Family
That was a very nice perk about working at the school my kids attended, childcare was rarely an issue since we almost always had the same days off. Of course there were some exceptions, my school year always started a week or two before the kids went back to school since they had meetings for all the teachers and staff and there were sometimes teacher work days, where the students would be off but not the teachers and staff…but it usually wasn’t too hard to find care.
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My SIL has been teaching for 30+ years in Louisiana and she only makes in the high$50s. Her pension is only fair as well. She tutors year round for extra money. I compare that to what a teacher in my town makes (easily over $90k with that many years in) and our much better pension (80% of your 5 best years - 50% if you go for the survivorship benefit and if your spouse pre-deceases you that can be bumped back up to the higher figure). Of course our COL is much higher so a lot of teachers in our town live across the border in NH where housing is cheaper.
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^That’s why it’s important to research school districts now, since relationships to local school and state certification will lead to positions in the college’s region.
Choosing the colleges where to apply for the State’s and school district’s policies wrt salary& benefits can insure she gets to study what she wants AND make a decent living (ie., avoid LA, AR, WV, FL, OK..)
Choosing a college that works with TFA is another way to look at the list.
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Many parents of young kids have checked out of parenting and defaulted to devices. So when kids are in school, there are so many behavior problems. That’s one of my main concerns.
Unfortunately, that is not a survivable salary where we live. Most of our public school teachers start at 70k with full benefits. But, with the current economic environment, districts are making significant cuts, so I don’t think that the benefit and retirement model that teachers have now will continue. So she will need to contribute to a 401k and plan for retirement like any other job.
I was talking about boarding schools (someone upthread mentioned them). The benefits I was referring to include free room and board, as well as health insurance, retirement etc. When you can live for free, $45,000 isn’t actually a bad salary!
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Wow, 70k year (and I assume a 10-month position) sounds like on the higher side (in a good way 
). Of course, I don’t know where you are located. I am in the DC metro area, so not San Francisco, but not cheap. I just checked and the minimum starting salary (with BA, not an MA) for my county is 63k.
I know plenty of teacher and non-teacher kids (some out of college 2-3 years) making 70k and they easily live on that (they have roommates). And they have to contribute to their own retirement plan, pay something for health insurance, etc. I think it is doable if they don’t have debt.
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Thank you for this! Everything feels so impossibly expensive where we live, but our kids love it here and eventually want to be back here. So I hope that they have the opportunity to come back if that’s their choice.
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I teach computer science in high school. I could have taken a different job for easily double amount income. There are people who mock us CS teachers but we pay no attention to them. We treasure the hand-written notes we receive from students way more than our paychecks.
On the other hand, I have felt that students in general are less and less teachable, fewer and fewer parents are helpful, and I’m spending more and more time and energy managing students’ behavior (yes even in the advanced classes). So to anyone entering or thinking about entering the teaching profession, I’d suggest that they talk to a good number of current teachers.
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My dad would say the same things during that latter part of his career. School administrators along with a fear of bad press & lawsuits have taken away most forms of discipline and classroom management that teachers had. Obviously, no one condones a teacher striking a child, but they can’t even intervene to break up fights anymore - too much of a liability for the district.
I have a teacher friend who sent a child to the principal’s office because they wouldn’t stop making a disruptive noise in the classroom while she was teaching after being repeatedly warned. The child’s parents accused her of being racist against the child (this was 5th grade, public school). She had to go before a district committee and defend herself.
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Yes, I am afraid of all of this. My father was a principal later in his career. He would explain the difference between teaching in the late 80’s vs the early 2000’s like this. If a kid got sent to his office in the late 80’s or 90’s, and the parent had to come pick up the kid, the parent yelled at the kid and asked why they did what they did. If a kid got sent to the office in the early 2000’s, and the parent had to come pick up the kid, the parent would yell at my dad and ask why their kid was being singled out. The shift in parenting, or lack thereof, is one of my biggest concerns.
