The Virginian-Pilot
©
Teachers in the Virginia Beach/Norfolk/Newport News metropolitan area brought home wages slightly above the national average in 2009, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The average secondary level teacher earned $55,340, close to the national average of $55,150. The region's middle school teachers did somewhat better, earning $56,470 compared with the national average of $53,550. And the region's elementary teachers also were paid above the national average, earning $54,380 compared with a national average of $53,150.
The pay for teachers at all three grade levels was lower than the Virginia average, which ranged from about $58,000 to $60,000, depending on grade level. Pay levels in Northern Virginia and Danville were significantly above the state average. Pay in the Blacksburg, Lynchburg and Bristol areas were significantly below the state average.
The U.S. Department of Labor bases the statistics on a semiannual mail survey. The local metropolitan area includes Gloucester, Isle of Wight, James City, Mathews, Surry and York counties, Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach and Williamsburg cities and Currituck County, N.C.
The Virginia data is available online at http://www.bls.gov/ro3/oesvateachers.htm.
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Stories about salaries are
Stories about salaries are usually more meaningful if three salary points are posted: starting, mid-range, and top-out. Part of the reason the "average salary" seems high is because we have an aging teacher population; many teachers in Virginia Beach are being paid in the upper ranges of their pay bands due to longevity. With longevity comes experience, and that's not bad, but the number of teachers retiring in the next ten years far outpaces the number of newly minted rookie teachers.
The calculations used for this story paint a distorted picture of the "average teacher salary" and don't allow for greatly reduced salaries of replacement teachers who will be paid at the lower end of the scale. In ten years, it's probable that the "average salary" will be below the benchmarks that this story is now considering them to be above.
Average?
Knowing a few people who teach and are in the 30-45 age range, I find these figures a little over inflated. Are they taking just teachers' salaries or are they mixing in all the administrators in too? Most teachers I know barely make 40K.
Where is this?
I would like to know where exactly is the average salary close to $60,000. I have been teaching, with a Master's degree, in an area public school system for going on 12 years and I'm thousands away from the $50,000 mark much less $60,000.
What they don't mention
Is that is the average, not what every teacher is paid. I have been teaching for five years, and my pay has remained the same for the past two years, as all salary increases were frozen in Spring 2008, and it is not nearly what the article is stating the average is. What that means is that most teachers have been teaching for 10 years or more, as that is when the pay goes over 50K. That's about it.
Uh..... HOLD ON A MINUTE!
Having read through the comments, it seems that many people out there are saying we pay our teachers too much. HOGWASH! Can anyone name a person with a more important job? The future of our nation (and that equated to OUR future) is in the hands of these people! Add to that the fact that we have demanded that they not only have to teach the basics to our kids (reading, writing, arithmatic, art, science, etc.) but we have added a whole list of other things for them to fit into the school day. Follow this with the fact that we often take them to task when they have to try to keep our children under conrol or, God Forbid!, feel the need to keep little Johnny back a year so that he can do next years work.
Now I am not a teacher, in fact my wife and I kept our children out of school and homeschooled them until college age. That was because I don't aggree with the state mandated morality that is taught in the public schools. I would rather have had a teacher teach them. They are worth every dollar that they earn and most truly want to help our children as much as they can.
Uh...Doh
After reading my comment it sounds like I never went to school. Sorry all, I should have proofread my rant.
JET
JET
s'ok. you probably attended public school.
Open Invitation
I would like to invite all of you who think teachers are overpaid to volunteer as a substitute or an aide in a classroom for more than an hour - try it for a day or a week. After you have a student cuss you out (or a parent), have to deal with a fight or health emergency, answer all of the real and smart aleck questions, grade all the classwork, and deal with all of the paperwork required by the state and the federal government, assist the student who is crying, the student who came to class in a rage, the student who finally started talking after weeks of sleeping in class, the student who just got it, the student who just isn't getting it, the numerous interruptions from the office while you're trying to teach a lesson, then maybe you'll appreciate just what we do.
More
Don't forget - catching up the student who just returned from several days illness and the one who returned from the extra week of vacation that his parents pulled him out of school for. Then there are the lessons to prepare for the student is on homebound instruction for maternity leave and the student who is suspended for whatever. Come on teachers - I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting.
susan p
sounds to me like you may want to try praying before you start daily class.