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There is a shortage of teachers in some fields that are
willing to work for low teacher pay, like Spanish speaking
ELL, STEM, sped... the list is pretty well known and it is
similar around the country. These "shortages" would be
cleared up if they raised the pay for these fields.

Texas doesn't have collective bargaining for teachers, but it
still makes the same mistake collective bargaining states
make in simply having one salary for all teachers. Yes, some
of it is based upon performance, but there is no recognition
of the fact that there are sub-sets of teachers that have a
very different labor market. There is simply a lack of
intelligence when it comes to understanding supply and
demand. A Spanish-speaking, HS Math teacher has a lot of
other career options than a regular old elementary teacher.
Not to say the elem teacher doesn't work hard, but hard work
is not (typically) what results in higher pay in a free
market...

If the supply of teachers outstrips demand for their labor,
then you must increase the supply by attracting more people
into the field on a macro-level. That Spanish-speaking Math
teacher, who has other options in, say: IT or engineering,
might then be attracted to the field. The general ed
elementary teacher... probably doesn't have that skill set
and therefore their labor is not as scarce.

On a micro-level, an individual district should increase it's
pay for the type of teacher that is in short supply to
attract what supply of labor does exist. A district
superintendent at one ISD probably can't affect change that
will bring more Math or Sped teachers into the overall labor
pool, but they can pay more to attract the scarce labor to
their classrooms. The problem is that they don't think about
teachers in sub-sets. They think think they need to pay a
"shortage" area teacher the same as a non-shortage area
teacher, which makes pay increases insufficient to attract
people in the shortage fields. You don't need to pay a gym
teacher more..., there are already a hundred applicants for
every position, but you might need to pay a STEM or sped
teacher more because those classrooms could go unfilled.

Regardless: I wouldn't teach any subject for 27K per year.

On 5/01/15, PsyGuy wrote:
> The presentation that there is a shortage of teachers is a
> myth, there are a lot of teachers that will accept any job
> that pays more than substituting (which at $80 a day for
> 150 days is $12,000).
>
> On 4/24/15, 27k BS wrote:
>> 27K is garbage pay and you'll attract garbage teachers at
>> that salary... if that. You could make more in a call
>> center or cubical farm without the BS involved with
>> teaching.
>>
>> On 4/21/15, PsyGuy wrote:
>>> Well yes and no. It is likely that your district/school
>>> is adapting the state minimum salary schedule which is
>>> $27,540 for step 0, however the salary schedule does
>>> increase on average about $500 per year of experience.
>>> You can find the state minimum salary schedule here:
>>>
>>>
> tea.texas.gov/Texas_Educators/Salary_and_Service_Record/M
>>> inimum
>>> _Salary_Schedule/2014-2015_Minimum_Salary_Schedule/
>>>
>>> Anything more than that is whats referred to as "local
>>> supplemental" salary, which your district can change or
>>> eliminate entirely.
>>>
>>> As to why, there could be a number of reasons. First, is
>>> to incentivise teachers to retire or resign, without
>>> going through long and expensive grievance procedures.
>>> Second, is if your district is implementing a "pay for
>>> performance" or "bonus" salary program. You get the
> state
>>> minimum and depending on your student pass
> (satisfactory)
>>> and commended (advanced) numbers you get bonus pay,
> which
>>> may or may not exceed your conventional salary. Third,
>>> your district may be experiencing a financial or
>>> budgetary crises, perhaps they are anticipating a loss
> of
>>> federal funding, etc. There could be a number of other
>>> reasons.
>>>
>>> On 4/18/15, Aeiou wrote:
>>>> Can someone explain this? Does this apply to all
> current
>>>> employed teachers? What are they doing to do? Drop my
>>>> pay to 27,000 after I made 40,000 a year? That is BS if
>>>> so.....

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