[geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore

[wa2egp at att.net]

> >I started at $13K.  My wife started at a major company two years later at $25K.
> >Same education.  This is my 27th year.  Only a few years ago did my pay 
> >exceed hers due to a balloning in the last two years before top scale.  BTW,
> >before I taught at my present job, I left a factory where I got $16K.
> 
> 27 years ago, teacher pay sucked, now it doesn't - it is pretty reasonable, 
> IMHO, if not excessive in SOME cases. Very few on this list (or in my home town) 
> get guaranteed pay raises in spite of annual performance. Job security is 
> another alien concept to most of my neighbors, but those are just certain 
> elements of the jobs - it takes a different person to teach than it does to say, 
> program, engineer, etc.

In NJ, most district are below $40K.  Other professions start at higher 
amounts still. (estimate $60K)  Cost of living here is outrageous.

Job security was never a factor when teachers were getting crap pay and
there was job security in othere professions.  The attitude is still 
there.  During one strike a few years ago, a person in that town was
on the news saying, "We can always get teachers."  Teachers were sent
to jail all over $20K in a multimillion budget in a town whose property
values went from $350K to $6M (most teachers lived out of town).  Most
wage earners in that town worked on Wall Street.  Took them several
years to find teachers; non-tenured left, older retired quickly and
applicants were few.

Yes, it does require different people to teach than to do other jobs.
I think insanity is a requirement. :)

Bob