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Your argument is well-intentioned, but there is no way a first-year teacher could save $15,000, unless they lived at home. (or were already wealthy) The latest

Your argument is well-intentioned, but there is no way a first-year teacher could save $15,000, unless they lived at home. (or were already wealthy) The latest data I could find (2010) shows that even the highest-earning first year teachers only earned $39,259. The perverse reality for many professions is that, when you are youngest and best able to take advantage of the magic of compound interest, you are barely paid enough to survive independently. After paying for loans to cover college and graduate school, a public school teacher would be lucky to save $15,000 a year 10 years after starting their career. https://work.chron.com/annual-salary-firstyear-teacher-5573.html https://work.chron.com/annual-salary-firstyear-teacher-5573....

mattkrause 8y ago
People certainly live on $25,000/year--ask a grad student. Actually, the median household income is a bit over $50k (~$57k, I think), but many households include more than one earner, so there are a lot of people getting by on about that. It would not be particularly pleasant, but as I said, it would be hard (possibly hard enough to merit a newspaper article), but not impossible.
- kazen44 8y ago
  this still comes down to the reasoning if suffering "for the long game" is worth it in such a case, especially with growing inequality? Why would i skim off all money in the first 10 years of my working life if i know the pie gets bigger, but my share as a working class person is getting smaller and smaller?
bigpicture 8y ago
> highest-earning first year teachers only earned $39,259 Appendix A [1] contains the salary schedule for Chicago Public Schools, which shows that in the current school year a first-year teacher ("step 1") with a bachelor's degree ("lane 1") earns between $57,000 and $69,000 per year, depending on the length of the school year in the particular school they are appointed to. A master's degree ("lane 2") bumps the pay by somewhere in the range of $4,000-5,000. Being a coach on the sports team earns an additional $26.21 per hour of coaching, participating in after-school non-coaching, non-instructional activities earns $40.90 per hour, and after-school instructional activities earn $47.62 per hour. It appears as though a teacher could add $5,000 or more per year with only an hour of extra time per school day. If a teacher wanted to be frugal and save money, it surely appears possible. [1] https://www.ctunet.com/for-members/2015-19-contract https://www.ctunet.com/for-members/2015-19-contract

mattkrause 8y ago

People certainly live on $25,000/year--ask a grad student. Actually, the median household income is a bit over $50k (~$57k, I think), but many households include more than one earner, so there are a lot of people getting by on about that. It would not be particularly pleasant, but as I said, it would be hard (possibly hard enough to merit a newspaper article), but not impossible.

kazen44 8y ago
this still comes down to the reasoning if suffering "for the long game" is worth it in such a case, especially with growing inequality? Why would i skim off all money in the first 10 years of my working life if i know the pie gets bigger, but my share as a working class person is getting smaller and smaller?

bigpicture 8y ago

> highest-earning first year teachers only earned $39,259 Appendix A [1] contains the salary schedule for Chicago Public Schools, which shows that in the current school year a first-year teacher ("step 1") with a bachelor's degree ("lane 1") earns between $57,000 and $69,000 per year, depending on the length of the school year in the particular school they are appointed to. A master's degree ("lane 2") bumps the pay by somewhere in the range of $4,000-5,000. Being a coach on the sports team earns an additional $26.21 per hour of coaching, participating in after-school non-coaching, non-instructional activities earns $40.90 per hour, and after-school instructional activities earn $47.62 per hour. It appears as though a teacher could add $5,000 or more per year with only an hour of extra time per school day. If a teacher wanted to be frugal and save money, it surely appears possible. [1] https://www.ctunet.com/for-members/2015-19-contract https://www.ctunet.com/for-members/2015-19-contract