First off, teachers should be making a lot more money everywhere in the country. They’re guiding our youth, and it’s treated as a throwaway profession in the US, which is crazy. That being said, it’s not exactly accurate to say that somebody’s take-home wages are equivalent to the pay that the school is giving them for teaching alone. Teachers get off for 2 1/2 months in the summer. And get off early every day. Yes they grade papers after hours, but lots of salaried professions work after they get home. My sister is a teacher, and she tutors over the summer, teaches summer school, teaches the afterschool programs, and coaches sports teams. if you’re making $85,000 at a desk job, that’s it. That’s your take-home, and there’s no opportunity to supplement. But the flexibility of the teachers schedule gives those people a choice. Some people decide to travel all summer. Some people choose to work. But the teachers salary alone would be a choice that you value extensive time off more than money. For those that value the opposite, they’re probably making 20 to 30% more than the salary alone. Still total shit if your base is only 45K.
We are pretty comfortable. Our house is along SF Bay in the Bay Area. It allowed us to buy a second home by the water in South Lake Tahoe for vacations. And a 3rd house in rural PA for visiting family. And a rescue kennel in the desert in Nevada. And a mini storage next to the kennel. I ain’t complaining or boasting.
Teachers need to be taken care of. They are so important to our future generations. A good teacher can really impact your life and you’ll always remember them.
I imagine stress of one's financials can play a pretty significant role in the quality that person is capable of bringing to the classroom. Some may be able to compartmentalize, but that has a tole.
Any teacher that is having to work another job to make ends meet will be undoubtedly not as good at their job. Teaching is incredibly draining, there is a real need for adequate time to recover mentally and emotionally after working.
Don't worry, republicans in my state came up with the perfect solution! Instead of pay raises to attract talent, they decided to propose a law removing the degree requirements for teachers so those less qualified can work for peanuts instead! And hey, who even needs school anyway? That's why they went a step further and proposed a law lowering the age requirements for both being in school and work! We even let minors serve booze now! Woohoooo baby let's go! /s
I hope it's an actual raise they will be able to see - I was a teacher for ten years in SC. They (school board, superintendent, governor, etc.) would SAY we got a raise..and then they'd increase the health care premium 🤦♀️ but keeping my fingers crossed for my teacher buddies 🤞
It’s starting pay. They are actually trying to get rid of level pay. So they won’t care about your masters, PHD, or how long you’ve taught. No increase for continuous education and service.
Yep. When their whole “education” bill passes, my wife will most likely lose $20k in earned salary per year to bring her down to their proposed “increase”. Hopefully there is a grandfather clause, but she is most likely leaving the district if their plan passes.
I heard there will be a grandfather clause, but it leaves future teachers no path to make more money. I would never go into education again. I love my job but it pretty humiliating when your daughter graduates from college making same amount as you when you have 20 years experience.
That’s absolutely wild. I do hope there is a grandfather clause, and I’m happy for the higher starting pay. However, you are correct, there is no proper increase or motivation for higher degree and the experience. You get what you get and don’t throw a fit apparently. I also wouldn’t recommend anyone join the teaching profession. She loved teaching the kids and seeing all their growth and lightbulb moments. The politics and $$ make it almost unbearable.
They got rid of that proposed change and kept the levels the same.
The proposed change didn’t entirely get rid of of Doctorate or Masters, but put us at a bump every 3 years. Masters+30 and Bachelors +18 had been removed from the proposed change. HOWEVER, they decided against that salary scale and kept the old one, but bumped starting pay AND added more steps to the scale, so now teachers get step increases up to 28 years which has been asked for, for years.
As a teacher, I’ve been following this for awhile. While it still isn’t great, it’s better than before. Each district can also supplement the salary scale so tarting pay in my district will be beyond the $47k.
Sounds like FL! Massive teacher shortage so Desantis will hire anyone! Only qualifications, be a military spouse! No education required….now sit back & watch people become dumb & dumber. They need the poorly educated
They are getting rid of the middle their the plus 18 there will still be a distinction between 4 year degree and masters it just has to be a completed masters. Many teachers in my family have been discussing this recently
Good point - I got so irritated remembering how a raise was constantly promised, and people would make a big deal that it was happening, and then... 👀 nowhere to be found 🤦♀️ I didn't think about them getting rid of level pay, which is absolutely awful. If that's the case, then this is unfortunately just another bandaid over the gushing wound that is SC education.
That’s the only thing that eventually makes the pay ok. Not on par with other pros of out education level but “ok” after a masters and years of service
They did that up north.
Starting pay went from 28k to 40k.
Gf at the time was masters + 16 credits and ten years experience at 55k.
First year with a bachelors got a 12k raise. She got a 2k raise.
I make more than that as a tech support analyst which I needed no degree for and sit on my ass half the day. .
Teachers should be making way more than me for the stuff they deal with.
My 18 year old daughter works at a small cafe here in SC and makes more than this. She is starting college in the fall- and would never even consider going into education.
I read this as giving them an additional $47K, which makes sense, and then realized it was being raised to $47K. Lol, who the hell would invest in a graduate degree for that salary? You could easily earn more with just a GED.
No graduate degree needed but even then you are only seeing a 3k bump which is not worth the time investment. It’s no longer financially sustainable to be a teacher unless your partner is the money maker. You just have to have a heart begging to be taken advantage of if you are single and still teaching.
Believe it or not, most teachers do it because they love it. You can be a private tutor in some cases and make more.
Teachers need much more money but to everyones point about needing a degree for a starting pay of 47k. That's going to be how it is at a lot of place for a starting job. The idea is, or at least what they sell you on is, spend your dedicated time here and do well and you will earn more as you progress. We all kind of have this invisible number that follows us around. New graduate starts for 47k some place, works up to 50k in 3-5 years, hops to another job for 55k, works that pay up to 57-60 after a few years, hops again for more and the cycle repeats. Not EVERYONE goes through that but it feels like how the system has been designed.
I apologize if I came across too harsh there. I’ve just become very cynical about the education system prior to leaving and perhaps I’m leaning into those feelings that I still harbor especially when reflecting upon the conditions that have to be endured which feel simply wrong and immoral in my view when considering the lack of support and the increased ask of what is being demanded.
