Markus, you say that public school teachers are grossly underpaid, I disagree.

They are very well paid PER HOUR, the problem is they work less than half as many hours per year as most people with full time jobs on average.
With less that 4 hours of actual classroom instruction per day and less than 150 "so called full days" of instruction per year, that adds up to less than 600 hours of classroom instruction per year.
That is less than 1/4 of the total hours I worked last year. Even if they work 50% more hours than are actually spent in class, that's still less than half of what is considered a full time job. They also basically have a job for life no matter how bad of a screw up they are after they earn tenure. Should they make they same annual salary as someone who works full time? I say not even close.

Maybe if the teachers didn't contrubute so much in union dues they might be able to have a higher standard of living. In California the public school teacher's union is without a doubt the strongest and most influential political organization. During the last election season I couldn't spend 1/2 hour driving to work without hearing at least 4 political commercials on the radio paid for by the teachers union. Every one of them had the same purposes, to put more money in the teacher's pockets and to fight the concept of holding them accountable for their performance.
When did they stop being teachers and start being teamsters?

The public schools created their own mess by promoting kids to the next grade level when they were not academically qualified for promotion.
If a kid hasn't learned enough to get out of second grade, he shouldn't get out of second grade no matter how long it takes. Period.
That is not entirely the fault of the teachers but is indicitive of a flawed system that they are a part of. Many school administrators are ex-teachers.

My kids are getting a great education. Partially because they attend a very good private school and partially because in addition to their teachers, my wife and I teach them. They learn at school and at home.
If a kid at this school doesn't learn at a specified level (that is actually set quite high) or doesn't behave, they kick him out of the school, not promote him. That keeps the under performing kids from draggfing the others down. I pay through the nose for the privilage of having my kids go to a school that hold the students and parents accountable, as well as the teachers.

I pay for that privilage as well as pay for my share of the public schools that are so bad I don't want my kids going there.

Every time the school voucher idea comes up the liberals and teachers shoot it down saying that it would discriminate against underprivelaged and minority students. i work hard to able to afford a good education for my kids, I paid attention in school so I could get a good job to afford a good education for my kids, how is that discriminatory against others?
If school vouchers were available there would be more good private schools and more kids would get a quality education. :mad:

IMO your numbers are WAY off. Here in VA, the law is 180 days of instruction per year. Teachers at most levels start the day at around 7am and finish at 2pm. It varies, but the constant is about 7 hours of classroom time plus an hour of "office hours" for extra help 2-3 times a week. They might or might not be instructing that entire time, but they are required to be there for various supervisory or adminstrative reasons (staff meetings, etc). Even if a teacher is able to pull together lesson plans and grading in his/her down time during the day, it's still a 37-38 hour week. Most of the competent and contientious teachers I know can't do all the things they feel the need to do during school hours, so we'll conservatively add 2-3 more hours a week. Okay, so now we're back at 8 hours on average per day of instruction, with 180 days of instuction = 1440 hours. Plus there's another 8-10 teacher workdays/parent teacher conferences/training days, etc. Call it 60 more hours per year conservatively. That's 1500 hours per year. Still not the standard 2000 hours at a "full time" job, but 2.5 times your estimate of 600.

Compounding that is the fact that teachers can't find a job for $20/hr in the off season, since no one hires at a real wage for 2-3 months of work a year.

Edited for clarification.

Aint yet seen one downsized or out sourced. No once. THAT has GOT to be worth something today.

Sammy is off on the number of hurs Teachers Work...Wludavid hit the numbers....

The only way to fix the PS system is to tear it down and start over...and get rid of that fking Teachers/Civil Service Union....Teachers in of themselves are not the problem....but they do get burned out...

Next time any of U goes to a school check out how many Administrators and Staff people are there....in other words Bureaucracy...that is where your money goes...and it is a fking waste....