CAT Tracks for October 29, 2010
THE $100,000 TEACHER

It's Friday...it's payday...it's time for this article!

BTW...

The top salary on the salary schedule - negotiated by the evil teachers' union - for teachers in Cairo falls about $40,000 short of the magical number which is the topic of this post.

Sorry, guys...

...we did try!!!


From the oakpark.com website...


Link to Original Story

In praise of the $100K a year teacher

By John Hubbuch

Citizens and taxpayers, lend me your eyes. Today I come to praise the $100,000 teacher, not to bury him. Like the bird migration to Florida, every fall we are treated to a number of stories of taxpayer outrage that there are teachers in the public school system who make more than a $100,000 per year. Such outrage is ridiculous.

Teachers who make such sums typically have 30 years of experience and a year or two of education beyond a master's — almost as much education as a doctor or lawyer. If you start out making $40,000 per year and receive a 3 percent raise each year for 31 years, you will make more than $100,000. The point: If you have a lot of education and get modest raises for 30 years working in any job, you will make a lot of money. Younger, less educated teachers don't come close to $100,000.

Corporate America is filled with less educated younger workers who make $100,000. Having worked in big law firms, I can assure you that some of them are not particularly deserving. Now the teacher haters will cite tenure as to why educators have their jobs for life, but trust me, in litigating America everyone except white males under 50 has a kind of tenure, as well.

It amuses me that the groups most opposed to teacher compensation are the so-called capitalists. Hey — I've got news — collective bargaining is legal. The good old days of head-cracking Pinkertons are long gone. In this country we don't have a wage board that sets salaries. You get what your employer pays you. How much should an educated, experienced teacher make? An accountant? A checkout clerk? An airline pilot? Jim Belushi? Miley Cyrus? Bears offensive linemen?

Teaching is important work. If we are to have any chance at competing in the global economy with India, China and the European Union, then we will need lots of educated young people. Education is the only way we will ever break the cycle of dysfunction that afflicts so many poor families.

In this country you can choose what you want to be when you grow up (see Obama, Barack). Some people choose to be teachers. Some choose to operate their own business. Some work for big corporations. Some play music or do art. Each job has entry requirements, a salary, fringe benefits, a career and a retirement program. If things don't work, you can quit and get another job. The conceit in all this is that anyone can be a teacher. Absurd. Lesson plans, professional development, meeting parents, and most importantly, standing in front of 30 kids five or six times a day for 180 days a year ain't easy. In fact, very few people have the intelligence, compassion and energy required to be a teacher.

That a few of these men and women, who work 30 or more years at this demanding job and wind up making $100,000, just doesn't seem so outrageous to me.

John Hubbuch, an Indiana native who moved to Oak Park in 1976, is a retired lawyer. Hubbuch served on the District 97 school board and coached youth sports. He is the father of three and grandfather of one.


The views expressed above are NOT the official position of the Cairo Association of Teachers.