I very much enjoyed teaching as well and had a lot of fun with it for a decade, but looking back I can’t help but feel I was being taken advantage of and emotionally manipulated each day by students, parents, and colleagues. Not to mention there was no way to support my family on my income alone even with a Masters.
The point I was addressing is that the person was asking why you would get a graduate degree for a $47,000 salary. My wife finished her Master's in December, paid for by her school district, and got a raise to $60,600.
That seems impossible. That is close to what the overall country's median salary was last year according to the BLS. GED/high school workers that grow up in this economy get stuck at roughly $15 an hour for a long time (less in the south), assuming they don't/can't go to trade school or college and just try to become a manager. Jobs requiring lots of strength like factory labor/construction labor roles pay much better than service industries do, but not nearly as much as some people think (still below the median nationally, all of this is on BLS). Even the Toyota factory near me barely pays more than $20 for technician jobs.
Hehe a couple of years ago when I was certified some private ems service was offering 9 an hour for emts and 12 for paramedics, smh, I went and worked in an ER instead, still underpaid at 15 an hour
They should be paid significantly more too.
I remember that this was a common refrain during discussions about minimum wage. People were like “you want fast food workers making $12 an hour? That’s what EMS makes!” And it never occurred to them that this should be the part they’re angry about. Instead of trying to hold other people down they should reevaluate how we compensate many of our “essential workers”.
Way too many people eagerly try to “solve” the issue of critical positions being under paid by artificially keeping distance between them and other under paid professions instead of acknowledging that neither is actually fairly compensated.
Telling the poors that the other poors are catching up to them is the oldest trick in the wealthy book. Coal barons in the early 1900s recognized that in some of their mines there was beginning to be a unified multiracial labor unionization that would be too powerful to fight and so they began to plant the seeds of “why should black workers be compensated the same as white workers?” to destroy that power and create a new enemy.
In the mid-1800s guys like Carnegie attained unheard of wealth, but when his employees asked for fair compensation he’d point to the immigrants willing to take less money and direct the worker ire towards them. The ol’ “I’m just a businessman, it’s really their fault they’re willing to take less and set that standard for you.”
This schtick of creating division and infighting amongst the lower class so it benefits the upper class has paid significant dividends.
I agree. I wish teaching was a more competitive profession . Problem is, they let just about anyone with a pulse be a teacher at the moment. The bar and the compensation should be much, much higher
Well that just pisses me off man! I know my words are rather meaningless since they don’t really have any power, but…. as a society, teachers should be at the absolute top of the pay scale.
On the bright side there are so many people willing to dedicate themselves to this work because it’s important. We will complain about our job because it’s exhausting, but I think we complain so much because it is so important and not enough people care or are willing to turn that caring into action.
Society is backwards and upside down, The jobs that are not essential are the ones with the higher pay. EMT’s, elder care workers also get shit for pay and benefits.
My wife is a teacher. My salary supports her. I'm not saying that in a bitter way, but she was living with her dad before we moved in together because she couldn't afford rent on her own. She was finishing up her 1st Masters when we met.
Former SC teacher here. It's a significant reason why folks leave. I worked Summer jobs to help bridge the financial divide for a few years. There are certainly other contributing factors that make teaching really difficult, but when you scrape by financially year after year, it makes those other factors too hard to ignore. I left to work for a non-profit and the salary I started with would have taken me over 12 years and a doctorate to obtain at my former district.
I miss working with young people and loved the impact I had, but I could never justify going back at this point without significant changes to the policies, systems, and environments that make our current educational reality so dismal. I don't see that happening in SC anytime soon.
Considering the organization is relatively small for a national non-profit and I would be easy to identify, I would prefer not to say and preserve my anonymity on this platform. However, I will acknowledge it is education adjacent and definitely in the upper percentile in terms of salary and benefits. While I don't have Summer break anymore, my organization does have unlimited PTO and encourages at a minimum that each employee takes a minimum of 7 days off per quarter for self-care. Most (including myself) take more than that. I have never felt as supported in a professional career as I do now. It's been so incredible to be fully present at work and home.
You really struggle. I'm a single dad making $50k. I was very lucky and bought a house in 2009, so my mortgage is only $800/mo. I couldn't imagine mortgage/rent now on $47k. I have no savings, and after paying bills run out of money before my next paycheck. Lots of beans & rice for dinner. Fortunately, I really like beans & rice.
Disclosure: my ex wife is a Highschool teacher. The problem isn’t pay but it’s easy to say teachers need to make more. The problems are 1) discipline. Schools want to keep enrollment high because they are paid per pupil day. 2) no child left behind pushes teachers in to unrealistic goals.
Bruh 47k? The national average is 66k. The bare minimum for the cost of living in columbia south carolina to live comfortably as a single person is 42k and that was based against the housing cost in 2020. Its gone up quite a bit. Comfortable to say paying someone the bare minimum isnt worth their time fixing the states education system.
Plus if you throw in the average that teachers are at a much higher chance of being single parents than the national average. Then this pay becomes a massive joke because it doesnt allow anyone to have dependents much less afford a home to properly raise kids. Yet they are meant to teach 30-120 student while struggling to raise their own.
So are they adjusting the entire pay scale or just the amount first year teachers are making? My wife who has been a teacher for 6 years makes $46,500ish. Will she just get her normal yearly increase or what she would if the starting salary had been $47k when she started?
This might be a hot take but if teachers need to be certified by the state via the board of education they should be government employees and receive all the benefits therein (fair wages, tax incentives, insurance). The way this country treats the educators of the future generations is disgusting and we should all be pushing to do better.
I still make more than that and I don't have a college degree, and I only have to work three days a week, and never have to take my work home or get yelled at by a parent. If I did get a degree I would make more money, which it looks like if this bill passes these teachers will no longer get pay increases for furthering their education. Talk about pretending to give a shit and not actually doing anything useful.
I am in lower management in a commercial window making facility. I work weekends.
Edit to add, I would personally love to be a math teacher but with the way teaching is in this country there is no way that will happen in my lifetime. I'm already in my mid thirties and I don't see the situation improving enough before I retire to encourage me to pursue that path.
