darn those teachers

Recently there was press about the financial status of the school district in which I work. Last Friday, the paper ran "District 150 Barely Covers Paychecks."

In the article, it is stated that our district pays about 3 million in salaries every two weeks. Dang, that's a lot of money to be spending every two weeks, isn't it?

If all that money went to pay salaries in the school where I teach, that would be upwards of $85,000 per teacher, per two weeks! Needless to say, our school doesn't get all of that money...

Counting up the schools listed on our district webpage, I found 40 schools. Doing rough math & estimation, that's $75,000 per school, per two weeks. I don't know the average number of teachers per building, but I'm guessing it's about the same as my school, 35 teachers.

$75,000/35=$2412.85 per teacher per two weeks...

Assuming this includes all the extra payroll taxes every business has to pay, and the medical benefits teachers pay for with a group rate, that brings the total down quite a bit to, say around $1,500 per two weeks... I am sort of guessing here, but it sounds about right.

Of course, this is an average, I know I don't make 1500 every two weeks... but I guess what I am getting at is this: Why is teacher payroll front & center of attention? There are lots of other bills the district has to pay... Is our worth as teachers/caregivers in question here? I know some teachers who have taken offense to this, and it made me think...

If caregiving were the only part of my job, or in other words if i were charging babysitting/daycare fees, what would that break down to, if the parents were in fact paying for this daycare?

22 kids x 35 hours a week (I'm being kind and not including planning time)

That's 770 "kid-hours"... multiply that by the going hourly rate of babysitting:

A teenage babysitter may charge $2.00 per kid per hour............$1540 (tax free, of course)

A more experienced daycare runner may charge (I have no idea) $5.00 per kid per hour
($3,850)

Maybe the newspaper is right; I should stop draining the public's funds with my bloated salary and go into the private sector. If I can manage 22 kids in a classroom with all kinds of educational mandates and leaving no child behind, surely I can manage 22 kids without the mandates... I'll still teach, just without the stress of some unrealistic, voted-in-on-buzz-words windbag making me accountable for something students don't find important or practical.