Here in NH we have one of the lowest wages for teachers, yet we are one of the highest cost of living areas in the country. It’s almost impossible for a teacher who’s just starting out to be single living on their own. It’s very difficult to find qualified teachers - especially in STEM. Our local high-school only has 2 qualified math teachers with a background or education in Math. I think 3 of them have degrees in History.
That’s what happens when cries for “lower taxes” and “better education” budd heads together. And not just in New Hampshire.
I don’t think this is specifically about wages in the education field
There are many jobs which require considerable credentials, degrees, etc., yet the pay is modest
For example, I sometimes look at the pay scales for other jobs . . . there are plenty out there that pay less than mine, but require at least one college degree
It’s a government job. Most government jobs are low paid.
Library jobs, for instances.
Many, not all positions at the local library require a Masters in “Library Science”. The high education requirements to work in a library represent a barrier to seeking employment in one.
A lot of money is spent on education, it just doesn’t always translate to starting salaries.
Thank you Volvo, it took me a little bit but finally found it… Child lock off now… 
I think laundry machines are one thing that “they don’t make 'em like they used to.” When my wife and I first moved in together in 1995 we needed a washer and dryer. Money was tight so we used the Sears card and bought the best Kenmore we could afford. Those machines moved to 3 houses after our first one. I fixed a water leak in the washer in the first few years, and a dryer relay at about 10 years. In 2018 the washer motor finally went so we replaced the set. The Maytags we bought lasted until 2024. We’ll see how the LG’s we have now hold up.
My brother got his college degree and worked as a geologist in natural gas development. He was making 50K a year in the mid-80’s, but living on-site down 20 miles of gravel road in the middle of nowhere Wyoming wasn’t his thing, so he became a high school teacher. That’s not enough of a salary to live on, so he took on basketball coaching and driver’s ed. In the summers he taught courses in driver’s ed and trailer-backing. If that wasn’t enough, he also led private fossil-hunting expeditions, many of the customers were wealthy Asians. Sometimes he would make as much in a week doing that as he would in a month of teaching.
I agree. Without teachers there wouldn’t be any doctors or lawyers or mechanics.
It’s one of the few jobs that promotions are automatic with higher degrees. You don’t stay with a BA but masters and specialist which pays the same as a PhD. Careful though to wait till you are beyond probation because districts will hire lower cost teachers first.
Yeah I still have the sears repair manuals but I just call the whirlpool guy now. My dish washer was Leaking and replaced both gaskets but finally called the guy. Cost me $134 to find out i was using too much soap.
No, promotions are not “automatic” with more advanced degrees.
If you intended to state that a more advanced degree will result in a bump in one’s pay grade, then that would be correct.
In the school district where I was employed for 35 years, there was a contractual clause requiring that a teacher had to earn an M.A. or an M.S. after X number of years (I don’t now recall the exact number of years), and until that clause was later eliminated, most of the staff was on target to earn that type of degree within the stipulated timeframe.
There are plenty of teachers who have earned a Master’s degree, but who are still classroom teachers, twenty or more years later. We even had a couple of women who earned a Doctorate, but who retired as regular classroom teachers.
You just described my late father, a high school english teacher who LOVED to teach
He repeatedly declined offers and advice to become an administrator
He made a conscious decision to keep doing what he was born to do
He watched many of his colleagues become administrators, get D R U N K with power, make plenty of enemies, physically decline due to the . . . imo . . . self-induced stress, lose all of their friends, etc.
You can remain a classroom teacher for 40 years but be paid at the PhD level.
Didn’t mean to imply that promotion meant department head etc, just increased pa.
@db4690
I had the same teaching experience as your late father. I was offered an administrative position at a higher salary, but I preferred being a professor and doing teaching anc research.
I read so much how much teachers make or do not make, and honestly, I think most teachers are underpaid…
If you are curious what York County Virginia pays, take a quick gander at their Web Page…
https://www.teacher.org/school-district/york-county-school-division/
And this is the pay Plan for this year…
https://yorkcountyschools.org/employees/employment/docs/PayPlan.pdf
Those are certainly sobering facts . . . and goes a long way towards explaining why some people may be considering taking on a 2nd job
I remember my dad talking about some of his colleagues taking on 2nd jobs, most of which had absolutely nothing to do with education. Many of these were jobs that were physically demanding, but didn’t require any kind of college degree(s), fwiw
I agree to a point. Education in states like NH are below a breaking point to get good, qualified teachers - especially in STEM. In most states a teachers salary is based on number of years they’ve taught and NOT on the subject they teach. When I was working I had engineers and lower 2-year degree techs working for me. I also hired English majors to help write technical manuals. The English majors were by far the lowest paid. Supply and demand. Some states will actually pay their STEM teachers a lot more money because of the competition with non-teaching jobs. Everyone once in a while I’d hire a fresh-out. A high-school computer programming teacher is less than half what I’d pay them to work for me. In some cases - 3 times less. As I stated before - in NH it’s very difficult to live on your own on a teachers salary when you’re starting out. After 8 years the salary is now what I pay college graduates.
Well, it’s rare for people to agree on everything all the time 
I’m satisfied when some people agree with me on some things some of the time 
Obviously ethanol is a political game that we are losibg
IMO E10 is not political. Ethanol is a low cost octane enhancer. Anything above E10 is politically motivated.
Losing ? How do you come up with that ? I think the Ethanol might make fuel resourses last a little longer and reduce the environmental effects of oil drilling . I also think that it has a small part in the price of fuel being a little lower. Many countries are having grades as high as E20 which someone besides me can say if that is good or not.