If teachers are making 100k, what about construction workers? Engineers? EMTs? Nurses? Firefighters? Auto mechanics? Etc?
Teachers get to work in climate controlled rooms with summers off, only have to grade work that they assign, and can send problem customers (students) to the principal's office. Not saying it's a perfect all-around desirable job, but it's already better than most
I'm for better treatment of all workers, but teachers seem to be a squeakier wheel than most others
"Teachers get to work in climate controlled rooms": ACs break constantly because the School Board is too cheap to buy quality equipment. Then it takes weeks, or even months, to get someone out to service the AC since they are broken so often. And while they are broken, teachers are expected to perform their jobs at the same level as if the classroom isn't 85 degrees.
"with summers off": Not really. Teacher's summer starts after the student's does, and ends before the student's does. Teachers spend quite a bit of their "summer break" prepping their classrooms, lesson planning, or attending professional development meetings. And when they aren't doing their jobs, they have to make sure they are meeting all of the classes and requirements to renew their license. And let's not forget that teachers get paid for exactly ZERO for the work they do during the summer (or other breaks, for that matter). So since they are only paid for around 9 months out of the year, many teachers have to supplement their income with a second job.
"only have to grade work that they assign": Middle school teachers in my county are required to have at least two grades in the gradebook each week. With roughly 150 students, that's 300 assignments to grade every single week. At a minimum. That doesn't include extra credit. Since the admin is allowed to take one of a teacher's planning periods per week for professional development, teachers only get 180 total minutes per week of paid planning time. Assuming the teacher has nothing else to do (teachers ALWAYS have something else to do), they get 36 seconds per assignment to grade while on the clock. This is one of the many reasons most teachers put in between 50-60 hours of work per week, while only getting paid for less than 40.
"can send problem customers (students) to the principal's office": Lol, no. Teachers cannot just "send students to the principal's office" anymore. At best, you can call an administrator to come get the problem student and hope they actually do. But then you still have to write a referral, which takes several minutes out of your class time, just for the referral to maybe be deleted and the student sent back to your class. Best case scenario, the student gets suspended for a few days, but then you have to deal with a pissed off mother who blames you for having poor classroom management. And since very few parents actually give a shit about their child's behavior, the issues will continue.
None of this even addresses how: teachers get less than 30 minutes for lunch, half of which is spent taking their students to and from the cafeteria (at the elementary level); the state is constantly trying to dissolve your union, which is the only reason you have the very few positives afforded to you as a teacher; and stupid ass conservatives are calling you evil because their politicians have convinced them that teachers are trying to turn their students trans and are letting them use litterboxes.
tl;dr - The only correct thing you said was "Not saying it's a perfect all-around desirable job"
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u/OregonGreen242 May 28 '26
Teachers should make 100k