Teacher pay not enough says a teacher (06-03-2025--Hour2)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to dpeakclendarshow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet, And again, thank you so much for your support. Last hour went over the House and Senate budget proposals. I didn't go really in depth on all the line. I mean, it's a thirty two billion dollar budget, right, I didn't go over everything, but gave you the highlights of it. They're going to go now to Conference committee and they're gonna have to hammer out their differences between the Senate version, more conservative version, versus the House version, which has some stuff that Democrats really really like in it. And Tina wanted to weigh in on this. Hello, Tina, welcome to the Hi. Hey, I just wanted to clearfy one statement that you made in your when you were talking about the teacher pay in the budget. Yeah, and I came here exactly how you said it. But he said something like something about how the newer teachers get these big raises now and later on they'll take care of the experienced teachers or whatever, and it bounces out blah blah blah. I didn't say it balances out. I said they They usually approached the teacher pay funding structures as two different chunks, is what I call them. Right, You've got your increasing teacher pay and front loading a lot of your like your steps. So like teachers used to get these step pay raises at really weird intervals, like it was like three years and then five years and then six years. It was really all over the place, right, So they reformed that a couple of years back and they gave annual one thousand dollars bumps or steps for the first fifteen years. Right. So they did that chunk with like that's aimed at new teachers and not rookie teachers, but like the ones that are that are new were right there, not veteran teachers right so front, and so they focused on that chunk, and then they were criticized by the veteran teachers who had been there for longer than fifteen years, saying, what about us, You're not addressing our our demands, right, and then exactly, and then the next budget cycle comes around and they start addressing the teacher pay for the veteran teachers, They start doing. That chunk that hasn't been done. Sure it has, No, it hasn't. Look back at your the last I don't know three or fod five six years budget, my pay increase in the last I don't know how long has been like one percent, one point three percent, and that's I'll not had a big pay dount. So it's all going to the new or do you have the board certification? Yes? I do, So you got the board certification bump for that, right, mean, oh the national board certification. No, I don't have that, but I'm working on that mass and haven't. Right, So when you get that, you get the bump, and. That's that's a completely different thing. No, it's not because if you so, if you're guaranteed the one thousand dollars steps right, and then you're making your way up to the fifty k mar because that's usually when teachers leave, they leave the profession. So that's why they focused on raising that fifteenth the first fifteen year, yes, and then there but also the teachers that have been there for longer than twenty years, twenty five years. Yes, they are capped right now. They're capped at what fifty seven eight. I think teacher paid at the new budget fifty seven eight right now. The average teacher pay though is fifty eight to ninety two. But that's including all those teachers that do have their national wards. I'm just talking about. Right, So there is opportunity for you to get more of there's opportunity for you to get You. Only have to be TechEd in like three years to get that national board. I understand you get it, but hang on. But once you get the certification, now you are enjoying that additional revenue for the rest of your career. See, it doesn't it's not like you you only get it one one time. You get it every year for it. You get it right, you also and hang on. And I'm not saying there's no work involved. Nobody's saying there's no work, but that is an additional benefit. And then you also have the local supplements right right? Right? And how much is the local supplement for Mecklenburg County. I don't work, I don't live in Okay. I don't work in Mecklburg County, Settle. Then all right, so your county, what what what would you what would you peg your your supplement to be. I think it's twelve percent, so. Twelve percent additional and that's every year, right, and that's every year, so. Okay, okay, And you're adding on things that yes, anybody can go and get the National Ward certification. But if a new teacher gets it and an experience teacher gets it, they still get that pay things that I'm just talking about, Apples to apples. That's what I'm doing. You're ignored. See, hang on, Tina. You keep ignoring the fact that the annual steps, the thousand dollars you then keep for the rest of your career. That money doesn't get it doesn't go away for you. And so after you know, in the first five years, you get five thousand dollars right for the each of the first each of the steps, right, one thousand each year. You then get that five grand plus the thousand the next and the thousand the next. But you you keep all of that money and it compounds over the course of your career. What you want is to raise the teacher tap above the fifty seven thousand, right, you exactly right? You want right, so you want so what's the optimal what's the optimal salary for a teacher of twenty five years? What's the number? I'm sorry, I'm trying these two things that. I could tell. So what would you what would you say the optimal teacher pay for a twenty five year teaching veteran is from the just the state portion, not the local supplements of twelve percent and all of that and all of the benefits that you guys receive, you get very very good benefits for very low cost. The