<p>The TIMSS results have MA in the top-tier of math and science education in the world (scary, huh?), so it’s pretty clear that they are doing many things well.</p>
<p>My wife is in Singapore meeting with many people that she grew up with. I think that they’re all millionaires or near millionaires. One of her friends is a school-teacher (not sure whether or not she is retired now) and is a millionaire. A good chunk of that was from real estate though I guess they do pay their teachers well too.</p>
<p>BC. I do think that’s scary.</p>
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<p>Of course there is no correlation. You, yourself pointed out that the teacher’s who have been there the longest are the highest paid. It has nothing to do with competence or talent. You can have two teachers who start the same year, one is a horrible teacher and the other is great and…what difference does it make? They make the same pay.</p>
<p>The idea of higher pay attracting and keeping talented teachers will only work if the starting salary starts to compete with industry. That’s when the attraction begins!</p>
<p>i would also like to point out that talented teachers need to be talented in many areas to be affective in the classroom. It isn’t enough to have a strong background in your content area (important, yes, but not enough). Even more important, IMO is a talent for communication, an understanding of child behavior and development and an interest in children! Having all the knowledge in the world doesn’t mean squat if you can’t communicate it to your students in a way that is tailored to their age group, interests and developmental phase.</p>
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I would say this applies to lots of teachers in Pennsylvania. I know someone who retired in his fifties with 35 years of service and had a retirement salary 80-90% of his paycheck, which would work out to well over a million dollar annuity.</p>
<p>Yikes! Wishing I didn’t take those ten years off to be with my kids. I’ll be lucky if i get to 30% when I retire.</p>
<p>" I know someone who retired in his fifties with 35 years of service and had a retirement salary 80-90% of his paycheck, which would work out to well over a million dollar annuity."</p>
<p>If it was 35 years, it was most likely 70% of his paycheck. And if you assume a payout of 4% a year, a million-dollar annuity is only $40k a year. (which seems about right for a 35-year schoolteacher.)</p>
<p>^^^
PA teachers get 2.5% of their average salary of the last few years times # years.</p>
<p>He got considerably more than 40 grand a year, which translates to much more than the equivalent of a million buck annuity. Top it off with free health insurance till medicare, and an option to sub if he so chooses, and all of that in a community that wasn’t exactly Silicon Valley.</p>
<p>Also want to point out that, in MA, at least, teacher pension is 95% paid out of teachers pay checks. The employer (town) pays the other 5. We do not collect SS benefits. Ever. Even if a teacher worked in the private sector and contributed to SS for decades. Once he/she becomes a teacher that becomes null and void and he/she is only entitled the teacher retirement pension. We also cannot collect our spouse’s SS in the event of their death, unlike our private sector equivalent’s who can collect their own SS and that of their deceased spouse.</p>