Why Teaching Can't Attract Top Graduates

Today I'm tackling teacher pay from a teacher's perspective. I know we can and will argue this from so many perspectives. In my mind, it doesn't matter what is "fair" for a teacher's salary. What matters is the amount that will draw the top young talent into teaching instead of medicine, engineering, business, law, etc.

I was one of those top students. And I went into teaching mostly because I didn't really know what my other options were. I had been going to school my whole life and I was good at it, so I could see myself on the other side of it.

So the teaching profession lucked into getting me. (Yes, I know that sounds conceited, but the fact is that I was a top student in high school and college.) But I want to advocate for attracting top talent into teaching. And so in this post, I'm going to compare my experience with my husband's career to illustrate why top students might not choose teaching or might not stick with it.

I chose to compare just the basic financial and work time stuff. There are obviously other benefits and drawbacks to both careers when considering other factors.

(By the way, I highly recommend the article "The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries." It's a quick read. It starts out comparing our military to our schools: "When we don’t get the results we want in our military endeavors, we don’t blame...the men and women fighting every day in the trenches for little pay and scant recognition." It goes on to advocate for attracting top students to the teaching profession and compares the prestige of the teaching profession in the U.S. with other top countries.)

	Teacher	Business Career
Qualifications	--Salutatorian at a public high school --97th percentile ACT score --Cum Laude from Central Michigan U. --M.Ed. from Ashland University	--Top 20% at a private Catholic high school --97th percentile ACT score --3.0+ GPA from Central Michigan U. --MBA from Ashland University
Salary	$55,000 with very small raises if any (which is very high for a teaching salary compared to other areas of the country)	$72,000 and rising exponentially faster than mine
Hours	183 work days times 9 hours per day equals about 1650 hours per year at school. (I’m not subtracting out my “lunch break” because I only have 20 minutes for lunch and I often work during it.) Plus fairly regular after-school meetings, summer professional development, and evening and weekend planning and grading at home. I estimate that I easily work a total of at least 1700 hours per year.	He works four 8-hour days at the office and one 8-hour “Work from Home” day per week. About 215 work days (but almost 50 of those are Work from Home days) 215 x 8 hours per day = just over 1700 hours per year (just over 1300 actually at work) (He occasionally travels for work but still averages an 8 hour day of doing actual work but some might consider travel inconvenient.)
Vacation and Holidays	10 weeks during the summer, 1 week Spring Break, 2 weeks at Christmas, other various holidays 3 personal days (the only flexible days)	30 days Paid Time Off (includes sick and vacation time) plus holidays
Sick Leave	Cumulative sick days (1.5 per month) but they also double as maternity leave, surgery, bereavement time, etc. If additional time is needed for an illness or injury, it is unpaid.	For regular short-term illness, it comes out of PTO. For any extended medical leave, 5 days PTO then paid leave.
Other Financial Benefits	My health plan is slightly better than his but quickly deteriorating in service and increasing in price.  Fee waivers and partial tuition reimbursement Pension plan paid into by me and employer 403(b) paid into entirely by me (no matching)	Yearly bonus of a few thousand dollars Tuition reimbursement 401(k) contribution matching Paid travel for conferences and meetings
Other Financial Drawbacks	Must pay $200 every five years to renew my teaching license Spend hundreds each year on classroom supplies