<p>I’m sure Catholic schools teachers wished they earned more money, who doesn’t? Just saying in my experience as a Catholic school student from 4th grade through graduating from a Jesuit college, and as a parent who had children in Catholic schools from pre-K 3 through HS, I never heard a teacher complain about money. Some left for public school for the higher salary and better benefits but it was always with deep regret. Both schools my kids attended had a cadre of 20 - 30 yr veteran teachers who mentored the new teachers and kept the traditions and ways of doing things alive.</p>
<p>I’m not sure we can ever pay the great mass of teachers a corporate salary. But the fact remains that schools are nonprofit, not generating revenue and in trying to meet budget, will squeeze what little guys they can. That’s where representation should step in, IMO. For a win-win, not us against them.</p>
<p>I’m not saying it’s the answer. But I think part of the problem is that there are a number of parents who don’t teach their kids how to behave. Then when the kids don’t behave in school there is little that teachers can do.</p>
<p>BTW when we were looking at private elementary schools in the Chicago suburbs for my DS back in 2000 one of the schools we looked at was a Baptist school. It had a really good rating… then when I was looking through the paper work I found out that I had to sign a paper allowing corporal punishment if my kid misbehaved. There was no way I was going have him go there.</p>
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<p>You forgot about the taxpayer, for whom the inflated costs created by teachers’ unions are a big loss.</p>
<p>Bel, in my distrcit , absolutely. We live with that, with the very real constraints. But I said win-win.</p>
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<p>And I’m not questioning that. But I am saying that any teacher who’s complaining to students or parents about his or her low pay is acting in an unprofessional manner. The proper person to complain to is the principal or headmaster. The fact that you never heard complaints may simply reflect well on the character of the teachers (and I hope it does). I think it’s a huge and unsupportable leap to say it indicates that there isn’t a problem with the teachers’ pay.</p>
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<p>I’m sure they did leave, and I’m sure that many did so with deep regret. But the fact that some left for better pay and benefits does indicate that there’s an issue with compensation in those schools. It may be that the only course of action available to those schools is to forge ahead without those teachers, paying the remaining teachers a low salary. I do not teach in or run a Catholic school, so that’s really not my issue, except to the extent that Catholic schools are offering a salary that I would not choose to work for. But if the schools can’t afford to retain good teachers, there *is *an issue. And it suggests that what Catholic schools are able to do may not be a sustainable model for a large public school system. The pool of teachers who are willing and able to work for what Catholic schools pay (at least where I live) is not inexhaustible.</p>
<p>And of course they left with regret. Who wouldn’t regret leaving a job he liked, but couldn’t afford to keep?</p>
<p>I was on the school board of our Lutheran school for a couple of years. My oldest went there through 5th grade but it became too expensive with 3 kids so we moved to public school. While some teachers may leave private schools to teach in public schools we had the opposite occur a number of times. Some teachers prefer to teach in private schools.
Also I don’t think you can say that all private christian schools pay teachers considerably less than the public schools. I know in our case they tried to match what the public schools paid including benefits. While it’s not a 100% match of public it’s certainly not horrible.</p>
<p>OK–here is a ranking by teacher’s salary. South Dakota is the worst (lowest $$$) and North Dakota is 2nd worst. However, SD rates #8 (highest) on both NAEP Math and Reading and ND rates #4 on NAEP Math and #10 on NAEP Reading</p>
<p>[The</a> Best- and Worst-Paying States for Teachers - 24/7 Wall St. - The Atlantic](<a href=“The Best- and Worst-Paying States for Teachers - The Atlantic”>The Best- and Worst-Paying States for Teachers - The Atlantic)</p>
<p>“You forgot about the taxpayer, for whom the inflated costs created by teachers’ unions are a big loss.”</p>
<p>If you don’t like teacher unions, move to one of the states where they are illegal. </p>
<p>[The</a> Five States Where Teachers Unions Are Illegal Have The Lowest Test Scores In America* - Business Insider](<a href=“http://www.businessinsider.com/states-where-teachers-unions-are-illegal-2011-2]The”>The Five States Where Teachers Unions Are Illegal Have the Lowest Test Scores in America*)</p>
<p>“OK–here is a ranking by teacher’s salary. South Dakota is the worst (lowest $$$) and North Dakota is 2nd worst. However, SD rates #8 (highest) on both NAEP Math and Reading and ND rates #4 on NAEP Math and #10 on Naep Reading”</p>
<p>Imo, teachers salaries are likely a reflection of the cost of living in a particular state and nothing more.</p>
<p>I hear high school dropouts are making 6 figures in SD working for oil companies. The oil revenue will start impacting the state.</p>
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<p>That article has been cited before. Educational comparisons should always adjust for demographics, and when you compare whites in Texas to those in Wisconsin (a state where unions are stronger, at least until recently), the former actually do better. You can Google “iowahawk krugman” to find a discussion of this.</p>
<p>Texas, indeed, and they are likely to have to increase teacher salaries to be able to recruit to meet demand.</p>
<p>“That article has been cited before.”</p>
<p>I only cited it to show you where you can move so you don’t need to send your kids to school with unionized teachers.</p>
<p>What really matters, I think, is the schools kids default to in our/their own neighborhoods. I don’t believe all white kids in Texas have a better situation.</p>
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<p>This is rude and condescending. We are debating the merits of vouchers in this thread, not giving personal advice.</p>
<p>I am sorry you think it is rude but when people complain about something incessantly, and there are solutions to what they complaining about, I don’t think it is condescending to suggest there are options available to them to avoid that which they don’t like.</p>
<p>MichiganGeorgia–when I was in school in the 60s and 70s, there was no corporal punishment–in fact, I would have been astounded to hear it existed in other states at the time, as I thought it was something from the distant past when I was a child–something you only read about in books. There were no particular discipline problems in my schools–I think that more reflects the time than the punishment. So I don’t see that as a solution, though I do see that as ripe for misuse.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, I don’t think my parents experienced it in the schools they grew up with, either. It’s really foreign to me as a concept. I’d never live in a place where other people could legally hit my kids.</p>
<p>We had it in PA. Don’t know til when. The troublemaker got spanked. I was threatened with a spanking. (A meek girl, at the time.) For not having an in class math set done fast enough. In hs, we kids learned why Jimmy was a problem and I remember how empathetic the teens were- even after years of his antics.</p>
<p>We had it in Texas (HS grad in 1968) but it was another dual standard issue. Guys could get licks to avoid detention/suspension but girls could not and had to attend after school or weekend detention punishment.</p>