private sector doesn't get that either. So what is the what is the optimal number from the state? I don't really know. Okay, well, no, I think that's important. My only point was that they do not twitch around. It's not like one budget they take care of the new teachers and one budget they take care of the older ones. Switch. It sounded like. You were they did this, But they did do that. They did do that that, They did that, do that. They've been in the Republicans at Tina. The Republicans have been in power since twenty eleven. And the very first thing, what's that? Go ahead? Yeah, I don't care if the Republicans are Democrats. I'm just saying, you go back to look at the paid scale. The raises have all been given for years years. How many years after election? How many years in front of me? I'm not home, okay, but how many years did they only? So you're you're arguing they only gave raises to the starting teachers, and I disagree, and I know that and the reason. So it's not only one percent teachers in the on the higher end of the scale, they have gotten larger pay raises over the last thirteen years. They have gotten larger than one percent pay raises. I know this because I've been I've been covering it for thirteen years, and before that, I was a reporter covering it at the local right. So right, So, but you're telling me that what I witnessed I did not witness because I remember the teachers marching on Raleigh with the Moral Monday movements and such, and they and they were overhauling the entire step system, right, and they were criticized. When they got raises for everyone. Oh, so the veterans did get taken care of, but. Not just the veterans. The way that you made it sad the. Veterans got taken care of and then and then they were criticized, Tina. I'm talking about the politics of it. They get criticized for not addressing the veterans when they do the newer employees, and just like you're saying, when they do the newer employees, the veterans complain. You're proving my point is that you're not getting taken care of like those other ones got. Take the near ones anything they want to, But it is not fair to not increase pay. Do not give raises to experience teachers and they don't. But not do you do? But why so your assumption is that the teachers at what twenty five years or twenty two years, that they automatically deserve it? Well, I mean, do you think that so new teachers automatically deserve it? The whole argument from the people hang on, Tina, I'm an answer. The whole argument from people that were demanding increased teacher pay wasn't about whether they deserved it or not. The whole argument was simply that we need to raise pay to attract more teachers. That was the only that was the argument. We have to pay them more. We're below the national average. We have to pay them more. Nobody wants to teach, and so now we're at what fifty The average teacher pay is almost sixty thousand dollars in North Carolina. That's the average. So okay, well, what's the Well I asked you for your optimal number and you didn't have the optimal You don't have an optimal number, which I think no, I think that's important to note, but also it ignores the local supplements that are included as well, the benefit package that's included as well, Summer's Off. That's a pretty good benefit as well. So like there's so I'm kind of just curious as to like what exactly is the best package that we need to be paying teachers. I'm not complaining about any of the pay, only the fact that you I just don't feel like it's fair, and not even that. Not fair or would what would make it fair? Whenever you say that veteran teachers are taking care of some other tops, they don't do that. It's not focused on this. What would be What do you want them to do for you? What do you want them to pay you. That it would be more fair if they gave everybody, regardless a five percent raise or two percent raise or three percent raise. It's not fair for some place to get twenty percent raise and others to get one or two percent. Right, But if people if you're in the if you're in the field for twenty five years, they know that you like the job. Right, And that's exactly then that I agree on. That's why they do that. Yeah, they're trying to track new teachers because new teachers are not going to stay. But no matter how much money they give those new teachers, they're not going to stay. Well, not necessarily. How how how many years of service do you need before you can retire? Well? Yeah, yeah know how many is it? How many? How many is it? Tina? Well, if it depends like you even get some retirement after five years vested, need to get more, ten more, fifteen more, you know what I mean? Yes, so twenty years. So after twenty years you can retire. Right, you get your twenty minutes and then you get your benefits and you retire and then you can have a whole second career. You know who doesn't get to do that, Like virtually everybody else that's outside of government employment, there are a lot of benefits, right, there are and so and so that's also what you're looking yeah, yea yeah, and that's also what you're looking at. So if you make the system where now you know it's very difficult to fire teachers, right, You've got that component as well, it's very difficult to fire them. So if you now just want to keep giving annual bumps five percent every single year, so you have you have teachers that have stuck around, can't get fired, may not be very good because lord knows, we can't. We can't compensate based on merit or performance for some reason. So, like I've said for years, I want to pay the best teachers six figures. I'm okay with that, but I refuse to pay the worst ones the same amount of money. And until people can come up with a system that can measure teacher performance, then this is what. This is the system we have, and everybody's getting pad the same. And I'm not I'm not going