[Vision2020] Teaching Salaries Compared

[Ted Moffett]

Dale, et. al.

My statement you quote below was not from my letter to the editor to the 
Daily News of this weekend. My letter to the editor did not mention you or 
anything you wrote.  It focused on Jack Wenders' previous letter to the 
editor in the Daily News on this subject.

Perhaps you are getting my letter mixed up with Chuck Pezeshki's letter, who 
mentioned both Dale Courtney and Jack Wenders in the same letters to the 
editor section of this "Weekend Edition" Daily News in a separate letter he 
wrote.

What you quote below from V2020 was written carefully to refer to what the 
"top" professionals make in other fields.  I am claiming that the top income 
of many other professions is far above what the top salary is for a public 
school teacher.  It is possible, for example, there are many lousy computer 
programmers making low wages who lower the average hourly wage of all 
computer programmers.  But what do the top computer scientists make?

Even considering "mean" income, K-12 teaching is not that lucrative an 
option for "the best and the brightest," as the data I give below 
demonstrates.

Of course you know that MSD teachers make far below the mean salary for 
public school teachers overall in the USA.

Though my letter to the editor did not refer to any of your statements, I 
will nonetheless elucidate my meaning in my letter to the editor, and 
provide some data to back up my comments, which also illuminate my statement 
from V2020 which you do quote.

Just as in the quote you reference below where I refer not to the "mean" 
salary, but to the "top"
professional incomes, in my letter to the editor I refer to what the "best 
and brightest" can earn.

I thought Wenders was presenting a misleading unflattering slant on the 
number of days worked by public school teachers when he compared their work 
year (with inaccurate numbers) with the average work year of all workers.  
Many well paid professionals can take long vacations, and with their higher 
rate of pay, still earn a substantial income, with a work year shorter than 
the average worker.  This was part of the reason why I pointed out the 
incomes of many professions are higher than public school teachers, along 
with stating that because of the higher income of many other professions, 
"the best and the brightest" often do not consider teaching K-12 public 
school.  So why the crusade to prove K-12 teachers they are so over paid?

My assertions are based in part on the following data.  No doubt you will 
want to annualize and add benefit costs to the salary listed below for K-12 
teachers, but then the same process would need to be applied to the other 
professions listed with vacation and benefits.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/

Median 1998 Salaries by Profession*

Physician	164000
Dentist	110000
Pilot	91750
Lawyer	78170
Physicist 	73240
Optometrist	68500
Aerospace Engineer 	66950
Actuary	65560
Chiropractor	63930
Civil Engineer	62660
Computer Engineer	61910
Financial Manager	55070
Physicist (Bachelors only)	54000
Geologist	53890
Systems Analyst 	52180
Mathematician	49120
Police	48700
Economist	48330
Psychologist	48050
Architect	47710
College Instructor	46630
Chemist	46220
Biologist	46140
Nurse	40690
Insurance Underwriter	38710
Accountant 	37860
Building Inspector	37540
K-12 Teacher	35000
Mail Carrier	34840
Social Worker	30590
Musician	30020
Fire Fighter	31170
Designer	29200
Actor	27400
Travel Agent	23010
Dancer	21430

*From ``Occupational Outlook Handbook 2000-2001", U.S. Department of Labor. 
All median salaries listed include all educational levels, except for 
"Physicists (Bachelor's only)" which excludes Masters and Ph.D.s. Other 
professions have lower salaries (not listed) when such exclusions are made.

Ted Moffett wrote:

>
> > As I wrote before, the lack of comparison between the incomes
> > of top professionals in other fields with the incomes of
> > public school teachers is a glaring oversight in your attempt
> > to show that MSD teachers are overpaid.
>

Dale replied:

>You must have missed this in all my previous posts. This *has* been
>something addressed repeatedly.
>
>The following numbers are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Here are the
>Mean Hourly Earnings by profession:
>
>Accountants & Auditors (S&L): $20.14/hr
>Computer Programmers (S&L): $21.27/hr
>Accountants & Auditors (Priv): $22.08/hr
>Computer Programmers (Priv): $24.49/hr
>Engineers, Architects, & Surveyors (S&L): $27.71/hr
>Secondary Teachers (S&L): $30.48/hr
>Elementary Teachers (S&L): $30.52/hr
>Engineers, Architects, & Surveyors (priv): $31.05/hr
>Lawyers (S&L): $34.64
>
>Note: these numbers do *not* take into consideration benefits, etc. They
>also do not take into account the teachers' 60 non-work days per year.
>

>Would you like me to post a correction to your Letter to the Editor, or
>would you prefer to do it yourself?

Ted replies:

If you chose to correct my letter to the editor to the Daily News on this 
subject, at least remember the letter did not mention you, or refer to any 
statements you have or have not made.  What you quote above that I wrote was 
from V2020, and as you can read from the data which I post here, I am still 
asserting that you are not sufficiently considering the top incomes in other 
professional fields when you make your case that K12 public school teachers 
are over paid.  Your data above leaves out many other lucrative professions 
that attract capable individuals away from K-12 teaching careers.  Consider 
the list of professions that I provide above, and the salaries given, for a 
more complete picture.

Ted

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