Not in a union state she can't; salaries are determined by collective bargaining agreements, there is no individual salary negotiations. Nearly every district will give a slight stipend for having a MA degree, but she can't just waltz in and negotiate a different salary compared to another teacher with the same years and qualifications. That would defeat the entire purpose of having a union.

I think you're both saying pretty much the same thing actually; my comment was just meant to clarify the numbers.

Parents sue school districts on a fairly regular basis.

For sure. Going back to get your cert later on isn't the worst thing, but with the state of the profession, there are far lower stress jobs out there for comparable pay.

Someone misinformed you. NY I believe is the only state that requires you to get a MA to teach, and that's only within your first 5 years in the profession. NJ is just a BA, plus some extra classes, and your student teaching.

Just to clarify, you don't need a full "education degree" (bachelor's or masters) to teach in NJ, you need something called a state certificate. It's a program that typically takes an extra 1.5-2 years of college, sometimes some of it is done concurrently with your BA degree, but much of the time teachers spend 5+ years in undergrad to get their BA + State Teaching Certificate.

Teachers in CA are not making 100k. A very, VERY select few individuals make over 100k but it is an extreme rarity. I'm on step 8 in my current district and am not close to 100k. I won't hit 100k until I have nearly 20 years in, and I'm in one of the highest paying districts in all of CA.

As someone else in this thread said, the fact that NJ/CA have some of the highest teacher salaries just means these states are the skinniest kids at fat camp.

No they cannot. Expulsions only happen in the most extreme cases these days (for things like attempted murder, sexual assault, or other such heinous crimes).

Yup. Quite a few of those shitstains in this very thread today.

Lmao, thank you for demonstrating you don't have a single clue what goes on in this profession.

I'm done here. Can't have a conversation with someone this dense.

Bully for you, you were in one of the better districts then.

This is still not the norm lol.

Lol, idk what fancy ass district you attended as a student, but when I was in elementary and high school (back in the 90s) we would get classroom points or extra credit for bringing in tissues, printer paper, etc... because teachers weren't supplied with these things by the district.

Buying your own supplies has always been the norm for teachers.

Edit; it appears some of you are interpreting this comment as being dismissive of teachers having to shell out of their own woefully low salaries for classroom supplies. I am one of those schmucks who is constantly having to pay out of pocket for classroom supplies. I've spent over 100 bucks just this school year so far on my own classroom. All I'm saying is this problem is not new. Educators in this country have been ridiculously abused for generations.

Teachers do not make 150k at the end of their careers. This is bullshit, and you should be ashamed of yourself considering this is literally publicly published information you can easily Google.

We do not work for 9 months. We do 12 months worth of work in 10 months, then continue doing trainings, lesson planning, and other prep work for 2 months over the summer.

You wouldn't last a week in this profession. Close your mouth, honey, you look like a trout.

>Buying your own supplies has become the norm

This has always been the norm.

Your "opinion" is unpopular because it's flat out wrong. (It's not even an opinion; it's an assertion of market forces based on a faulty premise.)

I currently have 155 students across 5 classes every single day. Do you have any fucking clue how much reading and grading that creates every day of my life? During midterm season, I have thousands of pages of assessments to read and grade.

This is why education is fucked; everyone and their mother who has never done this job a single day in their life, like you, think they understand the problem.

Nearly 10 years in the classroom here (though no longer in New Jersey); here's why I'm currently considering leaving the profession entirely.

Just this year alone:

I've had students leaving hate speech notes like little bitch ass cowards in my classroom, targeting me for my orientation. I know who's doing it (as if I haven't spent months studying their individual handwriting styles); admin refuses to discipline them for fear of lawsuits from parents.

A colleague caught 12 of their students blatantly copying each other's major essay assignment. My colleague was viciously attacked through email and in meetings with parents, calling them every name you could imagine. Admin, instead of standing behind my colleague's decision to fail these students, simply moved them out of their class into a different class to sweep the problem under the rug. They suffered no consequences.

Despite 10 years in the classroom, I'm still working 60-70 hour weeks, because everything I do is constantly undermined by my district. Just this week, my entire gradebook was erased in the LMS (digital grade keeping software). I now have to go back in and manually create every single assignment and re-enter every single grade I've issued since early August. This will easily add 10+ hours of work to my week. It's fucking Friday, I'd like to be able to spend at least 1 day with my spouse this week, but it appears, yet again, that isn't in the cards.

We recently had active shooter training, conducted by a police lieutenant. It ended with this 300lb cop teaching us how to bludgeon a shooter to death with a chair or book if our classroom is breached, how to duct tape students to chairs if they try to flee a classroom when we're locked down during an active shooting, and other such insanity.

I have a spouse who brings in a second income, and I still am paying more than 50% of my income in rent. We have no kids, we do not buy anything expensive, we don't eat out often, we don't spend extravagantly, we hardly even go out, period. 10 fucking years, and the prospect of owning a home is a pipe dream.

Being a teacher is an exercise in being the victim in an abusive relationship. Admin relies on this dynamic. Parents rely on this dynamic. I get more support, understanding, and compassion from a small cohort of self-aware students than I do from the overwhelming majority of my superiors, or parents. I am America's whipping boy. I went into this profession thinking I could do some good for society. That good appears to be being the punching bag for everyone's frustrations.

Please save your platitudes. This isn't a request for sympathy, I just wanted to give some anecdotal perspective of one teacher's experiences.

Edited for clarity and privacy.

Better idea;

Stop giving state and federal monies to people asking for help rebuilding their vacation home in flood plains that aren't built to withstand regular flooding.

This is misleading. Individuals do not "press charges" in our justice system; the state does. This task falls to the district attorney in charge of the case. They have WIDE discretion in choosing to press charges or not, which is why we often see these instances of victims declining to pursue the issue and DAs declining to press charges as a result. But this is 100% on the DA; they absolutely have the power to move forward with charges regardless of what the victim wants.