Aren’t teachers the best people?

By Monique Kluczykowski

As a college teacher beginning a new school year, I am tired and discouraged — tired because I taught extra classes all summer long, and discouraged because of the public’s perception of my profession.

Most people believe teachers enjoy a three-month vacation every summer; I’d enjoy that too, but my children have become accustomed to luxuries like food and shelter. Our last vacation was a three-day trip to Tybee Island in 2003; this year’s grand excursion was a trip to Zoo Atlanta.

When I chose my profession, I knew I’d never become wealthy, but I believed I’d be able to support a family. I was wrong. A 2000 report by the Southern Regional Education Board states, “Faculty salaries have not grown at rates as high as those of all workers, regardless of level of education, over the past 25 years.”

Combine low raises (or none at all) with ever-increasing insurance premiums and out-of-control inflation, and most of us are making less year after year. Yet whenever an economic crisis looms, the first place our elected officials look to cut costs is teacher salaries.

It may strike some as insensitive to complain about salaries at a time when so many people are out of work, but there never will be a good time to raise this issue. For the past 10 years, teachers have been told to “tighten our belts” and to “remain optimistic” because “things will be better next year.”

But every next year is economically worse than the one before, and many of us are on our last belt hole.

Yet while faculty salaries have stagnated, a quick glance at www.open.georgia.gov reveals that the salaries of administrative personnel are quite robust: a good number of administrators in the education field earned over $100,000 last year, with some exceeding $500,000.

When teachers question the discrepancy in salary amounts, we are told that administrators have many responsibilities and that it takes competitive pay to attract the “best” people. Really?

What a compliment that is to those of us who “just teach.” Administrators may juggle multiple responsibilities, but so do I. Each year I guide over 200 students through composition classes, helping them to acquire the skills they will need to be successful in their academic disciplines and career fields, but my job duties don’t end at the classroom door.

I also perform myriad administrative tasks and do my own filing. Yet, my annual salary is less than a tenth of the amount of some administrators’ pay. Is my contribution really worth that much less?

And if the first place the budget experts look to cure their budget woes is teacher/faculty salaries, are they really the “best” people? The motto on the University System of Georgia’s Web site reads “Creating a More Educated Georgia,” while Georgia’s Department of Education has adopted the phrase “Improving Student Achievement.”

Who do they suppose is accomplishing those goals every day in the classroom? Administrators with Ph.D’s in Organizational Leadership?

I love my work, but it’s time to stop romanticizing the teaching profession. When a student says, “I loved your class” or “You’re a wonderful teacher,” it’s a terrific compliment at the end of a semester, but it doesn’t pay the electric bill.

I am an educated and dedicated professional. Just because my job is emotionally rewarding doesn’t give the state the right to treat my income as its own personal piggybank.

Oh, and Gov. Perdue, please don’t call them “furloughs.” A furlough is a vacation or a leave of absence: what we teachers are getting is a pay cut. Good luck with attracting the “best people” to a profession that is valued so little.


Monique Kluczykowski is a teacher and writer living in Winder.