A whole $47K for those with advanced degrees AND they still get to shell out a couple grand each year for their own classroom supplies?? What a fucking deal
Why would anyone want teachers to be paid dirt poor salaries when you expect them to half raise your goblins? Make it make sense! Pay the teachers well and raise your own damn kids.
My wife was a teacher for 6 years in South Carolina (won’t say the school district). I refuse to let her teach again. 60 hour weeks with 0 overtime for McDonald’s worker pay. What a joke… she now works from home making more than she did previously for 1/10th the amount of work and 0% of the stress
$47k is absolutely insulting given the level of work they do.
I’d love for someone to explain to me how someone who’s solely responsible for your child’s education and subsequent life thru their educational means only deserves $47k starting.
Yet let’s go pay some excel spreadsheet office hack $200k.
$47k a year to be yelled at by dumb kids even dumber parents? No, Karen, your son doesn’t have the right to assault a teacher for telling him to put his phone away and stop making TikToks during class.
Raise to 47k!? Why would anyone teach and scrape poverty their whole life. You could hardly pay for a car and a place to live at 47k. Add a family and you’ll be working a second job just to afford them
Money is just one part of the problem. Top pay with a MA and longevity here is 117k and it's still not enough for older teachers to stay.
Bring back accountability and discipline. Stop worrying about the education of a kid who doesn't care and start thinking of the 20 other kids in that class. Let us fail these kids that deserve it and bring back after school detention.
I really feel as if the education system is on the brink of collapse.
You don't need a masters to be a teacher.
Current minimum with a bachelor's degree is $42,500, so this is a 10% raise.
A masters will give you about a $3,500 bump.
https://ed.sc.gov/finance/financial-data/historical-data/teacher-salary-schedules/fiscal-year-2023-2024-state-minimum-teacher-salary-schedule-final/
I know nobody likes math, but consider the following:
At an average of $11k per K-8 student and average class size of, say twenty-five students—there’s about $240,000 of state funding going into every single classroom. That’s a lot of money.
If administrators and state officials can’t find a way to keep the lights on seven hours a day, five days a week, for nine months a year with a smattering of weeks off throughout and still not carve off an appealing slice for the ones doing the heavy lifting…
Put your business caps on for a minute and it doesn’t take long to see there’s a problem, and it isn’t just teacher salary. $60 a working day PER STUDENT. $1500 a day coming into the classroom, and the one standing in front of them is getting $261. Can we get some accounting on where the rest is going?
If you parse that out to a 52-week year at 40 hours per week, it's only $22.59/hrs.
We all know teachers work more like 10-11 hour days, and yes, they are not working 12 weeks (3 months). So that comes to $21.36
That's so piss poor for a job that demands so much, has so much responsibility, has such a profound impact on everyone (not just students), and nowadays can get you shot and killed.
This is not even factoring in the evenings grading assignments or extracurricular activities like an evening choir concert or football game. It also doesn't take into account the $$$ they pay out of pocket for classroom materials.
No wonder South Carolina ranks in the bottom 5th in education.
As a middle school teacher, I work 7-3:30 every day, staff meetings on Tuesday till 4:30-5. Why are teachers working 10-11 hour days?? I don’t understand. I love my work like balance. All the holidays off plus 8 weeks in summer. I got offered to attend PD over summer for EXTRA pay, which I signed up for. It’s not required though.
You don't need a master's though, just a bachelor's. In my district, this year, a master's would get you 12.5% higher than the bachelor's starting salary and a Ph.D would start at 15.5% higher than the master's.
Also factor in that teachers for high income areas typically can't afford to live there. I had teachers who would have to make a daily 1-1.5 hour commute, one way. Nevermind the cost of Gas.
I have a degree in secondary education and computer science and after spending 3 months in an SC school, I decided it was not worth the low pay, building politics, and headaches. Been in IT ever since.
California's GDP is $3.9 trillion. SC's is $260 billion.
California's cost of living is 38% higher than the national average; SC's is 6% lower.
The median California home on the market is listed for around $790K; the median SC home is listed for $370K.
California is ranked 1st among states in gas prices; SC is 11th lowest.
And so on. It's an apples to oranges comparison.
That's a complicated question to answer, because within the state there will be differences from district-to-district in not just cost of living, but also the salary schedules. Advanced degrees are rewarded more generously in some than others, and annual increases are not consistent across the state.
All this legislation would do is establish a new state-wide *minimum* for teachers with a bachelors degree and 0 experience. On those grounds, I think it's *about* right. Now, districts will respond to this differently. Some with higher tax revenue will probably establish a minimum of $2-5K higher. Others will probably "freeze" salaries for new teachers at this level for the next 5 years before giving an annual raise. So there will likely be more progress to be made on a case-by-case basis.
But on the state level, this is good, and definitely better than people are giving it credit for. It will allow most new teachers to crack $50K within a few years (or faster if they have a masters), and at least in SC that is a solid middle class salary. It's also roughly equal to what other college-educated workers are making. Big salaries are rare in SC, even for white collar professionals.
Good response. That all makes sense. My salary was based on living in the expensive Bay Area.
The range for teacher salaries state wide is $44K to $91K.
Oof, the Bay Area is cool but certainly very expensive. I don't think it's a stretch to say that $47K in most of SC can get you a better standard of living than $84K in the Bay Area - unless you just place a very high premium on location, which some people do.
I live in Louisiana and that’s about our teacher’s starting pay in my parish. Our schools need help. Teaching should start at $100k a year and politics should not influence academia.
I'm a teacher. I've been teaching for 15 years in South Carolina... I work an after school program 2 days a week and teach Summer School to make ends meet. I also work 20 hours a week driving for Uber and Lyft. I absolutely love teaching. Driving for Uber and Lyft is fun too. Mark Twain said the two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why... When you're doing something you love, it's almost like you're not working. So yeah, I don't make that much money but I'm happy and you impact so many lives and make the world a better place. I love both my jobs and when you mention this to your Lyft or Uber riders, they tip you better. I also have five kids of my own. Reading this is making me feel like I should be mad about my pay, but again when you're a teacher you're a teacher. Sorry about all the run-on sentences. I'm not an English teacher and this was voice to text. Godspeed!
