The epitome of South Florida Football

[duke4heisman]

It's no where near that in my area. My wife makes the most by far in Palm Beach county in a high risk area, at just under 47k in her first year. It's 35k where we live, just 15 minutes away. I guess Broward pays more but like I said, my mom retired not too long ago and just broke 50k with over 40 years experience and a master's degree.

 

[duke4heisman]

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis teacher pay hike proposal under fire

Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to push minimum teacher salaries in Florida to $47,500, second only to New Jersey among the states for base pay. Teachers union officials and lawmakers are poking holes in $90…

www.theledger.com

Here’s an article about DeSantis wanting to raise teacher starting salary. Average teacher salary in Florida is a little over 48 grand

And he's getting extreme push back on that, the lawmakers are saying it isn't possible without cutting programs and funding for programs they can keep. Also keep in mind, this is only for starting salaries and you will end up with teachers with more experience making less. The teachers Union is rightfully arguing that and there's no way they will increase all salaries if they're already crying about just that. The Florida education system is an absolute joke.

 

[Canesfan1899]

For those that feel teachers are babysitters I encourage you to try teaching for a week. I have a masters degree and dual certification in special ed and social studies. The paper work alone can sink a young teacher, and the constant new district initiatives and state directives can be overwhelming.

This isn’t to say some aren’t burned out and going through the motions, but that’s not the norm I see on the daily despite very difficult conditions to be working in every day.

 

[TOcane]

Sad state of affairs where a hs football coach makes 3x the amount of teachers in the same district.

Not justifying it, but they spend a lot more time working than the average teacher does including summer months.

 

[No_Fly_Zone]

For those that feel teachers are babysitters I encourage you to try teaching for a week. I have a masters degree and dual certification in special ed and social studies. The paper work alone can sink a young teacher, and the constant new district initiatives and state directives can be overwhelming.

This isn’t to say some aren’t burned out and going through the motions, but that’s not the norm I see on the daily despite very difficult conditions to be working in every day.

I did the job in Miami-Dade for about 4 years at the middle school level. The constant changes coming down from on high are annoying, to say the least. The lack of clarity in effectuating changes is even more annoying. Parents who don't give a **** or are just too self-absorbed to raise children, but who are more than willing to tell you off or complain to an admin about how you're doing the job are a special treat. Topped off by admins who are just trying to cover their own *** and willing to throw a teacher under the bus to do so. It's a thankless job.

But you get 10 weeks off for the summer, 2 weeks off for Christmas, 1 week for spring break, at least another week in floating holidays (not counting teacher work days), and your allotted PTO and sick days (which accumulate forever and can be cashed in for $$). My observation is about 1/3 of teachers are grossly unqualified babysitters, 1/3 used to be good but are just going through the motions having been beaten into submission by a broken system, and 1/3 are doing God's work and putting in real effort to male a meaningful impact in shaping and educating young lives. The first third are grossly overpaid, the middle third are adequately compensated, and the last third have a legit gripe about their pay.

My $.02.

 

[M3N]

south Florida is a cess pool and has been for a long long time.

Champagnat is a paper mill and has been since it starter.

Guys like Tunsil and Drummond are all over in the tri county. Fake schools are created yearly.

Hopefully things change in the future

 

[Canesfan1899]

I did the job in Miami-Dade for about 4 years at the middle school level. The constant changes coming down from on high are annoying, to say the least. The lack of clarity in effectuating changes is even more annoying. Parents who don't give a **** or are just too self-absorbed to raise children, but who are more than willing to tell you off or complain to an admin about how you're doing the job are a special treat. Topped off by admins who are just trying to cover their own *** and willing to throw a teacher under the bus to do so. It's a thankless job.

But you get 10 weeks off for the summer, 2 weeks off for Christmas, 1 week for spring break, at least another week in floating holidays (not counting teacher work days), and your allotted PTO and sick days (which accumulate forever and can be cashed in for $$). My observation is about 1/3 of teachers are grossly unqualified babysitters, 1/3 used to be good but are just going through the motions having been beaten into submission by a broken system, and 1/3 are doing God's work and putting in real effort to male a meaningful impact in shaping and educating young lives. The first third are grossly overpaid, the middle third are adequately compensated, and the last third have a legit gripe about their pay.

My $.02.

And I respect your opinion, at this point much of my work is trying to motivate HS kids to keep working so they can graduate. It’s mentally draining most days.
And most teacher’s I know work second jobs during the school year or like myself teach summer school for additional money to help pay student loans.

 

[The Franchise]

This is not an attempt at a slight against anyone, but I'm curious as to why you say they are "severely underpaid." How much should they be paid and what is the basis for it? What is the value they contribute to justify more pay?

Note: probably half of my extended family is made up of current and former teachers and administrators. They have varied experience in public and private settings.

Sad thing is most are overpaid. If they’re making $50k to work a total of about 8 months per year that’s a steal.

They get the entire summer off and several other long vacations. It’s a pretty cushy gig. Not sure when teaching went from a slacker gig to some grand martyr situation.

 

[Coach Macho]

I did the job in Miami-Dade for about 4 years at the middle school level. The constant changes coming down from on high are annoying, to say the least. The lack of clarity in effectuating changes is even more annoying. Parents who don't give a **** or are just too self-absorbed to raise children, but who are more than willing to tell you off or complain to an admin about how you're doing the job are a special treat. Topped off by admins who are just trying to cover their own *** and willing to throw a teacher under the bus to do so. It's a thankless job.

