1. Teachers are currently working under a contact that they agreed to with their union and the state/local school boards. So to strike after you already agreed to a contact seems to me to be wrong. Plus that new contact got an extra $700 million in funding that fully funded pensions.
2. Protesting the Statehouse doesn't make much sense when the fact of the matter is teachers pay is mostly determined by local school boards and superintendents by negotiating with the teachers union. Why aren't they protesting the school superintendents?
3. The average starting pay of a teacher in Indiana is $35,241. The average starting salary of a person with a bachelor's degree in Indiana is $35,700. The overall average salary of a teacher in Indiana is $54,308. The overall average salary of a person with a bachelor's degree in Indiana is $54,600. The average salary of a private school teacher is $29,125. Teachers also get a pension that will pay them almost 75% of their final 5 years average pay. Most workers in the private sector don't they get any pension. Also teachers do get more overall time off than non-teachers. And studys show that teachers work an average of 42.2 hours a week while non-teachers work an average of 43.2 hours a week. Point is teachers are getting paid and working about the same amount of non-teachers in Indiana.
4. While teacher pay in Indiana ranks only 26th, the cost of living in Indiana ranks 6th. It is much cheaper to live in Indiana, so that fact would mean pay would be less in states with higher costs of living.
5. 50% of all taxes in Indiana goes to education. We spend $10,000 per student on education. So my question is how much more of the budget should goes towards education? And how much should taxes be raised to pay teachers more? So here is my solution: since teachers are paid by taxes let's not taxes their pay. No state or local income for teachers: 5% pay raise.
6. I've heard teachers say that their aids aren't paid enough. The average wage for an aid is between $11 to $13 an hour. But to be an aid only requires a high school diploma. The average person in Indiana with just a high school diploma makes about $13 to $14 an hour. In retail I'm not paying much more than $10-$15 per hour for non-managers. This is what the market has determined to be the pay for high school graduates.
7. If you look at a class room like a business then take this into consideration. If a class has 30 students and we spend about $10,000 per year per student a class generates around $300000 a year in revenue. I can tell you that in the private sector a business that generates only $300K will have a small payroll budget. Usually about 20% to 30% of revenue is used for payroll. So a class room should generate about $60,000 to $90,000 in payroll. Between average teachers pay and teacher's aid pay you are looking at around $74,000-$80,000. My point is if we are comparing teaching to business the pay is comparable.
8. I understand teachers don't like the testing, the continuing education, and other requirements. They feel they are unfair. But here is the thing. In the private sector there are all types of metics, standards, and requirements that employers use to grade employees to determine pay raises and retention. And many are unfair and overburdening, but we have to just find a way to overcome and succeed.
9. I also understand that classroom sizes are too big do to a teacher shortage. But part of this reason is the same reason businesses in the private sector are having trouble finding people. Unemployment in Indiana is below 3.5%. Full employment is considered anything under 5%. And it has been this way for over 6 years. It is a problem many are dealing with causing many businesses to run with short staffs.
10. My biggest issue here is the fact that public servants would not show up to work even though they are currently working on a contract they through their own union agreed on. I support increasing pay and changing how teachers are evaluated, but I don't agree with using children to force our representatives to do the will of the teachers union. And consider this what would we say if the police or fire department just didn't show up to work. Would that be okay too?