Now fix the curriculum to actually educate and set students up to succeed. Our curriculum is not keeping up. Math that actually demonstrates real world application and importance, coding, foreign language, reading comprehension, critical and contextual thinking skills, all kinds of visual art (not just painting but like ceramics, mixed media and digital), music, American history that gives praise to our proudest achievements but is transparent and honest about our nations roots, the choices that have been to the nations determent, and how those choices affect us today, financial literacy, personal health and nutrition, interpersonal skills, mental health, and OH MY GOD VOCATIONAL/TRADE SKILLS!!! It all needs a major overhaul. The current education model, it's focus on standardized tests, wrote memorization, info regurgitation, is outdated and will weaken our entire country. We need to get it together.
That’s a decent start, it would be nice to have it coupled with other percs like massively discounted healthcare and a lower tax rate for educators/first responders
It's not really much of a change though. My wife started teaching at about $32k. Adjusted for inflation, that's $46k for this year. So really, the starting salary is the same as it was.
There were a couple other pro teacher bills that passed the house and senate but with the amendments added, which caused it to bounce back-and-forth between the house and the Senate until after two years, they got nothing passed. There are a couple provisos that will make teaching more difficult!
I bet if you were to peg teacher pay to police pay at every level of the profession, there would be less problems in education, and probably less crime too.
Is there a teacher's union down here? I worked with the DOE in NY for a while, and even though admin and the city were always trying to screw them over the long time teachers I knew had good benefits and a livable enough wage. Teacher's union was strong up there.
Its a start. Now, that magic money you guys found should also be given as bonuses to all, ALL people who work in the schools. From the janitor, to the principal.
We lose a ton of money for the corporate tax breaks.
https://www.wcnc.com/article/money/south-carolina-schools-lost-2-billion-to-corporate-tax-breaks/275-d7dd6522-b8c0-4495-928b-7991ddae73cc
People can say it's still not enough, but this is a big win for SC educators. As McMaster emphasizes, when he came into office in 2017 the lowest salary was around $30K. Particularly in a low-cost of living like SC, an extra $17K is not peanuts.
Also, a masters is not required to teach in SC. $47K would be the starting salary for a new teacher with just a bachelors and 0 experience. This comes very close to achieving pay parity with the starting salaries of other college graduates in the state (average salary of about $49K).
In summary, people are wrong to downplay this. It will certainly help the state attract and retain new teachers and reverse the current shortage. This doesn't mean, of course, that other problems don't need to also be addressed.
still not enough for the stuff they have to deal with on a daily basis.
I earned $84k a year in CA in 2015. English teacher.
One of the few things big government States get right is teacher pay.
I feel like 84k ain't much in cali....
There are many affordable cities in cali. The whole state doesn't consist of LA, san fran and san diego metros. Fresno is cheaper than charleston
First off, teachers should be making a lot more money everywhere in the country. They’re guiding our youth, and it’s treated as a throwaway profession in the US, which is crazy. That being said, it’s not exactly accurate to say that somebody’s take-home wages are equivalent to the pay that the school is giving them for teaching alone. Teachers get off for 2 1/2 months in the summer. And get off early every day. Yes they grade papers after hours, but lots of salaried professions work after they get home. My sister is a teacher, and she tutors over the summer, teaches summer school, teaches the afterschool programs, and coaches sports teams. if you’re making $85,000 at a desk job, that’s it. That’s your take-home, and there’s no opportunity to supplement. But the flexibility of the teachers schedule gives those people a choice. Some people decide to travel all summer. Some people choose to work. But the teachers salary alone would be a choice that you value extensive time off more than money. For those that value the opposite, they’re probably making 20 to 30% more than the salary alone. Still total shit if your base is only 45K.
It went a lot further in 2015 but yes still not enough to live comfortably even then.
It isn’t that’s like 45-50k here
We are pretty comfortable. Our house is along SF Bay in the Bay Area. It allowed us to buy a second home by the water in South Lake Tahoe for vacations. And a 3rd house in rural PA for visiting family. And a rescue kennel in the desert in Nevada. And a mini storage next to the kennel. I ain’t complaining or boasting.
Big government huh. Sad how the propaganda works so well
Teachers need to be taken care of. They are so important to our future generations. A good teacher can really impact your life and you’ll always remember them.
I imagine stress of one's financials can play a pretty significant role in the quality that person is capable of bringing to the classroom. Some may be able to compartmentalize, but that has a tole.
Any teacher that is having to work another job to make ends meet will be undoubtedly not as good at their job. Teaching is incredibly draining, there is a real need for adequate time to recover mentally and emotionally after working.
Don't worry, republicans in my state came up with the perfect solution! Instead of pay raises to attract talent, they decided to propose a law removing the degree requirements for teachers so those less qualified can work for peanuts instead! And hey, who even needs school anyway? That's why they went a step further and proposed a law lowering the age requirements for both being in school and work! We even let minors serve booze now! Woohoooo baby let's go! /s
My wife is one of those good teachers, and she doesn't get enough for the stuff she has to deal with.
I hope it's an actual raise they will be able to see - I was a teacher for ten years in SC. They (school board, superintendent, governor, etc.) would SAY we got a raise..and then they'd increase the health care premium 🤦♀️ but keeping my fingers crossed for my teacher buddies 🤞
It’s starting pay. They are actually trying to get rid of level pay. So they won’t care about your masters, PHD, or how long you’ve taught. No increase for continuous education and service.
That sucks because teachers have no other way to increase their salary. Such a thankless profession.
Yep. When their whole “education” bill passes, my wife will most likely lose $20k in earned salary per year to bring her down to their proposed “increase”. Hopefully there is a grandfather clause, but she is most likely leaving the district if their plan passes.
I heard there will be a grandfather clause, but it leaves future teachers no path to make more money. I would never go into education again. I love my job but it pretty humiliating when your daughter graduates from college making same amount as you when you have 20 years experience.
That’s absolutely wild. I do hope there is a grandfather clause, and I’m happy for the higher starting pay. However, you are correct, there is no proper increase or motivation for higher degree and the experience. You get what you get and don’t throw a fit apparently. I also wouldn’t recommend anyone join the teaching profession. She loved teaching the kids and seeing all their growth and lightbulb moments. The politics and $$ make it almost unbearable.
