No Stupid Questions

are they not underpaid everywhere else too? I don't think this is a USA only issue, all public teachers where I live with the exception of teachers for universities complain about low salary

Simple. Education isn't the goal. The US doesn't need well informed and educated people. They need drones that'll follow orders from the oligarchs.

They need workers ok with $7.25 an hour. Work 6 days a week then church on Sunday.

Teaching isn't considered a professional job in the USA. It's considered to be part of the service industry, thus the low pay.

My entire life I have been hearing how teachers are overpaid, lazy, pathetic losers who just want to leech off the taxpayer. And frankly... probably 30-40% of them are. The profession attracts a lot of slackers. The other 60% though should probably be making double what they are.

I wanted to teach but the salary was just too low to ever consider it. Nor would I ever have been qualified enough to teach at some elite private school where the pay is good.

That's by design

A dumb population is easier to control, which is why Republicans since Reagan have been slashing education whenever possible, trying to inject theocracy on there as much as possible, because religious dumb fucks are even easier to control

That cutting salaries helps them with their greed is just a cherry on top of the vomit cake

L

School budgets are tied to property taxes for the district the schools serve.

Supply and demand, along with historic sexism.

• teaching (up to high school) has historically been predominantly women. And yes women used to be paid much less. That gap has narrowed a lot but “women’s work” still tends to pay less
• there are hundreds of thousands of teachers. There are huge numbers. There’s always another
• while it takes a lot to be a good teacher, it’s not so much to “teach”

So I think we have a history of low pay, the vast number militants against that changing, and to appearance anyone can be a “teacher”

Don’t get me wrong my family has significant history in the field and deep respect for the importance and to the huge impact a good teacher can make on someone’s future. But when my kid wanted to teach, after saying I would be so proud as would the vast array of ancestors, I added that you need to be aware of poor pay. To translate to video game, it’s doing life in hard mode

There are two parts. First, they aren't as underpaid as most people think in most cases. The union isn't dumb. When they negotiate they look at the long term. A career teacher (30 to 35 years) can retire at about 55 give or take depending on the district. And they will get something like 80% of thier salary for the rest of thier life. They will also get subsidized health insurance. And in some states, all of that is tax free. That is a ton of money and a ton of security. And for many, they can retire, collect pension, and go get another job at the same time if they want. I make more than double what teachers make best case, and my wife works too for a 6 figure salary. I can't possibly retire at 55, let alone feel secure doing so. I also have been laid off twice over the last 30 years, where as most teacher don't have to worry about that after 10 years. Now, I get to take vacation anytime of the year, I can change jobs or move and not mess up my future benefits. I don't have to deal with parents. Lots of intangible benefits to not being a teacher. But the point is the union ensures those less obvious benefits, which keeps the current salary low. This keeps the optics of drastically underpaid teachers so that the union can still negotiate for more with public sentiment on thier side. So while they are still underpaid, it isn't as drastic as it would appear.

The other reason is simple. There are a lot of teachers. Like a lot a lot. And schools are generally built to a higher standard of saftey, so they are much more expensive than other building types. All of this adds up to a very high cost. Education is typically one of the largest expenditures for a state budget. Poloticians could dump more money into it, but it isn't likely to be enough to make a difference that will get them reelected. So they put money other places that will get them votes.

That's your reasons why.

because education teaches kids how to think and to know right from wrong.

Which is why the cabal of fascist pedophiles have spent the past 50+ years trying to demonize it.

The answer is always greed.

Teachers tend to like teaching. It's a rewarding, "feel good" career. You know that you are helping kids, you get to watch them at their best. And, yes, sometimes at their worst, too, but that's part of the deal - like watching your puppy chew up your couch and shit on the floor. Still worth it.

Since teachers tend to be passionate, they put up with a lot of bullshit admin/management. Moreso than you might at a soulless corporate job. This isn't limited to teachers, either. Consider other careers where people put up with bullshit, and you'll see a lot of parallels.

Art is a great parallel example. Everyone loves great art, artists love making art - but many people don't want to pay for art. That's why there's so many passionate actors and musicians, but so few of them manage to eke out a living as a true professional. The passion is there, they are driven by their love of art, not by the material rewards.

The business world loves to take advantage of passion.

Not just in the US.

Let me tell you a story about a man named Ronald Reagan.

There's a wild spread on both pay and the requirements to work as a teacher. Some places require barely more than a pulse. Some places require years of schooling. Some places pay teachers no better than shelf-stockers. Some pay a decent wage and/or have a decent pension/benefits system. It's definitely not a monoculture.

The GOP is fully to blame.

They sell the American public on the idea that any taxes are bad, no matter what they are meant to fund. When they are in power they cut public services, give tax breaks to corporations, and schedule tax raises to occur when they’re out of power.

When they aren’t in power they yell about taxes nonstop to make sure democrats are too scared to re-fund them, so they don’t get voted out.

Cycle after cycle, and now there’s no money to give the teachers.

Forget what it says on the tin. To truly understand a society, look at its institutions.

Education isn't valued by the sociopaths that run the US.

George Carlin said it best. We want dumb happy obedient workers. Smart enough to runthe machines, but not smart enough to realize how badly they're getting fucked by the system. So don't count on the schools to do much more than basic math, and basic skills. Because what helps the elite class screws over the working class. It's best to start screwing them in kindergarten. Teach them the pledge of allegence, so they feel endebted to our system, and keep them there for their entire lives.

Paraphrasing here, but that's the jist of a routine he had in the 90s. The important thing to note is that Carlin was NOT a time traveler. He didn't predict the future. It's just that we as a society have had the same problems for 100 years, and we never fixed our shit.

To add to the (absolutely accurate) commentary in the rest of the thread, this hits on a something Grabber talks about in Bullshit Jobs. Almost universally, the jobs that are the most important to society actually functioning are the ones that pay the least (with the one notable exception of physicians). There's this idea that you should be "grateful" to have such an important job, and that's in a way almost part of your pay. See also nurses, elderly care providers, daycare employees, anyone who works for a charity. People in charge use this "moral capital" as a way to convince you to take less actual money

When I was in 8th grade, my school district furloughed over 100 teachers at the same time the superintendent was getting a heated marble driveway installed at his house.

Knowing what you're talking about is considered elitist by most Americans. Under-funding education is effectively a DEI program for idiots.

Because if public education pumped out smart kids, no one would vote Republican.

Part of it not said in any of the other answers is that schools are managed at a very local level and get a significant amount of their funding through local taxes. So, you get a lot of towns that don't have the local tax base to raise revenue or you have a local tax base where the wealthy few would rather pay for private school than the taxes to pay for a better public school.

The problem with organized labor in this case is that the organized labor is generally fighting the government and a lot of states don't want an effective union network getting built or spreading.

All the other answers are correct.

Republicans / conservatives in the US are a poison. Delusional, evil. Either opportunist pieces of shit or certifiably the dumbest people in the world.

Their existence is a net negative, period, full stop. Their non-existence...well, take that as you will.

Because (public) education isn't valued and we insist on the idiotic practice of funding schools primarily through local property taxes.

Not raising the education of the public is an easy control method and also easily keeps up the myth of the USA being such a great country while completely obviously contradicting itself.

Because about 90% of legislators are rich and went to private religious schools.