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Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Senator puts teachers, police officers, firefighters in the 1 percent

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) has advocated for large financial institutions in the past, but he stuck up for an interesting new segment of the 1 percent on Saturday: teachers, police officers, and firefighters, the Huffington Post reports. In an interview with the Lowell Sun, Brown claimed that President Barack Obama’s proposed tax increase on households that make over $250,000 will fall on the families of public employees like teachers, firefighters, and police officers: Asked which public servants earn that much money, Brown said it is common for police officers to earn well over $100,000 annually when overtime is factored into their pay.

“You throw in a teacher who’s working, plus a summer job, it adds up pretty quickly,” he said. “There’s quite a few of them.”

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How much should teachers be paid?

"Without our teachers, where would we be?" asked one reader.

With U.S. schools facing enormous pressure to improve, even as state and local budgets continue to evaporate, teacher compensation is the latest flashpoint in debates about education reform.

Though some critics argue that teachers are overpaid (see “Hey teachers: The Heritage Foundation thinks you’re overpaid”), many believe it’s just the opposite (see “Four fallacies of the ‘teachers are overpaid’ argument” and “Teachers facing low salaries opt to moonlight”).

To get our readers’ perspective, we recently asked: “What do you think teachers should be paid?” Here are some of the most thought-provoking responses (edited for brevity).…Read More

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Teachers, facing low salaries, opt to moonlight

While moonlighting isn't unique to teachers, they do tend to have second or third jobs at a higher rate than other professionals.

By day, Wade Brosz teaches American history at an A-rated Florida middle school. By night, he is a personal trainer at 24 Hour Fitness.

Brosz took the three-night a week job at the gym after his teaching salary was frozen, summer school was reduced drastically, and the state bonus for board certified teachers was cut. He figures that he and his wife, also a teacher, are making about $20,000 less teaching than expected to, combined.

“The second job was to get back what was lost through cuts,” said Brosz, a nationally board certified teacher. “It was tougher and tougher to make ends meet. I started personal training because it’s flexible hours.”…Read More

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Teachers wonder, why the scorn?

The jabs Erin Parker has heard about her job have stunned her. Oh you pathetic teachers, read the online comments and placards of counterdemonstrators. You are glorified baby sitters who leave work at 3 p.m. You deserve minimum wage, reports the New York Times.

 “You feel punched in the stomach,” said Ms. Parker, a high school science teacher in Madison, Wis., where public employees’ two-week occupation of the State Capitol has stalled but not deterred the governor’s plan to try to strip them of bargaining rights. Ms. Parker, a second-year teacher making $36,000, fears that under the proposed legislation class sizes would rise and higher contributions to her benefits would knock her out of the middle class…

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