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Jake_FromStateFarm27 t1_iu4n1as wrote

Friendly reminder there is no teacher shortage, it's an exodus. There are plenty of experienced professionals like myself in this state willing to work that are neither treated or paid fairly.

We teachers are completely under paid in this state (especially for young new teachers) that it makes it extremely difficult to build a life here as well as being expected to fix everything but without any power to do so. Students have zero accountability nowadays with parents and admin completely enabling it, making learning impossible and our job that much more difficult.

NJ needs to do better, people have to start actually listening and taking teachers (not admin or politicians) more seriously.

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sutisuc t1_iu4tagv wrote

The sad thing is NJ actually has much higher pay than most other states.

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Jake_FromStateFarm27 t1_iu4yh7g wrote

Higher pay means nothing when everything is inflated. Same thing with California has been going on for ages, teachers there make 100k+ but the COL and everything else just costs too much to be sustainable. Teachers on average nationally have seen the lowest salary growth the past 30 if not 50 years. Teachers wages need to be substantially revamped as well as other sustainability programs that would help alleviate things from their budget i.e. maybe special housing loans similar to what vets get so teachers can actually teach in the communities they live affordably and not have to commute from over an hour away.

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daedalus_was_right t1_iu5kfu4 wrote

Teachers in CA are not making 100k. A very, VERY select few individuals make over 100k but it is an extreme rarity. I'm on step 8 in my current district and am not close to 100k. I won't hit 100k until I have nearly 20 years in, and I'm in one of the highest paying districts in all of CA.

As someone else in this thread said, the fact that NJ/CA have some of the highest teacher salaries just means these states are the skinniest kids at fat camp.

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sutisuc t1_iu62xl6 wrote

Yeah I think he missed my initial point lol

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Jake_FromStateFarm27 t1_iu6zzf5 wrote

I get what you're saying in your main point. We are not only ranked no. 1 in the nation for public schools but also rank high for pay for teachers. What I'm saying is a flat number doesn't really mean much when you measure it against other variables like COL. What's the point in making 90k when rent goes up almost double in the course of a year for 10 years straight? If more than half your monthly income still goes towards rent even after pay raises, did you really get a pay raise when everything else around you is inflated. I get what you're saying and it is really sad that a great state like ours stills treats us teachers like shit. Imagine being repeatedly called Frontline heros but getting zero respect or benefits the entire pandemic and things actually only got worse for teachers?

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daedalus_was_right t1_iu64k0e wrote

I think you're both saying pretty much the same thing actually; my comment was just meant to clarify the numbers.

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ChefMike1407 t1_iu4y77b wrote

It’s really sad to see how pay scales have shifted. I work in a district that capped out around 100k at step 13 for teachers with a Master’s. Now step 13 is 64k. Now we are at 22 steps. I’ll be making 36k less in my 13th year than those a decade before me. But to be in this many years you are stuck. I interviewed at three other districts for slightly higher pay, but they all offered are 2 or 3. Not worth it.

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[deleted] t1_iu4r39v wrote

[deleted]

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daedalus_was_right t1_iu4vlwu wrote

Your "opinion" is unpopular because it's flat out wrong. (It's not even an opinion; it's an assertion of market forces based on a faulty premise.)

I currently have 155 students across 5 classes every single day. Do you have any fucking clue how much reading and grading that creates every day of my life? During midterm season, I have thousands of pages of assessments to read and grade.

This is why education is fucked; everyone and their mother who has never done this job a single day in their life, like you, think they understand the problem.

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Jake_FromStateFarm27 t1_iu526qn wrote

And dealing with 25+ students by ourselves with almost a quarter of them now "requiring" an iep/504 and having to provide accommodations as well as make the plans.

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Jake_FromStateFarm27 t1_iu4uq1c wrote

There's been an excess of humanities teachers specifically the past 30+ years not so much in the STEM department. Just because there are a lot of teachers doesn't mean they should be paid less either. No big reform is gonna happen anytime soon that will actually benefit education or teachers. If anything we are seeing the opposite happen across the nation, many states are lowering standards for certification to be a teacher from a bachelors to just a HS diploma and states like Florida are just taking veterans or reservists to fill classrooms as normal (not even stationing additional vets for aiding since they have no clue what they are doing). An excess of highly skilled and educated professionals is good and we should be maintaining that standard especially since the average classroom size is getting bigger every year in most places.

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theusernameicreated t1_iu4ybim wrote

The highest property taxes in the US. Where is the money going if teacher pay is so low? New teachers start at $50,000. Teachers make $150,000+ at the end of their careers. This is for 9 months worth of work.

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daedalus_was_right t1_iu505qu wrote

Teachers do not make 150k at the end of their careers. This is bullshit, and you should be ashamed of yourself considering this is literally publicly published information you can easily Google.

We do not work for 9 months. We do 12 months worth of work in 10 months, then continue doing trainings, lesson planning, and other prep work for 2 months over the summer.

You wouldn't last a week in this profession. Close your mouth, honey, you look like a trout.

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theusernameicreated t1_iu57g6v wrote

Every single kid in the state of NJ has been through the school system. Who are you trying to convince?

We have the best educational system numbers in the state of NJ because of students who go for private tutoring for Algebra 2, reading comprehension, and writing who are single handily padding the numbers up.

Here's my memory of the school system. Running out of paper for exams every year like clockwork. Deducting an entire letter grade if every single student doesn't bring in 5 sheets of paper. The most boring powerpoints forcing students to get $110/hr private tutoring to keep up with AP exams.

I would never, ever vote for higher taxes to support lazy, incompetent, toxic teachers who work 9 months a year; force students to teach themselves, and put an undue burden on parents who have to hire private tutors who abandoned the toxic school working environment long ago to concentrate on their passion for teaching.

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Basedrum777 t1_iu5eci6 wrote

If you're actually willing to listen I'd love to explain how many things in this comment are wrong. I have a feeling you don't actually care and will continue to be wrong to make sure you can continue to hate your previous teachers.

I'm an accountant with a wife teacher so my numbers aren't wrong.

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daedalus_was_right t1_iu588ks wrote

Lmao, thank you for demonstrating you don't have a single clue what goes on in this profession.

I'm done here. Can't have a conversation with someone this dense.

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potatochipsfox t1_iu5y3yr wrote

> Here's my memory

Who gives a shit what your memory is? You're one person in one part of a whole fucking state pretending like they can speak for everyone else. No wonder you had a bad time in school, you don't know how to shut up and listen, and you don't know how a damn thing works because of it.

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Jake_FromStateFarm27 t1_iu515qa wrote

>New teachers start at $50,000. Teachers make $150,000+ at the end of their careers. This is for 9 months worth of work.

Admin... also as I explained in seperate comment most teachers are working long term sub positions well before they are hired full time and they make less than 30k a year... it's also fairly presumptious and generous to say teachers are making 150k+ by the end of their career. What you don't realize is that's multiple masters/graduate credits, a PhD, coaching and all other additional work by year 40 if you're lucky at that point. Another fellow teacher already commented that most masters aren't even pushing salary past 65k which is ridiculous especially since we are still paying for it unlike in NY which makes districts pay for it since the state requires teachers to have a masters, they are also getting the fair pay bump in most districts outside the city as well.

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murphydcat t1_iu59syl wrote

$150,000 at the end of their careers? Sweetie, you're thinking of your local cops, who can retire after 25 years of service with no minimum age.

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