<story><title>Teachers are leaving and few people choosing the field</title><url>https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/05/us/teacher-prep-student-shortages-covid-crisis/index.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bastawhiz</author><text>If you can&amp;#x27;t pay a mortgage or feed a family, summers off and pension aren&amp;#x27;t useful. Teachers don&amp;#x27;t have equity like many other industries. They pretty much universally don&amp;#x27;t get bonuses. The mindset that teachers have something that offsets the embarrassingly low salaries that we offer them is the result of decades of politicians trying to justify cutting money from education.</text></item><item><author>johnnyb9</author><text>I always thought a significant benefit of being a teacher is receiving a pension, summers off, government benefits, not necessarily pay. 
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.aei.org&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;no-teachers-are-not-underpaid&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.aei.org&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;no-teachers-are-not-underpaid&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>icecap12</author><text>This is no shock if you are friends with any teachers or have kids of school age.  My wife and I have 5 close friends who are all public school teachers (2 of the 5 are a married couple).  4 of the 5 send their kids to private schools.  I think that says a lot, given that they aren&amp;#x27;t paid well and choose to sacrifice and pay the tuition.&lt;p&gt;The harsh reality is that the pay sucks, you need a masters degree to even be a teacher, parents view public schools as glorified daycare system, and shitty bureaucrats run it all into the ground.  Combined with the general lack of discipline and culture of disrespect among kids (I fault the parents), it&amp;#x27;s a completely miserable experience that was worsened by COVID and remote learning.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve heard so many ridiculous stories from our friends that I&amp;#x27;m shocked any of them remain doing it.  In fact, 1 of the 5 I mentioned had enough and threw in the towel for the 21-22 school year.  She&amp;#x27;s doing something else now, like running a study abroad program in association with the local honors university.  She only gets the smart, disciplined kids who want to be there.  The house of cards that is public education is coming down.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sershe</author><text>Cutting money from education? Education funding has expanded massively over the decades [1][2]. With, arguably, nothing to show for it.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www2.ed.gov&amp;#x2F;about&amp;#x2F;overview&amp;#x2F;fed&amp;#x2F;10facts&amp;#x2F;index.html#chart2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www2.ed.gov&amp;#x2F;about&amp;#x2F;overview&amp;#x2F;fed&amp;#x2F;10facts&amp;#x2F;index.html#ch...&lt;/a&gt;
[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;nces.ed.gov&amp;#x2F;programs&amp;#x2F;digest&amp;#x2F;d19&amp;#x2F;tables&amp;#x2F;dt19_236.55.asp?current=yes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;nces.ed.gov&amp;#x2F;programs&amp;#x2F;digest&amp;#x2F;d19&amp;#x2F;tables&amp;#x2F;dt19_236.55.a...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Teachers are leaving and few people choosing the field</title><url>https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/05/us/teacher-prep-student-shortages-covid-crisis/index.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bastawhiz</author><text>If you can&amp;#x27;t pay a mortgage or feed a family, summers off and pension aren&amp;#x27;t useful. Teachers don&amp;#x27;t have equity like many other industries. They pretty much universally don&amp;#x27;t get bonuses. The mindset that teachers have something that offsets the embarrassingly low salaries that we offer them is the result of decades of politicians trying to justify cutting money from education.</text></item><item><author>johnnyb9</author><text>I always thought a significant benefit of being a teacher is receiving a pension, summers off, government benefits, not necessarily pay. 
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.aei.org&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;no-teachers-are-not-underpaid&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.aei.org&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;no-teachers-are-not-underpaid&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>icecap12</author><text>This is no shock if you are friends with any teachers or have kids of school age.  My wife and I have 5 close friends who are all public school teachers (2 of the 5 are a married couple).  4 of the 5 send their kids to private schools.  I think that says a lot, given that they aren&amp;#x27;t paid well and choose to sacrifice and pay the tuition.&lt;p&gt;The harsh reality is that the pay sucks, you need a masters degree to even be a teacher, parents view public schools as glorified daycare system, and shitty bureaucrats run it all into the ground.  Combined with the general lack of discipline and culture of disrespect among kids (I fault the parents), it&amp;#x27;s a completely miserable experience that was worsened by COVID and remote learning.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve heard so many ridiculous stories from our friends that I&amp;#x27;m shocked any of them remain doing it.  In fact, 1 of the 5 I mentioned had enough and threw in the towel for the 21-22 school year.  She&amp;#x27;s doing something else now, like running a study abroad program in association with the local honors university.  She only gets the smart, disciplined kids who want to be there.  The house of cards that is public education is coming down.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>giantg2</author><text>Considering the average pay was about $65k, I&amp;#x27;d say that most states seem to have decent pay. That&amp;#x27;s slightly higher than the average pay in the US, and significantly higher than the median.&lt;p&gt;My state has good teacher pay. I know someone working as a secondary ed biology teacher making a little more than I do as a dev (about $90k; both of us have masters).</text></comment>