The price of labor

There I am, on the cover of the Florida Times Union. It’s just a headshot, but it’s still pretty neat. The article is talking about how much money people in different professions make. In case you are wondering, it says $40,000 next to my picture. That’s forty thousand before taxes and after nine years of teaching. I am starting my tenth year.

My first contract was for $26,600, and even though that’s considerably less than what I make now, ten years ago it seemed like a lot more. I remember by Christmas that first year I had nearly $4,000 in the bank. Flash-forward a decade and I am little more than paycheck-to-paycheck.

That’s okay though - I get by and I knew when I started that you don’t go into education to get rich. You do so because you believe in service and you know much of your payments will come in the form of the knowledge that you have made a difference and impacted a child’s life. There’s also something awesome about nailing a lesson and seeing a light go off above a child’s head as they finally get what you are selling. Yes, you don’t go into education to get rich - well, unless you plan to work for the district office, that is.

Next to me in the paper was Bonnie Upright. I have never met her and, to be honest, I don’t know what the Director of Strategic Partnerships does, though I hope it’s important and she is doing a good job. I do know that her salary was listed and it was more than three times mine at $129,000.

I also know that of the thirty-three school board employees that make over a $100,000, topped by our superintendent’s whopping $270,000, a handful are principals but the vast majority make up the superintendent’s inner circle. I also know that members of the district staff (those employees who don’t work directly with children but perform some other tasks) typically make a lot more than teachers as well. I counted eighteen ESE support staff and they averaged $78,000 though by "support" I mean they often make my job more difficult and challenging. Just write a FBA they say, like it’s nothing and I have nothing else to do.

I have heard the argument that to get top quality people you have to pay top dollar, though, I imagine there are a few thousand teachers who are little more than paycheck-to-paycheck, who live in fear of an ordinary occurrence like a child getting sick or a car needing new tires, who would disagree that Duval County is practicing that policy - at least top-to-bottom, that is. Now please don’t get me wrong: I am all for people making as much as they can. I just think that when you work in public education, the high end should be on the bottom, not on the top. I think the people in the classroom - those making the actual difference in children’s lives- are the ones who should be taken care of, first.

I will close by saying I am doing okay. Now, some weeks I have to write a check at Publix the Wednesday before payday, but I am managing - and, like I said, I get the vast majority of my payment in other ways.