to support just constantly jacking up the taxpayers for five percent pay raises every single year just because somebody couldn't manage to get fired from a government job. You know, I agree with all the things that you're saying except for the fact that you're sounding like all teachers, you have an attitude that all teachers are bad, and. That I don't What did I just say, Tina, Come on now, hang on, Tina, what did I just say? What did I just say? I said, I want to pay the best teachers six figures. I call it pointless, so I'll just hang up. Okay, it was completely. Pointless, and I still disagree with your statement before, only that I don't. I felt like you were leaving this publess to think that, oh this bigger is Normally every time they say on an average seven and a half percent raise, the public doesn't realize that that average is saying that the some are getting a whole big percentage and other ones are getting one percent they're not, and the sum results. When you work in a regular corporate America job, you get just as many weeks. Most of the time. You just can take them whenever you want them. You don't wait, wait, I'm sorry, what did you just say? We get as many weeks. Just about and when I worked I worked at another company, so I'm an older teacher. But when I worked at another company, I got six weeks of vacation which now I get eight. That's six vacation. I could take them in the sum I could take it in the summer. I could take a winter vacation and my family could go to the mountains. What was this line of work you were in that gave you six weeks of paid vacation. I worked for energy. Oh well, that's a very nice gig. You know who you know who doesn't get that? Virtually everybody else nobody gets No, nobody gets six weeks of vacation, let alone eight weeks of vacation. Thank you, No, they don't, Tina, Tina, do you know what? You know what? We start with? Every job I've Tina, every job I've ever had, and I'm fifty one, Every job I've ever had gave me two weeks of aka two weeks. After five years, I would get a third week, really, and then after ten years I'd get a fourth. And that's capped really really, every single job. Okay, that's interesting. So yeah, No, I appreciate the call, Tina. Book. I think I'll just leave it here. Tina, I'm way late for my traffic update, and I got to let you go. I appreciate the call. I appreciate your work that you do. I just think you're overlooking the cumulative impact of the steps that take you up very quickly. You actually earn more money over the course of your career because they front load the pay. I think that you're just overlooking that, because that that is real. You get way more money, way quicker, for a longer period of time. I'm a twelve k in my first job. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Ashville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion. Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Centrally located between Ashville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local attractions with hot tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi Fi grills, outdoor tables, and your own private covered porch. Choose from thirteen cabins, six cottages, two villas, and a great lodge with eleven king sized bedrooms. Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you for any occasion, and they have pet friendly accommodations all our text eight two, eight, three, six, seven, seventy sixty eight or check out all there is to offer at cabins Offashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. Let's talk to John. Hello, John, welcome to the show. Hey, how you doing tonight? I'm good, Pete, I'm good. What's up? I just want to end up make an inquiry to let you know that I do taxes, and I've been doing them for over fifteen years, and I see the pay raises come in every year, and I see the great bathits they have when they retire, and that's not unusual now this time and age with social security as well. When they do retire, they're in the anywhere between eighty five to one hundred and ten thousand dollars a year of income after they retire, after they retire, yeah, including the Social Security though too. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Average retirement checks around sixty thousand for the ones I see, So you know, they're not hurting too bad. And this is I was told this a long time ago. A lot of teachers don't want regular jobs like everyone else. They want better jobs than everyone else. And you know, I'm sure that's the case for some and not the case for all, obviously, But I sometimes do wonder if there is a if there's a lack of knowledge about the way most people go about their lives and make money and the benefits that they get. I think there's an insulation, you know, to a lot of those pressures. And everybody is guilty of looking at where they don't look at the group insurance was paid on their behalf right vision, and all the other you know, fringe benefits. They're good of being employeed by somebody. You go and do that on your own. It's a small business, and you wonder how you even make hands meet sometimes. Yeah, right, they're paying all the taxes at that point, right, not just one half. Yeah, all of the mandatory contributions. Yeah, all the contributions that employers make on the employee's behalf. It's the number I remember is somewhere like thirty percent, like a third of the cost of the employer. Their employee doesn't ever take, they never see it that in their check. But it's all going to taxes, social Security benefits, four one K, all of that stuff as well. Yes, yeah, so you know, yeah, John, I appreciate. I appreciate the call man I got around two news. Thank you, sir. It's very insightful. Yeah, all right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago, and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot Ground, dot News slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Always