Apples and Oranges.

A weekend or so ago, someone told me that my former school--private, Christian--is starting teachers at $28,000. And that 28K is pretty much all take home--what I mean is that health care is not taken out of the monthly pay check.

Now, I am currently credited with being a 3rd year teacher. I did get credit for teaching two years at the private school, but I have made no progress towards tenure--which requires 4 years. I cannot make any progress towards tenure until I have a "cleared" license. I am seeking lateral entry licensure. That means that I am having to take somewhere in the neighborhood of additional hours of college classes in order to be/stay a teacher. The average class costs about $450. The county does reimburse up to $300 per class, so that is a pretty good deal. The point is that I am going to spend probably $1500 net on tuition, another $800-1000 on those "required" textbooks. I spent $190 this past weekend forthe opportunity to take the Praxis II. I will have to cough up some cash in order to pay for my license when I do get the "cleared" status.

As I mentioned, I'm a 3rd year teacher so that correlates to about 27,900 on the salary schedule for NC. The problem is that health care/other benefits are deducted out of that sum. Because of skyrocketing health care costs--and the fact that I cover my entire family--close to $500 per month is deducted. Then Uncle Sam gets his cut and then all the old people get their cut. All that said, now I'm bringing home less than $1500 per month + I have all of the expenses mentioned above just to keep my job.

I'm not complaining per se. I get off before 5pm almost every day, I never have to work weekends, and I get about 2.5 months of vacation each year.

But when trying to understand why more people aren't energized to get into the public teaching field, it's easy to see.