Quality public schools need well-compensated teachers
By Independent Press
May 05, 2010, 9:04AM
Independent Forum by Ellen Boylan
From the editorial page of this paper to public meetings and casual conversations, there have been calls to offset the Summit School District’s $2.5 million loss in state aid by freezing or reducing teachers’ compensation. I think this is the wrong direction.
We look to teachers to prepare our children for academic and career success, and to impart the fundamentals of good citizenship. On a national level, we are told that public school teachers must do more to prepare future engineers, scientist, and creative thinkers, lest the United States lose its edge in the global economy. Our children’s futures and the future of our communities, state, and country rest, in large part, in our teachers’ hands.
To fill this tall order, teachers are expected and, indeed, required to be bright, hardworking, and dedicated. To attract and retain the best and the brightest, the Summit Board of Education must provide teachers with adequate and consistent salary and benefits. Otherwise, it is only a matter of time before smart, capable people forgo teaching for professions that garner better compensation and more respect.
Misinformation has fueled the attack on teacher compensation. Gov. Christie has led the charge by misrepresenting that teachers earn $100,000 salaries, pay nothing toward benefits, and receive a 4-% annual wage increase. In reality, a teacher with a bachelor’s degree starts in the Summit public schools at about $54,000 per year. On the same salary scale, a teacher with a bachelor’s degree who has taught for ten years earns about $59,000; a teacher with a PhD who has taught for ten years earns $68,800. A small number of teachers earn in the $100,000 range, but they have been in the Summit schools for decades, some as many as 35 years.
For most teachers, it is a slow creep up the 22-step salary scale. In fact, recent legislation requiring teachers to contribute at least 1.5% of salary to health benefits will effectively wipe out future pay increases due under the current contract. Critics lament teachers’ health and pension benefits, ignoring that historically teachers received these benefits in exchange for modest salaries. If the public expects teachers to carry more of the cost of