On Nov. 10 the Amarillo Globe News (AGN) published a story reporting that according to a recent Heritage Foundation study teachers are overpaid. With it, AGN obtained records from Amarillo, Canyon, Bushland, River Road and Highland Park school districts and posted the name of every school employee with the date they were hired and how much they are paid online.

Although AGN was well within its legal rights to do so, it is not ethically right to publish the financial information of private citizens on the internet. AGN should revisit the Society of Professional Journalist’s Code of Ethics which clearly states that “journalists should recognize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than do public officials and others who seek power, influence or attention. Only an overriding public need can justify intrusion into anyone’s privacy.”

 If AGN’s purpose was to inform the public of what their local educators are being compensated, they could have easily obtained the records from the school districts and listed the pay in a salary range according to job title and years of experience instead of posting the employee’s names. Stipends educators receive in addition to their salary, for example coaching or band, could have been listed separately. This would have been just as effective without invading the privacy of private citizens. However it would have required AGN reporters to invest more time than it took to simply post a database on their website.    

In AGN reporter Jacob Mayer’s story, he wrote the co-author of the study said “the problem is not salaries — which are fairly comparable to other professions — but benefits which pushes total compensation over the top.” If that is the case, why were the salaries posted in the first place when nothing was reported about what each individual school district offers in benefits?  

But, since AGN has made this into a salary issue, let’s talk about it. I am a classroom teacher and I make a little over $44,000 per year. If you don’t believe me, you can look it up as AGN has so graciously posted it online for the whole world to see. $44,000 isn’t too bad. I realize there are many hard working people out there who would love to make that amount. However, after the story was published many online readers posted comments calling for schools to start “trimming the fat.” Well, let’s do just that.

My contract is for 187 days and the school day is approximately 8 hours a day. Let’s be funny and say I only spend an additional hour planning and preparing lessons. If that’s correct, I make roughly $26 per hour. Not too bad. That’s about the same amount as an entry level registered nurse, a job which like teaching requires a bachelor’s degree and a professional license. However, in addition to my teaching duties, I also advise three student publications and coach a UIL academic team. So, if I add the extra time I spend fulfilling these duties, attending unpaid workshops during the summer and the time I spend at home grading student work, that brings my pay down closer to $19 per hour. Excellent. I’m making the same amount as a really good server at a busy Amarillo restaurant on a Saturday night.

The AGN report claims teachers are overpaid when compared to “jobs requiring similar skills in the private sector”, but never clarifies what exactly those jobs are.  If you go to the Heritage Foundation website and look up the actual study, it is surprising to see it says “public-school teachers earn less in wages on average than non-teachers with the same level of education.” However, when they go back and factor in that teacher pension, healthcare programs and job security are better, they come up with their ridiculous claim that they are now overpaid.

If taxpayers are looking to “trim the fat” they don’t need to be pointing fingers at the average classroom teacher. It’s even easy to look at those “hefty” coaching salaries and go on the attack. However, break it down per hour and see if the salaries look outrageous then. If you’re still concerned, start lobbying to get teachers paid per hour. I would love that. I would most likely get a pay increase.

I love my job and I’m grateful for it. But, like my teaching counterparts, I worked hard to get it. I have work experience in the subject I am teaching. I have a college degree, a professional teaching license, I’m certified to teach in three different subject areas, and have 8 years teaching experience. Most of the educators in this area have similar if not more impressive credentials. I entered into the profession fully aware I would never get rich and like many of my peers I make no complaints about my pay. I want to teach. I choose to teach. The question is, do you want someone with my credentials teaching your child or the server from the neighborhood bar and grill?