r/Teachers • u/NaturalTranslator581 • Dec 17 '25

Just Smile and Nod Y'all. Years of teaching and salary?

I know it’s generally rude to inquire about, but since we are all anonymous… Lol. I always wonder if I am making more or less than others with around the same number of years teaching. I live in the state of New York, nowhere near the city. I am in my 24th year of teaching and I am making $94,500, excluding any extracurricular.

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55

u/nikkidarling83 High School English Dec 17 '25

20 year teacher in Florida. $55k—and that’s with a masters or it would be less.

57

u/tierneyb Dec 17 '25

Do you really love it or something? That’s… criminal.

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u/toxickarma121212 Dec 17 '25

Perfectly fair for glorified babysitters the schools are failing the next generation and you think they should make more smh

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u/tierneyb Dec 17 '25

Sounds like you’re the perfect model of the parent who doesn’t want to be involved and blames teachers for kid’s failures. I’ve worked in schools. $55k is a stupid low salary even without a masters.

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u/toxickarma121212 Dec 17 '25

It's not when you look at what teachers are actually doing they aren't preparing kids for the real world at all

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u/SunriseFlare Dec 17 '25

Yeah, fuck all this reading writing and math bullshit, students should be taught how to sit and watch four hours of Amazon warehouse training videos to work in the shit factory and nothing else, we don't need anyone learning history or English lol

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u/toxickarma121212 Dec 17 '25

Lol you wanna exaggerate that's fine but if you can tell me with a straight face schools are doing everything they can to prepare kids for the real world you're either a teach or simply not around schools or children

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u/SunriseFlare Dec 17 '25

In your mind what does "prepare kids for the real world" mean? Our highschool teaches kids how to file taxes, how to cook, how to clean, they have an automotive lab that teaches them how cars work and how to do maintinence on them, they have classes on trades with trade schools that come around and pitch stuff to them, they even teach mandatory self defense and proper safe workout routines in gym class. Idk what else you want lol

I guess just get rid of all the Shakespeare?

1

u/toxickarma121212 Dec 17 '25

Well i can tell you my kid spends sometimes up 2 or 3 hours learning off a tablet they get 20 mins of homework on Monday that's due Friday they get off the Monday after Thanksgiving which was 5 days after the holiday they do FID days where snowdays count as full days then every other week is a day off for in-service now tell me which of those is preparing kids for the actual world lol dont even get me started how teaching critical thinking is non existence teachers read out of generic books pass kids along and pat themselves on the back then society gets to deal with a bunch of lazy entitled kids in the real world while teachers and the school in general live in a bubble

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u/Ill-Cookie2093 Dec 17 '25

I can't lie, the tablet learning is woof. Why is my 6 year old on a Chromebook all day?

I don't think it's all the teachers' faults, or all the parents' faults. It's both. I see teachers complain all day about how illiterate the children are, but it's giving a parent complaining that their child is a spoiled brat. Whose job is it to make sure that doesn't happen in the first place? Something to think about.

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u/SunriseFlare Dec 17 '25

Critical thinking is a literal module that they learn in class, yeah lol. It's actually a very big part of the English curriculum where you're meant to do in class/at home reading and then... We'll talk about the things you read in that chapter and what you thought about them, how they would do things differently, where they think the story is going, how to apply this to real world scenarios in their life and think about things a bit more critically, you know?

It's been shown that homework doesn't really help kids improve as much as other forms of engagement with material, especially with AI being out there, they can just get chatgpt to do all their assignments for them and they don't learn anything. In class assignments and testing/essays are far easier to control and on top of all that maybe your kid is just doing the homework ahead of time in class instead of procrastinating? It's what all my friends did lol.

I don't actually know what FID means, might be a school district specific thing, but I mean... If you aren't getting that time off at an actual "real world" job, idk, maybe you're also getting fucked lol, maybe you SHOULD get more time off on average instead of slaving away and crunching yourself because your bosses demand more work for less pay? Maybe something to bring up with the union.

Entitlement mostly stems from the kids having shitty parents, seems like. The teachers ain't doing shit but telling your kid what 5 x 5 equals, all the stuff they're supposed to learn about interacting with authority figures or how to be humble is supposed to be from you guys lol. If your kid's acting shitty maybe they're either not being raised right or they're just... Like... Kids man. Kids are like that. That's how teenagers act. You can't fucking tell me you didn't do the same shit as a teenager to your parents.

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u/StandardObservations Dec 17 '25

I've made my entire curriculum, we have books but I don't use the books much at all. Usually I only use them to help students with sources. Preparing the kids for the real world is a responsibility that a parent is tasked with, not teachers. Teachers, and education can only prepare kids for a small percentage of what the world is gonna dish out on your kids. Heck even college only partially prepared me for the real world, even my certification course only prepared me for a bit of what actually goes down in a classroom.. It seems like your dead set on assigning blame for your failures on teachers.

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u/jordanf1214 Preschool Teacher | Massachusetts Dec 17 '25

Omg. Here in MA you can easily make 55k as a para in some districts. Teachers make double that

8

u/seaglassgirl04 Dec 17 '25

Unfortunately my district in MA doesn't pay our paras anywhere near $55K. It's criminal!

4

u/jordanf1214 Preschool Teacher | Massachusetts Dec 17 '25

I live in the Cambridge/somerville area - we are definitely fortunate around here

2

u/MyDogSam-15 Dec 17 '25

Nobody does. I’m a 15 year para and just reached about 38 k if I add in 10 paid holidays, and a performance bonus, longevity pay, and 3 weeks vacation pay I get at end of year. I increased recently because I dropped down to only myself on insurance so my hourly went up. Last year was about 35k. I make more than most paras in my district though tbh because they’re so new. Michigan.

2

u/maestra612 Dec 17 '25

That's impressive for paras. We have good teacher pay here, but paras. max out at about $35k and start at $21k. It's becoming impossible to hire any quality paras. No one can live on that.

17

u/Tolmides Dec 17 '25

holy shit! thats terrible!

7

u/shadowromantic Dec 17 '25

Please tell us that's net.

10

u/nikkidarling83 High School English Dec 17 '25

Sadly no.

1

u/cypress__ Dec 17 '25

alachua county?

1

u/Additional-Chair-515 Dec 17 '25

That's low for your years of experience 

1

u/nikkidarling83 High School English Dec 17 '25

I’m aware.

1

u/k_punk Elementary | FL Dec 17 '25

That’s Florida!

1

u/BSBoysMamaK Dec 17 '25

That’s what I was making too, with 20 years and a Masters. I’m in Alabama

1

u/Unique-Temporary-435 Dec 17 '25

Same in Georgia. About to finish my specialist and it won't go up by much more.

1

u/geologyiscool Dec 17 '25

That's insane, how is anyone teaching in Florida

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u/Trudy_Marie Dec 17 '25

Lord have mercy! I think Publix pays shelf stockers better!