I often hear many on the right speak critically against teacher’s salaries, noting that they are part time jobs with months of vacation, and little more than babysitters.
On that last note, I agree with them enthusiastically. Yes, they are little more than babysitters, eh?
So let’s do the math!
- The average wage for babysitters in Massachusetts is $16 per hour.
- Average class size in Massachusetts is 17 children.
- Average length of a school year is 180 days.
- Aerag length of a school day is 6.5 hours.
- $16 x 17 x 6.5 x 180 = $318,240.00
Average pay of a public school teacher in Massachusetts is $82,000.
Looks like the taxpayers are getting quite bargain!
Please share widely!
…and then when they mention “it’s the unions!” at fault for our schools, remind them that of all the more than twenty nations that outperform the USA in test scores for public schools, virtually all are staffed by teachers who are members of a labor union.
I’m also tempted to ask if they regularly attend professional sports games and are willing to pay for those tickets. Professional sport seasons are shorter than the academic year, do not require formal education, yet pull down multi-million dollar contracts.
This is true, and interesting. And I imagine the situation is complex. But at least one reason for it (based on my own experience as a teacher) is that very few people have any idea of the complexity of teaching. I think it’s quite common for people to assume that what a teacher does is something like this:
“OK, 5 + 7 = 12. Now turn to page 35 and do all the problems.”
There are other reasons, I’m sure — anti-intellectualism being a big one, I think. But I’ll bet what I just mentioned above is very common.
Sometimes that IS a substitute teacher’s day, but usually even that is more involved. Personally, when I sub I prefer assignments that are a bit more substantive than glorified babysitting.
In Malden, average class size is 24. And we’re leaving out time for prep and grading, so the 6.5 goes up to 8-10 hours daily.
Yup, all my figures are based on the lowest variables I could find! And it still comes out to over $300K a year.
I like the gist of this but do babysitters charge $17 per child per hour? Does a babysitter charge $51 an hour to baby sit 3 children? If a babysitter charges a flat rate, then I think you would have to factor some average number of children that babysitters sit for. 1.5? 2.5? That would change your figures.
The babysitter number just came from an Internet search. It’s been a while since I’ve needed one! As for the three kids at $51, my hunch would be be “nope”, probably somewhere along the lines of $25?
However The national average gross weekly salary for full-time live-out nannies is $766, or roughly $40K year and the average family is two kids. So being a nanny for twenty kids would add up to $400K, eh?
I wonder how much Captain Von Trapp paid Maria to watch his seven children? (In fact, there were ten children)
You know more about babysitter pay than I do, believe me. But if you want to use this in an argument, it’s better to be forewarned and ready with a comeback. Hostility, left-wing hit pieces and ridiculing distinguished Senators with insulting nicknames works for me but you can do better.
Seven out of ten kids is a pretty good average, I think. Twice as good aa a Hall of Fame batter.