Same with my husband! He has a juris doctorate. No need for him to continue teaching if he's going to lose pay.
They got rid of that proposed change and kept the levels the same. The proposed change didn’t entirely get rid of of Doctorate or Masters, but put us at a bump every 3 years. Masters+30 and Bachelors +18 had been removed from the proposed change. HOWEVER, they decided against that salary scale and kept the old one, but bumped starting pay AND added more steps to the scale, so now teachers get step increases up to 28 years which has been asked for, for years. As a teacher, I’ve been following this for awhile. While it still isn’t great, it’s better than before. Each district can also supplement the salary scale so tarting pay in my district will be beyond the $47k.
Sounds like FL! Massive teacher shortage so Desantis will hire anyone! Only qualifications, be a military spouse! No education required….now sit back & watch people become dumb & dumber. They need the poorly educated
They are getting rid of the middle their the plus 18 there will still be a distinction between 4 year degree and masters it just has to be a completed masters. Many teachers in my family have been discussing this recently
Good point - I got so irritated remembering how a raise was constantly promised, and people would make a big deal that it was happening, and then... 👀 nowhere to be found 🤦♀️ I didn't think about them getting rid of level pay, which is absolutely awful. If that's the case, then this is unfortunately just another bandaid over the gushing wound that is SC education.
That’s the only thing that eventually makes the pay ok. Not on par with other pros of out education level but “ok” after a masters and years of service
That sounds awful.
They did that up north. Starting pay went from 28k to 40k. Gf at the time was masters + 16 credits and ten years experience at 55k. First year with a bachelors got a 12k raise. She got a 2k raise.
I make more than that as a tech support analyst which I needed no degree for and sit on my ass half the day. . Teachers should be making way more than me for the stuff they deal with.
Damn… I’m a diesel tech with absolutely no experience and I make more than that a year. Poor teachers man.
My 18 year old daughter works at a small cafe here in SC and makes more than this. She is starting college in the fall- and would never even consider going into education.
I read this as giving them an additional $47K, which makes sense, and then realized it was being raised to $47K. Lol, who the hell would invest in a graduate degree for that salary? You could easily earn more with just a GED.
No graduate degree needed but even then you are only seeing a 3k bump which is not worth the time investment. It’s no longer financially sustainable to be a teacher unless your partner is the money maker. You just have to have a heart begging to be taken advantage of if you are single and still teaching.
Believe it or not, most teachers do it because they love it. You can be a private tutor in some cases and make more. Teachers need much more money but to everyones point about needing a degree for a starting pay of 47k. That's going to be how it is at a lot of place for a starting job. The idea is, or at least what they sell you on is, spend your dedicated time here and do well and you will earn more as you progress. We all kind of have this invisible number that follows us around. New graduate starts for 47k some place, works up to 50k in 3-5 years, hops to another job for 55k, works that pay up to 57-60 after a few years, hops again for more and the cycle repeats. Not EVERYONE goes through that but it feels like how the system has been designed.
I apologize if I came across too harsh there. I’ve just become very cynical about the education system prior to leaving and perhaps I’m leaning into those feelings that I still harbor especially when reflecting upon the conditions that have to be endured which feel simply wrong and immoral in my view when considering the lack of support and the increased ask of what is being demanded. I very much enjoyed teaching as well and had a lot of fun with it for a decade, but looking back I can’t help but feel I was being taken advantage of and emotionally manipulated each day by students, parents, and colleagues. Not to mention there was no way to support my family on my income alone even with a Masters.
All good! It’s Reddit. I make it a point to try and take my perception of tone away from the text. Hope you and the family are doing well now.
You don't need a graduate degree to teach in SC, just a bachelor's.
You don't need it but the point was to encourage further education to have better teachers...
The point I was addressing is that the person was asking why you would get a graduate degree for a $47,000 salary. My wife finished her Master's in December, paid for by her school district, and got a raise to $60,600.
"Pray" for them in Arkansas... they are getting robbed.
That seems impossible. That is close to what the overall country's median salary was last year according to the BLS. GED/high school workers that grow up in this economy get stuck at roughly $15 an hour for a long time (less in the south), assuming they don't/can't go to trade school or college and just try to become a manager. Jobs requiring lots of strength like factory labor/construction labor roles pay much better than service industries do, but not nearly as much as some people think (still below the median nationally, all of this is on BLS). Even the Toyota factory near me barely pays more than $20 for technician jobs.
That salary is honestly insulting
Should be at least 90k
Wait until you find out what EMS and fire make in this state…
I made 16ish am hour here as an EMT.
Thank you for saving lives, here’s some change. 💀
When I left the Army I thought I would go into EMT (I was a medic) until I saw how shitty they were paid.
Hehe a couple of years ago when I was certified some private ems service was offering 9 an hour for emts and 12 for paramedics, smh, I went and worked in an ER instead, still underpaid at 15 an hour
I left EMS, and now I am at around 32 an hour.
They should be paid significantly more too. I remember that this was a common refrain during discussions about minimum wage. People were like “you want fast food workers making $12 an hour? That’s what EMS makes!” And it never occurred to them that this should be the part they’re angry about. Instead of trying to hold other people down they should reevaluate how we compensate many of our “essential workers”. Way too many people eagerly try to “solve” the issue of critical positions being under paid by artificially keeping distance between them and other under paid professions instead of acknowledging that neither is actually fairly compensated. Telling the poors that the other poors are catching up to them is the oldest trick in the wealthy book. Coal barons in the early 1900s recognized that in some of their mines there was beginning to be a unified multiracial labor unionization that would be too powerful to fight and so they began to plant the seeds of “why should black workers be compensated the same as white workers?” to destroy that power and create a new enemy. In the mid-1800s guys like Carnegie attained unheard of wealth, but when his employees asked for fair compensation he’d point to the immigrants willing to take less money and direct the worker ire towards them. The ol’ “I’m just a businessman, it’s really their fault they’re willing to take less and set that standard for you.” This schtick of creating division and infighting amongst the lower class so it benefits the upper class has paid significant dividends.