But you get 10 weeks off for the summer, 2 weeks off for Christmas, 1 week for spring break, at least another week in floating holidays (not counting teacher work days), and your allotted PTO and sick days (which accumulate forever and can be cashed in for $$). My observation is about 1/3 of teachers are grossly unqualified babysitters, 1/3 used to be good but are just going through the motions having been beaten into submission by a broken system, and 1/3 are doing God's work and putting in real effort to male a meaningful impact in shaping and educating young lives. The first third are grossly overpaid, the middle third are adequately compensated, and the last third have a legit gripe about their pay.

My $.02.

Spot-on.

 

[Coach Macho]

The level of difficulty is determined by how good you want to be at the job.

If you want to be a great teacher, then the job becomes a little more difficult. (otherwise you'll just go through the motions like many teachers down here)

It's no different than coaching. If you wanna be great at it, it takes more dedication. You go to clinics on your own dime, you stay late after practice to give kids extra work, you drive kids home, you use your weekends to watch film/game plan, etc etc etc. Otherwise you can just be one of these coaches that goes through the motions, just so you can wear the gear on Friday nights.

At the end of the day, both of these professions are saturated with people just going through the motions (down here), mainly cause the pay, support and appreciation sucks. Do I think the coaching down here is great, **** no. But what do yall expect? Yall always dog South FLA coaching but many of these guys are doing it for nothing. Yall really expect a bunch of future Nick Sabans to be coaching down here under these circumstances? Do yall expect 5-star food/service when you go to McDonalds? Like with most things in life, you get what you pay for.

Many of these guys have to go to regular jobs 8+ hours a day and then drive to the school to coach. In most parts of the country that's unheard of because they make sure all of their coaches work on campus in some capacity. That's not done down here. At most schools it's like pulling teeth trying to get one of your coaches a job on campus.

My stipend for this past season was $2200. I've already spent half of that going to clinics. Clinic registration, gas, hotel rooms, food, etc...all on my own dime. It's gonna cost me at least $400 to attend Nike this weekend in Orlando.
Then there's the gas I spend driving to practice, driving kids home, clothes for coaching (because even gear is limited down here), etc. I probably break even. That's what 90% of coaches go through down here, unless you get a cushy job at a well-off school like STA, Western, Cooper City, Cypress Bay, Douglas, etc.
Meanwhile my buddy in Georgia gets paid a $10k stipend just to coach O-Line, gets all the coaching gear you can ask for (shoes, shirts, shorts, sweats, etc) + all expenses paid for clinics/tournaments/traveling. On top of that, his teaching salary is significantly more than it was down here.

At the end of the day, Florida is getting over on people who simply have a love for kids and the game. Cause honestly, if we didn't love kids/football then we wouldn't waste our time with this ****.
We have nobody to blame but ourselves though. We tolerate it. We stay down here (for various reasons). Personally I've toyed with the idea of coaching out-of-state but I would miss the Latinas and probably would die of boredom being in a rural town.

 

[DTP]

Macho hit the nail on the head. Coaching or teaching can be incredibly tough or incredibly easy. It just depends on how much you care. The problem is, the people who are just going through the motions are paid the same as the people who are putting in all the extra work and time. Let’s face it, we all work for money. How many dedicated workers are you going to find who want to make peanuts?

 

[grover]

The original point of the thread has gotten away from us. But I appreciate the open discussion about HS education in general and teacher and coach pay in specific. Focusing on public education as opposed to private schools, it really is a state by state, and in some cases county by county issue. Making 50K in rural or some suburban areas with two incomes across a husband and wife can net you a really comfortable lifestyle. But if you're living in Miami or even more expensive places like the Bay Area or Washington DC Area, you're lucky if you can afford a small condo in a rough neighborhood. So a lot of it is relative.

My good friend from college lives in Boston with his wife. Both are teachers with masters degrees and have been making 90K each for many years. They do not do extracurriculars, so this is base pay. The pay in Boston public schools starts pretty high, and gets to that 80-90K range fairly quickly with a masters and other continuing ed courses, then essentially caps out and doesn't improve more than a point or two a year. To me, that's actually more than fair pay, I think it's an exceptional life when you consider they'll retire with 80% of their salary, too. How many business professionals can save that much through their 401Ks to get to 80% of their salaries for the rest of their lives?

In general, teachers' salaries have improved significantly over the last 2-3 decades, so what used to be a poorly compensated profession has become competitive. Without seeing the data, it's still pretty obvious that Miami public school teachers are among the lowest paid in the U.S. relative to the local Cost Of Living. Their pay needs to be bumped. And the coaches should be paid a stipend above and beyond their expenses at a pro-rated hourly rate. The Georgia example of 10K above sounds reasonable. 2-3K is absurd for the extra hours expected of the coaches.

But with three months of time off and that pension, it's a **** good job. And while there are a lot of amazing teachers out there, the 1/3 slackers, 1/3 burnouts and 1/3 quality teachers seems reasonable to my experience. So it's not just the pay that needs to be upped in So Florida schools. Teacher talent needs a big bump, too.

 

[2.0]

No the problem is all discipline has been removed from schools. I could go on for pages about just one student my wife has to deal with but I'll just say he has bitten kids and literally urinated and defecated in the principal's office and he is still there.
The answer is "behavior reports" followed by "meetings" and then "behavior plans" rinse and repeat. They can only do so much because the mother refuses to sign or acknowledge anything that says he has a behavioral problem or will give him a "label."

Move him to NY and he will be labeled and placed into Alternative school in a heart beat