Do you Think that we should pay teachers 100 k a yr?

The Rise of the Six-Figure Teacher





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By FORD FESSENDEN and JOSH BARBANEL


Published: May 15, 2005


Correction Appended





TEACHING has always been known as a noble calling, but as affluent parents and administrators strive to give their children every possible advantage, it has also become a better-paid profession than in the past, with thousands of public school teachers in the New York suburbs now earning more than $100,000 a year.





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Where the Highest Paid Teach





Forum: Contemporary Education


The salaries, among the highest in the country, are paid only to the most experienced teachers, with the most education, in an area where the cost of living is notoriously high. But they are high enough to have raised the ire of some taxpayers, who are making it an issue in budget votes on Tuesday.





One in 12 teachers in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties now earns more than $100,000, and the ranks are growing fast, according to an analysis of state data by The New York Times. On Long Island from 2001 to 2003 (the most recent figures available), the number grew fivefold, to 2,800, including 498 elementary school teachers, 29 physical education teachers and 83 kindergarten teachers.





School administrators say that the salaries are needed to attract and keep the best teachers. But the proliferation of the higher salaries, combined with recent increases in medical insurance costs and the fact that teachers retire with pensions based on these salaries, is straining local budgets. Last year, 46 of 124 school district budgets were rejected on Long Island.





Whether this trend is improving the quality of education and children's futures is a subject of debate. Many of the top-paid teachers are in wealthy districts with high-performing schools, like Manhasset. But many are also in districts with little wealth and struggling schools, like Central Islip.





Still, critics of the salaries as well as those who consider them necessary agree that the image of teaching as an altruistic, low-paid occupation is no longer the case in the suburbs. A family with two public school teachers can earn enough to put it in the top 4 percent of families on Long Island.





Six-figure teachers are not unique to the New York suburbs. Connecticut officials reported about a dozen in 2004, and news reports indicate that some Chicago suburbs pay that much. But the highest salary for New York City teachers is $81,232, and only a handful in the rest of New York State are paid as well. In California, the highest teacher salary in 2003 was well under $100,000, according to state figures.





A teachers' union official said that the salaries have to be high. "I think it's only fair to say that given the cost of living on Long Island, and the cost of housing, it would be impossible to maintain a teaching staff at anything less than what's currently being paid," said Richard Iannuzzi, a former Central Islip teacher who is the president of the New York State United Teachers.





But teacher salaries on the Island have increased faster than those of other workers, and school officials worry that this will affect the outcome of budget votes on Tuesday. The median salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree and 10 years' experience increased about 4 percent a year from 2001 to 2003. The average salary for all full-time workers on Long Island during that period went up about 3 percent a year, according to Census figures.





"It's going to be a very tough time for school budgets," said Edward Walsh, the vice president of the East Islip school board. "People are in a squeeze, and when it's a tough time, it's supposed to be a tough time for everyone."





Teachers point to their years of training and decades of service as justification for their salaries.





"There's a lot of people out there who make a lot more than I do," said Patricia Daniello, 53, an East Islip teacher at the pinnacle of her profession - 30 years' experience, a master's degree with 90 hours of additional credit, and a $116,772 salary. "Do I think my salary is high, based on what I do for children and the amount of education I have in my background? No, I do not."





But some taxpayers in her district disagree. Ms. Daniello is one of more than 100 teachers whose six-figure salaries appear on a list circulated to voters by the East Islip TaxPac, a group campaigning against the district's proposed 8.8-percent tax increase.|||I have relatives who teach community college in that area, and they are also making about that much with masters degrees and that much time and experience in their fields. If we don't object to paying college professors that much - and we don't - why not pay teachers that much? If we could offer that kind of salary to any teacher, we wouldn't have to scrape the bottom of the barrel for math and science teachers. Anyone with any talent in the field can make much more than a teacher in almost any other job - so they don't teach.|||Yes I think teachers are worth that much. Educating kids is a very important thing for today's society and it's dangerous.|||Advanced Chemistry at an accredited University - YES


2nd Grade Math class with Mrs. Jones - NO|||Do you think we should pay actors/actresses 50 million a year?|||if the extra salary increases the amount of successful graduates that get scholarships, and get into college and graduate, and go on to successful high-paying careers over their lifetime, then that increase would be justified, especially for those families that paid the extra increase.





the inequity comes from those who dont need the extra


ability of the teachers, nor do they need the skill levels that are produced, as in trade and lower-level 2 year career courses, that pay


less over a career, and those parents see little or no benefit for the pay increases or the greater skills of the teachers.





worse inequity is visited upon the poor ones who never go on to higher learning and get dumped on the job market, along with the people who inevitably pay taxes and whose children are grown up, or never had children at all, and that is the gross injustice of our taxing system.





that is the argument in a nutshell. you can see why people are divided on this issue, not because there is a need at the top, but because a


shotgun approach does not solve a problem best solved by a sharpshooter with a scope, and that issue remains, and will remain unresolved.