Ok teachers ranked 47th in salary but 34th in purchasing power, their salary corrected for cost of living. Someone is always going to be below the average and 34th of 50 is not terrible, but not great for them either.

Teachers typically have great benefits which include a generous state funded pension, adjusted for cost of living. That's something most folks in the private sector don't have. Even if you are lucky enough to get a pension, it is a fixed amount so its value decreases as the years go by. The benefits and hours worked in a year must be factored into the whole compensation package when comparing teachers to other professions. I don't know of any professional (non-hourly worker) where a 40 hr week is standard. As an engineer I typically worked 50 hrs/wk for my base salary.

Teachers must be college grads so they have that investment, as do many professionals. What is different for teachers is that many states forgive college loans after so many years of teaching.

I not saying teachers don't deserve more, I don't know. What I do know is that they have not made an adequate case considering the points above to convince me they deserve more.

Got love some of you people on this site... If you don't like your job or think your not paid enough do something else you say..walk out, don't do the job. stand up for your self...
Unless your a teacher or someone I think is paid to much already. Then your a cry baby should be fired.

LMAO!

Mac

If you’re not willing to pay for teachers, then don’t complain about the teachers your kids still have. [/quote]


I have to pay for teachers my children have - I support my family and support my wife who stays home and educates my children. But, by God I can still most definitely complain about the teachers I have no power over and I am forced to pay taxes to in my local govt corrupt school system.

after school enrichment.........come on

Teachers should research potential pay before becoming one, then decide if the pay is enough. Not become one and then go on strike cause they don't make enough.

Teachers are looked at differently today than they were 50 years ago.

Today's education system is failing. What they teach and how they teach has changed so much. Kids today can't even do basic math without grabbing some form of gadget. Obviously they don't teach basic history about our country and its constitution.

I have dealt with teachers that could not teach the curriculum but yet expected the kids to learn it. I know there are some great teachers out there but like all other professions there are a lot of lazy idiotic ones as well.

I don't sympathize with anyone crying they don't make enough money. If your not happy than get a different job.

Teachers might have to deal with a lot with the kids but I also feel teachers bring a lot of the stuff on themselves. They only work 9 months and have off all summer plus the benefit package on top of their salary. They don't have it bad. Plus they get a tenured protection no matter how bad of a job they do.

Teachers don't get the respect anymore due to a few things.

Teachers live in a bubble and think life evolves around the school. How many times have the kids been used to get a new school or a tax hike of some sort? Do it for the Kids! I for one am tired of that slogan.

And like mentioned before some of them don't know the curriculum. And some only want to teach or push their views.

This gun control issue has also hurt them. They should keep their political views out of the school. They have the right to feel anyway they want on political but keep it out of the classroom.

These strikes hurt them as well. I understand people deserve to be paid but there are way smarter ways to go about than letting the kids take the fall for them getting it. Quit holding the kids for leverage.

I for one am ready for a new type of school system.

They were 47 th in salary among the US teachers . Hadn't had a raise in 10 years. PLUS they are needed books and up grades to the schools.
But here is a thought instead of building new sport facilities how about new books !!!!

There are alot of professions that haven't had a raise in 10 years. I don't know for sure but my guess is the raise they would have gotten went to health ins. like most everyone else.

Yep .

Again , many of you are missing the mark here. Want a raise ? Who doesn't. But many of these same teachers were very vocal critics of district consolidation which would've freed up lots of cash for raises. Cry me a river.

Oklahoma gas prices too high ? Thank a teacher . A gas tax increase is one of the ways they're paying for this bill.

The idea of state and federally funded schools HAS to be kept around solely for the sake of tradition. Anyone with half a brain knows that most every tentacle that government uses to grope different aspects of our lives leaves behind a patch of rot. Education, like healthcare, is WAY way WAY too important to leave to rot by continued government administration.

LOL How many of you guys said "they need to do something else if it is not enough money" when the teamsters strike, the Iron workers ,ect. Heck according to you guys if ANYONE strikes for ANYTHING they should just walk away and do something else. BOY OH BOY you bunch of hypocrites!!!!! You got the rights to pee and moan about "your" rights (" nobody going to take my AR") to speak your mind but because a teacher has sat quiet so many years and finally spoke out they should be ashamed. The freedom of speech and right to assembly is right their along the right to bear arms.

Plus until you walk in their foot steps how about a little understanding and compassion.

This is true...........but not the reason for the walk out. They've not had a raise in a decade, entry pay is so low that teacher positions go unfilled. So classes of 15 become classes of 30, or are taught by long term subs with an emergency certification. Meanwhile, legislators vote themselves a raise every year, and our Governor will retire next year making $30K more per year after retirement than per year while she is in office.....that's not sitting very well.

First and foremost those other unions you mention aren't taxpayer funded. Period. ANY and ALL unions who negotiate their salary against an innocent taxpayer at the threat of a gun should be done away with. Full stop.
These public unions negotiate with grease ball politicians who do not spend their own money. Instead, in maNY cases, they promise sweet teat pension plans to be paid out by taxpayers in a generation, when the slug and the grease ball are no longer at the bargaining table but at the golf course together.

Nope thank your legislators.......the money is there, and has been. Ask the the OK Dept of Health about their money, and any other OK dept about waste and mismanaged funds. We don't burn gas anyway, we burn diesel, which got a higher tax than the gas. Your legislators cut production tax during an oil boom from 7% to 2%. They are idiots.

I can understand more in this case if these teachers really don't have a union and their government has been stealing from one to feed the other for years.

What hurts them is the other schools crying when they really don't have it that bad.

If what's being said is true than something needs changed.

Old news , my brother. Okie law makers have been a soup sandwich long as I can remember. But they aren't calling for audits are they ?

Give ‘em a raise, but don’t raise taxes to pay for it. The money is already there, it’s just being wasted on overpaid administrators. Just like most other professions, the “dead weight” is almost always on Top .

I have to firmly disagree with you there Sarge. My wife's a teacher (not in the state with the protests going on) and most people think they only work 9-10 months/year and the school pays for most/all of their classroom supplies. Last year we put easily over $500 just into supplies and books for the largely unappreciative school kids and, at least around here, most teachers are busy during the summer months maintaining education credits and preparing for the upcoming school year. Sure, during the summer there is more free time, but teachers don't get to just dust off their hands at the end of the school year and have nothing to do over the summer until school starts back up. Teachers are some of the hardest working folks I know, especially considering all the crap they have to deal with from the kids and the kids' parents.

In my opinion, teachers ARE hugely underpaid and I didn't come to appreciate how poorly until my wife got into the profession. For all the crap they have to deal with these days, and for teaching and mentoring the youth, they get paid diddly squat compared to MANY other professions, and most of those other professions don't have near the impact on the kids as they grow up. Where would anyone be without a decent education these days?

DB, are you guys able to write off the supply purchases ? Always wondered that .