In the past I have purchased a laptop which I use for work. Brief cases, Backpacks tablet all out of my pocket (and I do not get a tax break on any of it, teacher can claim in NY up to $1,500).

Wait, you think that you can just jump from being a teacher in an elementary or Jr. High school to a university? LOL

Well, yes, you can. You simply must have a masters or PHD to teach at the college level. We have a program known as "Move on When Ready" in our high school, where kids who have certain GPAs and a certain SAT score can begin attending college courses AT high school. They have some teachers who are qualified to teach at the local college as well as teaching at the HS. They are also bringing some teachers in from the collge as these kids have a building all to themselves and a regular college schedule.

When i was a teacher the "bump" in pay for having a master's degree was ridiculously low--like $300/yr. vs. without it.

In Kentucky it will be $3,500 when my son obtains his masters next year.

They can join the corporate world as trainers. If corporations are hiring but away goes the retirement, free healthcare, 4%raises ...

I just didn't realize the gravy train i was on in 1989 when i started teaching at $15,060/yr.

Here they wouldn't be teaching if they weren't "certified." Even moving from another state, you have to be certified by Oklahoma. Until then you get substitute pay. I think the increase is $1,200 for a Master's over a Bachelor's. But they spend more than than in the years it takes them to go to night class to get there. And you have to have a Master's to teach at the university level.

sounds like what a teller would make at that time. Starting sal vs starting sal.

Sorry Ed, but if you're saying a starting teller at a bank and a starting teacher at a public school should make the same salary, i disagree.

I wish! After 5+ years (and two promotions) at a community bank, my salary is finally equal to what a first year teacher makes in our county. When I started as a teller, the pay was barely over minimum wage (and would have been roughly 1/2 of a first year teacher's salary at the time).

If you stayed a teacher in 1989 you would have been retired 3 years now and recieving a paycheck.

Why does a Chicago teach need to make twice as much (median for Chicago teach is $70,000) as a private sector employee (median for Chicago private sector employee is $37000). That does not include benefits that private sector employees can only dream about.

While I realize here in AZ, in OK, and many other parts of the country, teachers don't make that kind of money, but we are talking about Chicago teachers striking where their median slary is double private sector employees and they have been offered 4% annual raises for the contract they have gone to strike over.

I disagree with teachers striking during a school year for pretty much any reason, period. Straw, I would have thought that $70,000 in Chicago equated to about $40,000 here in Oklahoma and i would have thought $37,000 in Chicago barely put you above the poverty line. I agree....i don't have any sympathy for them if that's the case.

bigest part of the problem is the people making $37,000. need to pay the salary of those making $70,000. When you factor in that teachers are only part of the muni. salaries you have a workforce of 60% private and 40% gvment. Private is working for 45 years to get to retirement, government working for 20 years. so you are paying more than 2 people (one on retirement) to do the job of 1. Where is the money going to come from?

Ed, again, i can't comment on places like Chicago, but the 20 years you're quoting for retirement holds no water in places like Oklahoma and Texas. When i left Texas, you weren't eligible for retirement until your age plus years of service equalled 85, which for me (if i had bought out my previous service in Oklahoma and transferred it to Texas) would have meant the earliest i could have retired was after 32 years of service. But if you retired before some age (62 maybe?), you didn't get full retirement.

totally different in blue cities like NY and Chicago.

That is where we differ (if we differ) we are not comparing apples to apples (once again).

In Oklahoma it is now age plus years of service have to equal 90 to be able to draw out of retirement. And your benefits are based upon an average of your final 3 years of service. I have been divorced a year and a half. I was alloted 25% of what my ex-husband would have received at the time of the divorce if he retired then. And he was eligible for retirement at the previous calculation of age + years of service = 80. I think I will receive between $200-$300 a month. He was eligible for retirement, but there is no way he could have survived on retirement alone even if I didn't get any of it. That's why most continue to teach until they either can find another line of work paying more or they can receive Social Security and Medicare. By the time they pay for health insurance there isn't anything left.

Our local school system has lost lots of good male teachers recently. They have taken jobs in the private sector to make more money. They have had it trying to work where your hands are tied and the parents blame you for their child not doing well.

mmmmmmm, gravy

Wow Happy, you really treat them well! Are you hiring??

why, yes, BF, if one has the educational background, one can. My son's high school lost 3 teachers from last year to the local college...2 were working on their Masters and one the PhD. and were recruited by the college based on their graduation date.

And depending on how fast a college is growing and how badly they need teachers, some have even taken without a masters...

I wonder if the Illinois teachers and other public employees will see all of the fat pensions they've been promised. The state pension system is so underfunded, and the state government just keeps kicking the can down the road. Eventually, the state could have to file bankruptcy. I don't know what will happen to the pensions then. Maybe the federal government will pick up the liability, and then you taxpayers in the other 49 states can pay it.

Pensions are usualy safe from bankrupcy. (the Pols would not allow the paid voters to take the hit)

Not here. We have a branch campus of a university in town. The Dean called wanting me to teach a night class on Music History since one of my degrees is Vocal Music Education. Couldn't do it because I don't have a Masters.