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Message: <blockquote data-quote="d20fool" data-source="post: 2048662" data-attributes="member: 5956">The money really does suckYou'll forgive me if I don't lay out all my finances online, but here's a run down.  I am a educated professional with a Master's degree and a BA in English from CU-Denver, an accredited and academically rigorous school.  If I were in any other profession, I should expect a base pay of $50K for my first year out of school, earning possibly up to $80K (or far more) by the end of my career.  This is what you will find for engineers and lawyers, you have a comparable amount of education and ceritification as we do.When I started, I got less than $27K a year.  After five years, I've just barely gotten over $30K a year.  I supplement with $2K from summer school each year, a job that is not reliable as budget cuts threaten it every year.  I also get $500 to coach Science Olympiad, which takes over 100 hours a year, so that's under $5 an hour for a guy with two degrees to coach that.My wife and I together have a modest mortgage, two reasonable car payments, a reasonable credit card debt.  After paying debts and bills, we rarely have over $400 to buy groceries, gas, and other necessities.  Often this number is lower.  Despite careful budgeting, we frequently have to borrow to get by.  I currently have a payday loan.  I don't want to sound snobbish here, but I didn't bust my @$$ in grad school so I could take payday  loans to buy milk and peanut butter.  Further, I have considerable student loans, as does my wife.  OUR LOANS HAVE BEEN IN DEFERMENT THE ENTIRE TIME WE HAVE BEEN TEACHING.  We simply cannot even begin to dream of paying them.  Meanwhile, they get bigger and bigger due to interest.  I have no college savings for my children, no savings whatsoever, no investments, and barely any equity in my house.  My friend Dom, with one degree, works in computers.  He makes over twice what I do.  The guy who runs the local Sonic makes over three times what I do.  Locals with nothing more than a high school degree commonly make more than I do.    Do I live in abject poverty? No.  If someone asked me about teaching, would I tell them what "bad pay" really means? Yes, they deserve to know.  Not very encouraging to someone who wants to join our profession.  I hope this clears the picture up somewhat.  I can't speak nationally, but we a considered one of the better paying districts locally.  I tremble for the poor teacher in Sedalia, who are paid far lower than we are.  I do know that some East Coast districts pay considerably better, but are in parts of the nation where cost of living is much higher as well.John "d20fool" McCarty</blockquote>

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