Cross-posted at Immizen.com by my fellow blogger Neil:
This will be my last class of the semester & this will be the last semester that I will teach 7 (or more) classes to stay afloat. I resolve to float or drown with or without a decent wage. This will be the last semester that I work exclusively for an educational industry that extracts more from its adjunct professors than it returns. 70% of college professors work to educate America, from community colleges to top universities, without access to benefits of any kind, including healthcare, and sometimes we're even asked to pay for parking. We are encouraged to transform America with our teaching skills at wages equal to or less than what a Taco Bell cook makes per hour, but the system uses our need to give back & make the world a frigging better place because that is who we are. It uses our need to give more than we take. We choose to be teachers, not millionaires, because we know the benefits of teaching, educating, is transformative for ourselves & the community. Our future well-being depends on a well-educated community, but this truth exists as a secondary notion to the system that we built, vote & pay for through taxes, tuition, endowments, scholarships & loans–then complain about when it fails. I guess I also resolve to be more vocal.
In the 1950s, teachers earned the equivalent of doctors and lawyers. 60% of everyone else we are supposed to teach will earn more than teachers. We should be taught by those who are earning this 60% spread:
Chart A: Male College-Educated Non-Teacher Pay Compared to Male Teacher Pay
Year
|
% Non-Teachers Earn More (or Less) than Teachers
|
1940
|
-3.6%
|
1950
|
2.1%
|
1960
|
19.7%
|
1970
|
33.1%
|
1980
|
36.1%
|
1990
|
37.5%
|
2000
|
60.4%
|
A
2008 book discusses the Recent Trends in the Relative Earnings of Teachers and found a growth of pay gap for male and female teachers in most states.