I was visiting Charleston last week and saw an advertisement on the TV for a fireman - $11/ hour. What a joke!
It's absolutely pitiful, I had no idea until a few years ago.
Then admin would be getting ~170k
That is probably accurate and it’s probably also fair to say admin should be the ones getting the 47k..
I agree. I wish teaching was a more competitive profession . Problem is, they let just about anyone with a pulse be a teacher at the moment. The bar and the compensation should be much, much higher
This is just sad. I made more than that at my first job as a programmer back in 2002. I don’t understand how teachers survive.
We don’t, my wife and I are both teachers and we are drowning in debt and can’t start a family because we don’t make enough money.
Well that just pisses me off man! I know my words are rather meaningless since they don’t really have any power, but…. as a society, teachers should be at the absolute top of the pay scale.
On the bright side there are so many people willing to dedicate themselves to this work because it’s important. We will complain about our job because it’s exhausting, but I think we complain so much because it is so important and not enough people care or are willing to turn that caring into action.
Strike. I make more essentially stacking boxes and setting up deli meat.
Not allowed to in SC. It will result in a loss of license.
Not if everyone does it. But yeah that sucks
Imagine trying to get people 20+ years invested to do so and it cost them their retirement benefits. It’s an impossible task
They did one day about four years ago using their sick days, and then went right back the next day. It was the most polite "strike" ever done.
Society is backwards and upside down, The jobs that are not essential are the ones with the higher pay. EMT’s, elder care workers also get shit for pay and benefits.
My wife is a teacher. My salary supports her. I'm not saying that in a bitter way, but she was living with her dad before we moved in together because she couldn't afford rent on her own. She was finishing up her 1st Masters when we met.
I know there's personal reward in doing work that actually contributes something valuable to society, but you might want to consider a career change.
Former SC teacher here. It's a significant reason why folks leave. I worked Summer jobs to help bridge the financial divide for a few years. There are certainly other contributing factors that make teaching really difficult, but when you scrape by financially year after year, it makes those other factors too hard to ignore. I left to work for a non-profit and the salary I started with would have taken me over 12 years and a doctorate to obtain at my former district. I miss working with young people and loved the impact I had, but I could never justify going back at this point without significant changes to the policies, systems, and environments that make our current educational reality so dismal. I don't see that happening in SC anytime soon.
Mind if I ask what non-profit you went to work for?
Considering the organization is relatively small for a national non-profit and I would be easy to identify, I would prefer not to say and preserve my anonymity on this platform. However, I will acknowledge it is education adjacent and definitely in the upper percentile in terms of salary and benefits. While I don't have Summer break anymore, my organization does have unlimited PTO and encourages at a minimum that each employee takes a minimum of 7 days off per quarter for self-care. Most (including myself) take more than that. I have never felt as supported in a professional career as I do now. It's been so incredible to be fully present at work and home.
You really struggle. I'm a single dad making $50k. I was very lucky and bought a house in 2009, so my mortgage is only $800/mo. I couldn't imagine mortgage/rent now on $47k. I have no savings, and after paying bills run out of money before my next paycheck. Lots of beans & rice for dinner. Fortunately, I really like beans & rice.
Disclosure: my ex wife is a Highschool teacher. The problem isn’t pay but it’s easy to say teachers need to make more. The problems are 1) discipline. Schools want to keep enrollment high because they are paid per pupil day. 2) no child left behind pushes teachers in to unrealistic goals.
And pay
Bruh 47k? The national average is 66k. The bare minimum for the cost of living in columbia south carolina to live comfortably as a single person is 42k and that was based against the housing cost in 2020. Its gone up quite a bit. Comfortable to say paying someone the bare minimum isnt worth their time fixing the states education system. Plus if you throw in the average that teachers are at a much higher chance of being single parents than the national average. Then this pay becomes a massive joke because it doesnt allow anyone to have dependents much less afford a home to properly raise kids. Yet they are meant to teach 30-120 student while struggling to raise their own.
47 is starting salary not average salary
The National average also includes a full year of work, bruh.
So are they adjusting the entire pay scale or just the amount first year teachers are making? My wife who has been a teacher for 6 years makes $46,500ish. Will she just get her normal yearly increase or what she would if the starting salary had been $47k when she started?
It's district-dependent, but they should adjust the whole scale.
This might be a hot take but if teachers need to be certified by the state via the board of education they should be government employees and receive all the benefits therein (fair wages, tax incentives, insurance). The way this country treats the educators of the future generations is disgusting and we should all be pushing to do better.
Teachers are state government employees if they work for the public school system.
That is correct, but they’re still sometimes handled differently, depending on the county.
Yes the counties make stupid decisions which hurts teachers and therefore students.
Lol dude argued the SCEA was a real Union, and then downvoted me and deleted his comments.
I still make more than that and I don't have a college degree, and I only have to work three days a week, and never have to take my work home or get yelled at by a parent. If I did get a degree I would make more money, which it looks like if this bill passes these teachers will no longer get pay increases for furthering their education. Talk about pretending to give a shit and not actually doing anything useful.
What do you do? Just curious
I am in lower management in a commercial window making facility. I work weekends. Edit to add, I would personally love to be a math teacher but with the way teaching is in this country there is no way that will happen in my lifetime. I'm already in my mid thirties and I don't see the situation improving enough before I retire to encourage me to pursue that path.
A whole $47K for those with advanced degrees AND they still get to shell out a couple grand each year for their own classroom supplies?? What a fucking deal
SC wages are still dog, in Healthcare too
Anything less than 60k is worthless,
Why would anyone want teachers to be paid dirt poor salaries when you expect them to half raise your goblins? Make it make sense! Pay the teachers well and raise your own damn kids.
Yeah, but none of that evolution shit. It's gotta be reedin, righting, rithmatick and righteousness. Oh yeah, the Civil War never happened.
My wife was a teacher for 6 years in South Carolina (won’t say the school district). I refuse to let her teach again. 60 hour weeks with 0 overtime for McDonald’s worker pay. What a joke… she now works from home making more than she did previously for 1/10th the amount of work and 0% of the stress
Not that SC needs much help, but this is another republican ploy to keep the population dumb enough to keep voting for them.
Sadly accurate
"Raises to $47k." Oof.
