Sure, which is why they are willing to accept less money.
If the government wants, they can do as companies have done (at least one of past employers did): End pensions going forward, everyone currently employed is grandfathered in, new employees get 401k with a match, new employees have a different salary step system that maxes out higher.
You're not arguing with someone who thinks the system is amazing as it is... it needs changes. But the teachers aren't the villains and they aren't living a life of grandeur.
That's pretty good by today's standards. That's a salary of $1,733 PER WEEK that they work. I wouldn't consider a salary like that "accepting less money"
It's pretty good but not, by any means, mind-blowing. The idea that it is "too much" is, I think, indicative of the underlying cause of the poor education system in the US: people talk like they want the best system money can buy, but they behave in a way consistent with the desire for merely the cheapest system money can buy.
A "pretty good" salary will only, at best, attract "pretty good" educators. If you have truly great teaching ability, there's more money to be made outside of the public education system.
Or it will attract VERY passionate people who feel like their efforts aren't appreciated when everyday they feel under the gun for living the "lifestyle."
They are passionate and knowingly traded money for good benefits. And then people throw the benefits in their face and say they deserve less money. Mind boggling!
You summed it up well, and this is what my whole post was alluding to, about whether people want the best system or the cheapest system. Policy seems to speak to the latter.
So do you think teachers just arrive in class on Monday morning and start teaching something out of thin air? A large amount of time is spent preparing material for class, and that time is not "vacation".
Well it's certainly only a single data point, but my mother has been teaching the exact same lesson plan for nearly 15 years now. Even if I were to be generous and say 50% of her summer break were devoted to preparing for the next school year, which is an absurd overestimation, that's still waaay more vacation time than just about anyone else in this country gets.
I certainly don't think there is anything at all wrong with teachers keeping more or less the same lesson plan year after year. From what I understand (and I have not personally studied this), the preferred teaching style in Japan and some other countries is to only make tiny incremental changes to lesson plans, year after year. Almost more of a scientific method or perhaps genetic approach to creating good lesson plans, as opposed to the more "artistic"(?) 'recreate it from scratch' method American teachers apparently use.
But really, my point is that "teachers don't really get breaks because they spend the summer revamping their lessons" thing is an old tired meme that really needs to be critically examined.
The fact is, teaching is an incredibly easy job. Teachers work less than other professionals, they get incredible vacations, and ridiculous job security.
"The fact is, teaching is an incredibly easy job."
I'd just like to point out that this statement isn't actually related to the others you made. In Western Australia it's been popular for a while due to the mining boom to go and get a fly in/fly out job in one of the mining towns. The pay is fantastic and the time off is good. This does not correlate to being "an easy job".
I could say that it is "easy to do a bad job", but when is that not the case?
Anyhow, just wanted to point that out. Not after an argument :)
While this is definitely true, it's also true that teachers don't generally work right through summer vacation, either. I'm from Ontario, not Rhode Island, but I had a teacher who was telling the class about the construction business he runs in the summer, basically because he had too much time on his hands. I don't hold it against him, though. He certainly never whined about being overworked or underpaid.
That salary is $10-15k less than what the average person with a masters degree earns. And they still have to take classes on the regular beyond their masters degree.
The vacation time is indeed high (most of my family falls closer to ~12 weeks than 15). BUT, they also work more than most people I know. They leave the house at 6am, get back around 4 or 5pm, and then work on lesson plans for a few more hours. On the weekends, its grading.
So, they make almost 20% less and probably work a good 20% more per day (which makes the vacation time a wash).
If the government wants, they can do as companies have done (at least one of past employers did): End pensions going forward, everyone currently employed is grandfathered in, new employees get 401k with a match, new employees have a different salary step system that maxes out higher.
You're not arguing with someone who thinks the system is amazing as it is... it needs changes. But the teachers aren't the villains and they aren't living a life of grandeur.