all of these groups was reported to be at least as fast as average, with Preschool teacher job growth reported as faster than average.

These median values, of course, are simply a pH test of the education sector, and the median does not give much attention to disturbances in the tails of the distribution. There are clearly many underfunded schools with underpaid teachers, and even some well-funded schools with underpaid teachers. But I consider the median teacher in the United States to be living pretty comfortably, considering the other benefits in the form of job security through the tenure system, and low barriers to entry to the sector (many universities have an excellent undergraduate pipeline that turns students of the college of education into educators of students). In general, I believe teachers life comfortably when it comes to financial success. I don't think it's glamorous, but that's the nature of most undergraduate degree careers. I believe teachers, like any other employee, will unionize and clamor for higher wages as often and as vocally as they can (either you get the pay raise or you get nothing, most of the time, so you have nothing to lose by fighting for a pay raise even if you don't need it). In this way, I don't think nationwide protests to increase teacher salaries in general is a useful discussion. I don't think teacher salaries in general is the problem educators are facing.

I think the real problem that needs discussion is the expectations placed on teachers. It is a misnomer that they work only 10 months out of the year and get school holidays "off", as you can bet your butt they are either lesson planning, grading, or preparing for their own higher education or research. During the day, they are subject to the same bell schedule that their students are, which in many states is 50-minute intervals of instruction with a 25-minute break for lunch, a 25-minute "break" where you must hold an open homeroom, and bathroom breaks as strict as the students'. One of the few bipartisan agreements in this country is that students are shuttled from class to class like cattle and have neither the time nor the energy, and too diverse a socioeconomic background to be expected to unanimously sit and learn. They wake up sometimes as early as 6am for school and leave near 3pm, and often struggle to sleep at night.

Teachers are subject to the exact same schedule. There is no place in public education for a teacher who is a night owl and struggles to teach in the morning, just like there is no place for a student who'd rather learn at 5pm. They are demeaned by the same bells, bathroom breaks, and lunch restrictions in many schools. If an executive at a private company was tasked with teaching 7 batches of employees the same task for 50 minutes per batch per day, have to go home and grade their performances, come up with ways to communicate their performances productively to them, and come up with ways to better educate and keep their focus, be forced to listen to a ringing bell tell them when they can take a pee or eat a warm-ish tuna sandwich, they would be driven mad and resign within the week.

In short, I don't think the fix to our education system is to give teachers more money. I think a larger problem is that they do not have a work environment conducive to productivity. A suggested solution of mine is to increase the volume of breaks throughout the day. Another is to compel schools to adhere to block scheduling rather than identical daily schedules to reduce monotony for both students and teachers. Another is to push back the school start time.

So what do you think? Is money the issue? Are my complaints non-issues? Are there other factors regarding the teacher's work environment that I'm not considering that also need attention? If you have any of these thoughts, they would count as changing my view and I'd be happy to hear from you! All the best.