Quote:
Originally Posted by JesseK
How much these two professions make is more due to the focus of their careers (generating wealth vs. generating knowledge) rather than their actual skills. That the authors argue to reduce teacher compensation further based upon skill sets is (IMO) unscrupulous.
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I think the vast majority of people in finance are drastically over paid for what they do. However, it is also important to keep in mind who is paying these salaries, public school teachers are being paid by the school department they work for through public funds, Investment bankers are paid by a private company that is making money directly off of their work, Investment bankers get paid a lot of money because they generate a lot of money for the company.
I also hate how much generalization there is in this thread about hours worked. I agree that the vast majority of
good teachers work significantly longer hours than they are paid for, and I agree that these teachers are underpaid. However I also know that it is not true that every teacher (or in many schools even most teachers) are working 60+ hours a week. I know teachers here in Virginia that are at happy hour by 4 on school days, and they aren't going home after that to draw up lesson plans, I hear simmilar stories from friends who teach in NY, MA, and RI. Some teachers are teachers because they can be out of work by 3 and have school vacations and summers off. These are not the good teachers, however in nearly all school departments they recieve identical pay and benefits to the teachers putting in long days and spending their nights and weekends grading and preparing. That I believe is the fundamental flaw in the way teachers are compensated.
In nearly every other industry your salary after a couple years when your success can be viewed is based on your contribution, the better you do, the more you make. In education this is almost never the case, in almost all teachers unions it is simply the longer you teach the more you make. Teaching isn't unique in that the top workers invest significantly more time (unpaid OT) than the rest of the workers, as was stated before it is very common in engineering (and finance) as well. It is not uncommon for me to work 10 hours on a regular day, nor is it uncommon for me to work weekends, or even to spend more time at work than at home when a project is due or when a customer has a problem. 40 hour weeks are a joke in the engineering world, some people are in at 9 and out at 5 but they are the minority. The difference between all of this unpaid OT in the engineering world and in education is that I know that my contributions are being recognized and that I will be compensated for that extra work in the long run (through raises and promotions) most school systems don't offer this kind of benefit.
It is also worth noting that it is significantly easier to earn a degree in education than in most other fields. It is not however easy by any means to earn that degree and be able to effectively apply it in a real classroom. The fact that it is so much easier to earn and education degree than it is to teach is the reason that so many unqualified teachers are out there, I know that teachers often point out that teaching isn't the 8-3 180 day a year hanging out with kids all day job as many like to dedscribe it, however there are a lot of people who go into education looking for that job and many who even manage to stick around and not work much more than those hours.
(note: that I don't intend to offend any teachers, however I am sure you all know teachers who don't put in that extra effort. I know that there is no way to be an effective teacher only working the hours you get paid for, and I am willing to bet that any of the teachers crazy enough to devote the number of hours to FIRST that are necessary are likely at the table grading papers after work, not at the bar enjoying half priced appetizers)