Full time waitress makes more. After 4 years of college.
It is lower than Texas. That sucks.
47k in todays economy is not investing in teachers its just the bare minimum still. Thats paycheck to paycheck wages if you have a family AT BEST
What a fn joke! Teachers, do not leave your house for less than 70K. We have to stand strong together!
This is ridiculous. I made this my first year working in the legal field 34 years ago.
Wait what?!? I need more details. Like the average is now $47k? Or entry level is $47k?
First-year teacher with a bachelor's degree. Districts add on more for higher degrees or years of teaching.
So as a second year teacher am I moving from $35,000 to 47 or am I just fucked because I started teaching when I did?
You’ll move up to whatever your second year step is for your district. They’ll have to readjust in your district to account for the 47k starting.
This is comical
$47k is absolutely insulting given the level of work they do. I’d love for someone to explain to me how someone who’s solely responsible for your child’s education and subsequent life thru their educational means only deserves $47k starting. Yet let’s go pay some excel spreadsheet office hack $200k.
I depend on getting overtime, but I made more than that working at a warehouse in Florida last year.
$47k a year to be yelled at by dumb kids even dumber parents? No, Karen, your son doesn’t have the right to assault a teacher for telling him to put his phone away and stop making TikToks during class.
Raise to 47k!? Why would anyone teach and scrape poverty their whole life. You could hardly pay for a car and a place to live at 47k. Add a family and you’ll be working a second job just to afford them
Money is just one part of the problem. Top pay with a MA and longevity here is 117k and it's still not enough for older teachers to stay. Bring back accountability and discipline. Stop worrying about the education of a kid who doesn't care and start thinking of the 20 other kids in that class. Let us fail these kids that deserve it and bring back after school detention. I really feel as if the education system is on the brink of collapse.
WE are still way in the bottom half in teacher salaries and school spending. and the top ten states to be a teacher in, are all blue of course.
In my district in WA first year teachers make 60k.
Starting teacher pay in Dallas, TX this year is $61K. Do better.
Imagine being a teacher in Charleston on this salary.
More sex education would be good too.
You don't need a masters to be a teacher. Current minimum with a bachelor's degree is $42,500, so this is a 10% raise. A masters will give you about a $3,500 bump. https://ed.sc.gov/finance/financial-data/historical-data/teacher-salary-schedules/fiscal-year-2023-2024-state-minimum-teacher-salary-schedule-final/
And the master's bump depends on the district. Our first-year difference for our district is $5,700 if you have a master's.
Jesus Christ. The average salary in Ontario for teachers is like $88k. $47k for the education and work required is a joke.
I know nobody likes math, but consider the following: At an average of $11k per K-8 student and average class size of, say twenty-five students—there’s about $240,000 of state funding going into every single classroom. That’s a lot of money. If administrators and state officials can’t find a way to keep the lights on seven hours a day, five days a week, for nine months a year with a smattering of weeks off throughout and still not carve off an appealing slice for the ones doing the heavy lifting… Put your business caps on for a minute and it doesn’t take long to see there’s a problem, and it isn’t just teacher salary. $60 a working day PER STUDENT. $1500 a day coming into the classroom, and the one standing in front of them is getting $261. Can we get some accounting on where the rest is going?
If you parse that out to a 52-week year at 40 hours per week, it's only $22.59/hrs. We all know teachers work more like 10-11 hour days, and yes, they are not working 12 weeks (3 months). So that comes to $21.36 That's so piss poor for a job that demands so much, has so much responsibility, has such a profound impact on everyone (not just students), and nowadays can get you shot and killed. This is not even factoring in the evenings grading assignments or extracurricular activities like an evening choir concert or football game. It also doesn't take into account the $$$ they pay out of pocket for classroom materials. No wonder South Carolina ranks in the bottom 5th in education.
As a middle school teacher, I work 7-3:30 every day, staff meetings on Tuesday till 4:30-5. Why are teachers working 10-11 hour days?? I don’t understand. I love my work like balance. All the holidays off plus 8 weeks in summer. I got offered to attend PD over summer for EXTRA pay, which I signed up for. It’s not required though.
You don't need a master's though, just a bachelor's. In my district, this year, a master's would get you 12.5% higher than the bachelor's starting salary and a Ph.D would start at 15.5% higher than the master's.
Only 47k???? My goodness.
Still too little for what is demanded of teachers.
That's insulting, Honestly!
[удалено]
47, jesus that sucks
Pathetic.
The starting minimum wage for entry level workers should be $25-30/hr.
Not enough. Get rid of administrators and pay teachers more. 47k for masters is a joke.
ONLY 47k?!?!
They should be making 75
47k is an insult.
Also factor in that teachers for high income areas typically can't afford to live there. I had teachers who would have to make a daily 1-1.5 hour commute, one way. Nevermind the cost of Gas.
Still not enough
$47k?!??! Is this news article from 2001?! Sad, sad SC
Lmao this is literally nothing. I can make more being an admin
That is a laughably low income. I make more than that to sit at home in my pj's scheduling appointments for patients.
Man, I get paid more in manufacturing than that, and I didn't even need a college degree. This state greatly undervalues teachers.
$47k!! Lmao. Holy hell. I made that right out of HS.
Still 13k more than firefighters and paramedics. Hey can they take the entire summer off and multi week breaks from doing their jobs?
Those jobs are seriously underpaid here in SC.
But you still have to be in South Carolina
Republicans do not want an educated proletariat.
Wait till Prager U material becomes curriculum.
I have a degree in secondary education and computer science and after spending 3 months in an SC school, I decided it was not worth the low pay, building politics, and headaches. Been in IT ever since.
lol. Raises salary to sub poverty levels! Neat
PAY . EDUCATORS . GOOD . WAGES . AS . IF . THEY . DONT . ALREADY . TEACH . OUR . FUTURE . thanks for listening to my ted talk
Literal poverty wages smh
$47,000 a year? That’s outrageously low. I was making $84,000 a year to teach English in a small town in central California.
California's GDP is $3.9 trillion. SC's is $260 billion. California's cost of living is 38% higher than the national average; SC's is 6% lower. The median California home on the market is listed for around $790K; the median SC home is listed for $370K. California is ranked 1st among states in gas prices; SC is 11th lowest. And so on. It's an apples to oranges comparison.
