A short column whose headline irritated me, but had me convinced by the end. This needs to happen.
Let’s Pay Teachers the Same Wage as Babysitters
by Zachary Baehr
Bellevue Leader
Since school teachers are really just glorified babysitters, let’s just pay teachers the going rate for babysitting.
Let’s pay them $3 an hour per kid, and they work 8-4, with a half-hour lunch. After all, why should we pay them for ‘planning’ or to eat?
So that’s 7.5 working hours a day, and an elementary teacher works with about 20 kids a day.
So $3 X 7.5 hours a day X 20 kids = $450.00.
And I’m sure not paying them for weekends (more ‘planning’) and I’m sure not paying them for summers off for ‘training’ or advanced ‘education,’ so really, we are only going to pay them for 180 days a year.
So $450.00 X 180 = $81,000.
And just to be nice, if you have a master’s degree, I’ll give you $4.00 an hour.
That means we are going to pay teachers/babysitters $80,000 to $108,000 a year.
And not a penny more!
He has a GREAT POINT!! Let me know where to sign up for that pay!
Um I think that may be a good start to fixing the education mess…pay our teachers what they are worth…then maybe they can afford to continue teaching! Although I think if we can “justify” millions to actors and athletes, I think 108,000 is a bit low 🙂
hmm, with the cost of insurance and some pension contributions it may be possible they are paying me almost close to 80,000 – i do have a masters. would that kind of pay also mean that all i’d have to do is keep them safe and entertained? can i not worry about nclb? it was only 20 years ago, though, that i babysat and i got paid 2 bucks an hour – if my memory serves me correctly. that’s some sad inflation.
Hear hear! Can you tell I’m just in from a day with the 6 year olds? I was only paid for 5 of them if you go according to what I pay my sitter to watch TV with my kids. :/ And even with this method, they would still be woefully underpaid.
Hi Julie! Hope you don’t mind I take a peek at your blog….found you through Jennie’s. And for what it’s worth I have always felt teachers are severely underpaid. There are a couple teachers in my life I still keep in touch with and had a huge impact on me. They are priceless.
Jenn–I know!Deanne–why do you think European and Asian countries are so far ahead of us in terms of literacy?Sarah–you might be right, taking into account benefits, but I still like his point. 🙂 Kirsty–your kids are easy peasy.Leslie–glad you found me!! Of course I don’t mind!!
Wow! Looking at it that way I totally agree. To back up Kirsty, I had one of mads friends over tonight from her class that has “issues” I can’t imagine what teachers go through. I still what to be one someday, but not sure when that will happen!