have this disclaimer. Simply discussing teacher compensation does not mean that I hate teachers. It doesn't. I have teachers in my family. In fact, I have one two three four one two three four four teachers in my family. I do not hate and I love my family, So okay, I make sure I say that too. I guess I do not hate teachers. But when you work for the tax payer, I as a tax payer and not a tax consumer. I am a tax payer. I generate the revenue that the system uses to pay you. I then get to weigh in on what the appropriate levels of funding are for that service. And if you work in a private school, I have no connection to a private school, so that private school is free to pay you whatever they want to. I have no opinion about it whatsoever. Right now, I understand what Tina, the teacher who had called in there, and maybe I should have spoke to her friend who was talking to her on the side there, trying to give her some help along the call there. But and I have no ill will towards Tina. I just I think there's a bit of a blind spot, and we all have them. And I fully acknowledge that because of the career that I chose, and I chose this career, and I have pursued the career through ups and downs, right, low pay, no pay, terrible hours, working every holiday, working triple split shifts. Right, these were all my choices to make. And so when I compare the compensation package, knowing what I also know about teachers because I have them in my family, I talk with them about, you know, their days. It's a tough job. Absolutely, A lot of jobs are very difficult, and for lower pay than teachers, and lower pay than radio people. Absolutely, and I fully acknowledge that because of my career choices, I may not have the softest shoulder to cry upon. I do recognize that, And I also recognize that virtually nobody believes they are paid what they are worth. Right. Nobody goes to the boss and says, you know what, I don't feel like I should be getting paid this amount of money. You should pay me less. Nobody does that, right, No, no, no, take that extra week of vacation. The company needs it more than I do. You know that sort of thing her beef or complaint or criticism, whatever was that she thought that I said, or it sounded like I tried to say, or something like I'm reminded of Vince Cochley's famous line, you know, do not hear what I'm not saying that the veteran teachers, anybody who's been there longer than you know, fifteen years, that they get taken care of in alternating years. And I didn't say that. I said the legislature approached it with we're going to reform the compensation model, and then they got sued, by the way by teachers. They got sued over it because they tried to introduce merit based pay, and so their initial reforms, we're targeting the new teachers because the starting pay was so low, and then they go in and they do teacher pay raises across the board. And by the way, when you are there longer and you make more money, a two percent pay raise for you is larger than a two percent pay raise for somebody who makes half of what you make. That's math, right. If I'm making thirty K and I get a you know what, one percent bonus or a pay raise one percent, that's going to be less by the dollar amount than you who make sixty k and get one percent, you get more money, right, So there's that too. So just a percentage increase across the board for everybody actually privileges the higher paid employee. Okay, and Tina did acknowledge she got paid annual increases they have then, I'm not aware of a budget since the Republicans took over that teachers didn't get a one percent, two percent, whatever, three percent. They have been getting pay raises and they get the local supplements. Right now, the most experienced teachers currently earned fifty five thousand, nine to fifty in base pay. That's just the base and then you add in you get paid for extra curricular activities. If you do those things right, there are ways you can earn that extra money, and so from fifty five nine to fifty is what they make. So fifty six k, that's what the cap is. That that would go to almost fifty eight k. So they're giving you a two thousand dollars a year pay increase. So that's what I mean, like people look at and that's what I was talking about. The chunks of teachers, the new versus the veterans, right, And whenever the legislature does something for one group, the other group complains, and they try to create a system to attract new teachers to keep them in the profession. Fifteen years automatic steps, one thousand dollars guaranteed one thousand dollars pay raise every year. That does not include any of the cost of living increases. So it's a pretty good gig, it is. It's a pretty good gig if you like the work, that's the thing. If you like the work, you enjoy the work, it's a pretty good gig. Some messages, Jeff says, I'm married to a teacher of twenty plus years with the National Board certification, and I'll tell you what would be the best fair package. Crack down on and get rid of the liberal teachers and management. So that good teachers don't absolutely hate their jobs. Gary says, I would say Tina has had a very fortunate career. She has worked for two monopolies. My wife is a teacher. She is currently working summer school. She started during Democrats hiring freezes and pay freezes. I have worked several careers and now work for myself, and I have never had more than two weeks vacation. I don't take off more than two weeks now as a business owner. Well, I didn't even get into the whole. Yeah, you're a business owning yourself. I was told when I started the podcast, and I was in business for myself. There's only paid time and unpaid time. That's it. Steve says, I worked in the finance industry for over thirty years, and the most vacation time I ever got was three weeks. It was a successful career, but we did not get seven to eight weeks per year