Paying fairly

YESTERDAY, THE BRITISH BUGGERS AT BTINTERNET BLOCKED THE MONITOR AS SPAM ONCE AGAIN, EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVEN’T (YET) BLOCKED MY PERSONAL EMAILS FROM THE SAME ADDRESS.

13 February—El Liberalissimo came through with his estimation of fair pay for teachers. Sort of. While he doesn’t explicitly say what’s fair, he does cite figures of $86,000 for fully credentialed and experienced teachers; and $40,000 for newbies. El retired from teaching many years ago, so his implied fair-pay scale is kind of low for the present.

So El would doubtless be happy with over $100,000 for public school teachers with MA+30 credits near the top of the longevity step scale; and $50,000 for new hires with BA degrees. That’s pretty much what teachers in Connecticut are getting these days. And I see nothing wrong with it.

By way of comparison, independent—private, prep—school teachers in Connecticut, who don’t have to be certified, tend to be paid at least 30 percent less, while prep parents pay through the nose.

For further comparison, a median salary for pharmacists and registered nurses in Connecticut, according to El, is around $150,000; UPS warehouse workers earn as much as $100,000; Amazon pickers in Danbury kill themselves for $40,000. Salary.com tells us the median pay for a Connecticut lawyer is $110,000, while Careerexplorer.com puts it at $132,000. Medical doctors are even harder to pin down with any degree of accuracy. Unskilled state and municipal employees in Connecticut can easily top $70,000 in base pay (plus impressive fringe benefits).

According to the slick beaconnecticuttrooper.com website, Connecticut State Trooper trainees get an annualized $50,000 for the six months they’re in the Academy. They start work at over $60,000 and go to a top step of over $100,000, with the sky being the limit with lucrative overtime. Not to mention perks like free state car and gasoline (including for off-duty use), free uniforms and dry cleaning, and a meal allowance.

El Liberalissimo now asks how important is schooling (which he has narrowed from “everything” and “education”) in a post-industrial democracy? Well, in that case, schooling—learning how to live and work—is vital, absolutely necessary, a sine qua non. (On the other hand, a so-called liberal education, of which El and I are recipients and proponents but which is pretty useless in the real world, isn’t necessary at all, just wonderful to have.)

El develops his thesis: “How important is the quality of teachers to that schooling?” He knows the answer must be “very important.” But then, how are we to judge “quality”?

So I’ll skip over that imponderable and answer his logical kicker: “What is the role of salary in attracting quality teachers able to challenge and motivate our children?” Presumably El means high-quality teachers. So we’re back to children? Anyway, from what I’ve observed in teaching and other vocations, I’m confident in asserting that while salary certainly is a consideration, it doesn’t play that important a role. Teachers in private schools are a prime case in point.

It’s all about a free-market economy. The easier jobs are to fill, the less they’ll pay. And that has to do with schooling, qualifications, and experience, all of which are quantifiable. Expertise can be tested. Quality, on the other hand, is purely subjective—a wild card.

And let’s not forget that better pay also attracts more losers, certified or otherwise.

So what about class size?