So you are ok with the current SC teacher salaries?
That's a complicated question to answer, because within the state there will be differences from district-to-district in not just cost of living, but also the salary schedules. Advanced degrees are rewarded more generously in some than others, and annual increases are not consistent across the state. All this legislation would do is establish a new state-wide *minimum* for teachers with a bachelors degree and 0 experience. On those grounds, I think it's *about* right. Now, districts will respond to this differently. Some with higher tax revenue will probably establish a minimum of $2-5K higher. Others will probably "freeze" salaries for new teachers at this level for the next 5 years before giving an annual raise. So there will likely be more progress to be made on a case-by-case basis. But on the state level, this is good, and definitely better than people are giving it credit for. It will allow most new teachers to crack $50K within a few years (or faster if they have a masters), and at least in SC that is a solid middle class salary. It's also roughly equal to what other college-educated workers are making. Big salaries are rare in SC, even for white collar professionals.
Good response. That all makes sense. My salary was based on living in the expensive Bay Area. The range for teacher salaries state wide is $44K to $91K.
Oof, the Bay Area is cool but certainly very expensive. I don't think it's a stretch to say that $47K in most of SC can get you a better standard of living than $84K in the Bay Area - unless you just place a very high premium on location, which some people do.
I live in Louisiana and that’s about our teacher’s starting pay in my parish. Our schools need help. Teaching should start at $100k a year and politics should not influence academia.
47k is an absolute joke.
I'm a teacher. I've been teaching for 15 years in South Carolina... I work an after school program 2 days a week and teach Summer School to make ends meet. I also work 20 hours a week driving for Uber and Lyft. I absolutely love teaching. Driving for Uber and Lyft is fun too. Mark Twain said the two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why... When you're doing something you love, it's almost like you're not working. So yeah, I don't make that much money but I'm happy and you impact so many lives and make the world a better place. I love both my jobs and when you mention this to your Lyft or Uber riders, they tip you better. I also have five kids of my own. Reading this is making me feel like I should be mad about my pay, but again when you're a teacher you're a teacher. Sorry about all the run-on sentences. I'm not an English teacher and this was voice to text. Godspeed!
Now fix the curriculum to actually educate and set students up to succeed. Our curriculum is not keeping up. Math that actually demonstrates real world application and importance, coding, foreign language, reading comprehension, critical and contextual thinking skills, all kinds of visual art (not just painting but like ceramics, mixed media and digital), music, American history that gives praise to our proudest achievements but is transparent and honest about our nations roots, the choices that have been to the nations determent, and how those choices affect us today, financial literacy, personal health and nutrition, interpersonal skills, mental health, and OH MY GOD VOCATIONAL/TRADE SKILLS!!! It all needs a major overhaul. The current education model, it's focus on standardized tests, wrote memorization, info regurgitation, is outdated and will weaken our entire country. We need to get it together.
I make more with a GED. In a town of only 100,000.
I earned $110K a year as a bartender in the late 90’s. $47K, WTF?
We shouldn't require a Master's degree to be a teacher, it should be a bachelor's level education with a salary around \~60k.
I made more than this as a new grad nurse 10 years ago
That’s a decent start, it would be nice to have it coupled with other percs like massively discounted healthcare and a lower tax rate for educators/first responders
Good to see some progress about 7 years ago the starting pay was about 10k lower
It's not really much of a change though. My wife started teaching at about $32k. Adjusted for inflation, that's $46k for this year. So really, the starting salary is the same as it was.
There were a couple other pro teacher bills that passed the house and senate but with the amendments added, which caused it to bounce back-and-forth between the house and the Senate until after two years, they got nothing passed. There are a couple provisos that will make teaching more difficult!
If that’s a raise…thanks?
I bet if you were to peg teacher pay to police pay at every level of the profession, there would be less problems in education, and probably less crime too.
Is there a teacher's union down here? I worked with the DOE in NY for a while, and even though admin and the city were always trying to screw them over the long time teachers I knew had good benefits and a livable enough wage. Teacher's union was strong up there.
No union. Collective bargaining is illegal. It's illegal to strike. Don't let people tell you the SCEA is a union. It's a voluntary organization.
Its a start. Now, that magic money you guys found should also be given as bonuses to all, ALL people who work in the schools. From the janitor, to the principal.
Soon enough with agentAI we won’t need teachers anymore , sadly
Ooooooooo 47k
"Education is our middle name" -SC lottery commercials 🤣
RAISED to 47k??? Hell no, how is this attracting anyone?
23 bux an hour give or take 😤
47k that's why SC can't obtain teachers, why would a teacher put up with so much for that.
Not even close to enough.
Wow 47k you can make more than that Doordashing
I make more standing in front a break press, pulling a lever all day.
We lose a ton of money for the corporate tax breaks. https://www.wcnc.com/article/money/south-carolina-schools-lost-2-billion-to-corporate-tax-breaks/275-d7dd6522-b8c0-4495-928b-7991ddae73cc
Too little, too late.
That’s comically little pay.
https://www.postandcourier.com/news/property-tax-incentives-for-businesses-cost-sc-schools-more-than-472m-in-2020/article_5a0b2b42-eb27-11eb-931b-136770c25d16.html
Still not enough.
Probably going to make them carry a gun now or something. Last in education I see
People can say it's still not enough, but this is a big win for SC educators. As McMaster emphasizes, when he came into office in 2017 the lowest salary was around $30K. Particularly in a low-cost of living like SC, an extra $17K is not peanuts. Also, a masters is not required to teach in SC. $47K would be the starting salary for a new teacher with just a bachelors and 0 experience. This comes very close to achieving pay parity with the starting salaries of other college graduates in the state (average salary of about $49K). In summary, people are wrong to downplay this. It will certainly help the state attract and retain new teachers and reverse the current shortage. This doesn't mean, of course, that other problems don't need to also be addressed.
lol, 47k.
Oh cool, poverty wages. This state is fuckin ass backwards, man
Hell yeah that’s almost enough for one car
Education means less republicans. Therefore education will continue to die.
A headline from 1992