vacation. Yeah, that's the first time I had ever heard anybody argue, oh, everybody gets six weeks. I'm not aware of anybody actually getting that amount. But again, I work in a peculiar industry, so it could just be me. All right, So spring here a time of renewal and celebrations. You got graduations, weddings, anniversaries and especial days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime. But let me ask you, are all of those treasured moments from days gone by? Are they hidden away on old VCR tapes, eight millimeter films, photos slides? Are they preserved? Because over time, these precious memories can fade and deteriorate, losing the magic of yesterday. At Creative Video, they help you protect what matters most. Their expert team digitizes your cherished family moments and transfers them onto a USB drive, freezing them in time so they can be enjoyed for generations to come. I urge you do not wait until it's too late this spring, celebrate your past. Visit Creative Video today and let them preserve your legacy with the love and care that it deserves. Creative Video Preserving Family Memories since nineteen ninety seven, located in mint Hill, just off four eighty five. Mail orders are accepted to get all the details at eight A video dot Com email from Bill who says I worked at Duke forty one years. You were never eligible for six weeks of vacation. The cap was five, and as you said, it started at two weeks and then it works its way up. I think twenty years of service get you five weeks. Currently, when I started, you had to have eight to ten years to get three weeks. I think it may be lower now. If she had five weeks of vacation, she had to have worked there at least twenty years, which is pretty good. Twenty year career with Duke, twenty year career with with the schools. Let me go over here and get trent On. Hello, Trent, Yeah, how you doing? Hey, I'm good, what's up? I'm kind of I'm a teacher. I've taught just makes my forty second year teaching and number one. So we are ten months employees. So it's more than six weeks vacation. It's about eight weeks of vacation that you're basically going to get during the summertime, so you're a ten month employee, not a twelve month employee. Next, during that time, people don't get into teaching because all of a sudden you're in it for the money you get. You get into teaching because you love the kids, love what you do. You love the you know you have passion. Look, I retired twelve years ago. And here's the other thing. That state check that I get for teaching, for teaching those thirty years comes in the twenty fifth every month. And I don't complain about it. It's just it's just kind of a buffer. It's a benefit that you get with just working with the state. I mean, if you're gonna work government money, if you're gonna work for a government, you're not gonna be You're not gonna get rich off of it, right, you know, you got to go into the privatized field if that's what you want to do. But I started out in nineteen eighty four. It's sixteen thousand dollars a year, and I am now working for a charter school. Yeah, that's what you call double dippy. So really, you want to actually go out what you think you deserve, pay, get your retirement, retire, go work for a charter school, go work for a private school, and then you can actually go out there and you can make some money on this thing. Yeah, trying to appreciate the call, sir, Thank you, that's good info. What do you say sixteen k in nineteen eighty four. I made twelve thousand in nineteen ninety eight. Mark, Welcome to the program. Hello Mark, Hey Bete. I love your show. And the thing I want to talk about I'm glad you made that point to the teacher that you talked to about twenty minutes ago, is you know, with the six weeks and everything. But the thing is that gets me is there's not a moment in time and every year between all the legislation and politics that school raises for teachers are always a topic. And it seems like no matter where you are, they're always talking about raises for teachers or teachers pay and stuff like this. Who fights for us in the private set? Nobody. You don't hear any discussions about that. And and the other thing is like the caller that you just had, that he retired and now he's double dipping. That's the other thing. In the private sector, they have done away with pensions and benefits. Right, Yeah, there is no Yeah, there's no way to do a similar pack. Yeah, the total conversation package if they want to make the money. And the other thing that they don't discuss is their teaching. What what are they what's the value of their their teaching, because when you work in the private sector, if you don't do a good job, you're gone. Yeah, and that's always that was Yeah, Mark, that's a great point. I appreciate the call. Mark. That's always been the trade off, right, is that if you work in the public sector, generally speaking, you get paid lower pay, but you have more security, you have job security, and you have a benefits package that will last post employment. Right, the private sector you trade basically two of those three away for theoretically higher pay. You get paid more money, but your benefits are not as good. I mean, I remember having a discussion pretty recently, like within the last six months with somebody who was complaining about the cost of their health insurance premiums going up. And it's like, I think it was going up to if I remember correctly, twenty bucks a month or a pay period, and it's like, I pay hundreds hundreds of dollars just for myself, right, So that's what I mean. There's a disconnect that I think a lot of people, because they may not have experience in the private sector, they don't realize what the private sector provides and what it doesn't. All Right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete Calender show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.