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I agree that in many aspects the school environment has changed in the past few decades. And thus the teaching profession has new challenges.
But there are also many wonderful students, parents, schools and administrators out there. And the rewards of teaching are still present.
One other thought is that an education degree and certification is really never wasted. I know a few people who went into teaching and then decided to pivot to a new career: marketing, HR, corporate training and so on. Their degree and teaching experience were valuable to prospective employers outside of schools.
With my (now adult) kids, I let them pursue whatever inspired them and brought them joy. I have 2 musicians and one who just finished her teaching credential. They all support themselves. If they decide at some point to pivot in a new direction, I know they have the skills and drive to make it happen.
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My daughter just moved because of her husband’s job. She had just gotten a job substitute teaching at a military base school and really liked it because her prior substitute job was at a public school and she couldn’t do anything to discipline the students (take away a phone, send them to the office, take away privileges). At the base school, she might have had to tell a student something twice, but not a third time. Now she’s at a charter school in TX that is k-12, and her worst day was K, with kids running out of the classroom and not listening and taking stuff off the teacher’s desk.
After a week or so, a teacher she had subbed for left and she got his classes as a long term sub (four 7th grade TX history sections and 2 hs robotics classes). She knows nothing about robotics but the school said that was fine, they just teach themselves or the higher level class comes and teaches the lower level one. The 7th graders are more of a challenge.
Today she accepted a permanent position. She doesn’t have a teaching certificate but it turns out in TX you don’t need one. She does get paid a little more because she has a masters (history). Not sure what will happen next year. She’d prefer to teach hs history or English so maybe there will be an opening. The pay isn’t horrible and not sure what other benefits she might get. She/H have military health benefits. She will be happy with some things like movie discounts or theater discounts.
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In Texas, to teach in private or public charter schools, a teacher certificate is not required; in regular public schools it is required.
I have taught in public, public charter, and private schools, grades K through grad school. My experience is that 7th grade is the hardest, harder than K.
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This K class had several children on the spectrum. In fact, the reason they needed a sub was that two of the K teachers had been sent for training (two on the same day) to deal with out of control classrooms, so she couldn’t get help from other K teachers either. It was just a perfect storm of trouble.
Kindergarten classroom needs at least two adults in each room, until each and every kid can go potty completely independently. My worst Kinder class experience was when four kids all wanted to go potty but there were only two seats and one boy in there couldn’t buckle his belt while another girl waiting started crying because she couldn’t hold any longer which did not help the holding attempt. In that class period I was supposed to teach them how to put on a pair of headphone and how to hold the mouse. I did not accomplish much. But, they would randomly hug me and out of nowhere produce a strawberry missing a bite because they wanted to share with me since it tasted good 
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My daughter who finished her teaching credential a year or so ago just announced to the family she is applying to teach next fall.
And she told all of us to use our collective wishing powers to “please, please let me be assigned to 3rd grade or younger!” 
Not only does she feel most comfortable with the younger kids, she says there is so much more lesson prep for the older grades because they move through the material so much more quickly.
My daughter very much knows how much work will be involved as she starts her career. The first years are especially hard as lesson planning is new. I am proud of her for making the leap.
Our districts do pay well. I personally think that teachers are underpaid and under appreciated in general though. I hope she has good mentorship and support as she starts out.
Of note, my daughter delayed starting teaching as she had a nannying position which actually paid close to what teaching would pay. And she adores her “kid” and family and wanted to wait until said kid was ready to transition to preschool.
My daughter is a born teacher. I cannot picture her doing anything else.
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Teaching requires a thick skin, perseverance, and resilience. You have to be able to handle difficult parents, student behaviors and problems, administrators, criticism, staff shortages, board demands, tons of paperwork, changing rules, methods..specialists who come in every year and change what you need to do…all coming at you at the same time. It’s not for the faint of heart.
I wish people who have never stepped foot in a classroom recognized how hard the job is.
It is really a calling.
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