60 Comments - Nick - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 3:45 pm: I said no. But only because the State shouldn’t set a minimum wage unless it were serious about actually funding schools, instead of it coming mostly from local taxes. Teachers *should* be paid more, but not through an unfunded mandate. - thoughts matter - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 3:46 pm: I think there is already a minimum wage for teachers in the statute, but it was never adjusted for inflation. So, the question is probably - should there continue to be one. Since the teachers retirement is paid from the state coffers (and the teachers contributions and interest), then I see no problem with the state establish the minimum level of compensation. The state controls all sorts of other public education issues, such as required testing, subjects, length of the school year, etc. - Annonin' - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 3:47 pm: We said “yes” Does Katrina know IL already has a mandatory min salary for teachers? - Annonin' - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 3:50 pm: Currently, Illinois mandates minimum salaries of $11,000 for a teacher with a master’s degree, $10,000 for those with bachelor’s degrees and $9,000 for teachers with less than a bachelor’s degree. - PJ - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:00 pm: So instead of paying teachers more, what we need to be doing is letting people with a random bachelors degree and no relevant experience or training become teachers with a snap of the fingers? Who gives a crap about the quality of education? Just find a random moron who took some college classes (on any subject), give ‘em a poverty wage and 25 students and we’re good to go. It sometimes feels like conservatives actively want the majority of the populace to be stupid. - Perrid - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:00 pm: I was a somewhat hesitant “yes.” Teachers should be paid more, I’m fairly confident about that, but until I see more results from the increased funding and the new formula I am hesitant to support mandating more outlays without increasing schools revenue. The Tribune’s suggestion of getting rid of restrictions and watching the flood of “qualified” people running to the classroom is simply asinine. - Cheryl44 - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:02 pm: I said yes, but I would be willing to discuss if we really need one set minimum for the state or some kind of formula that means teachers are making enough money in their community/region to be able to live a middle class life there. - Langhorne - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:04 pm: No. Unfunded mandate. As usual. It hasnt been raised in decades, bec it is rightfully up to the local school board. How many teachers are within 20%, 40%, 60%, of the minimum? - Matt Vernau - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:06 pm: I voted no. Raising starting salaries would raise pensions without necessarily improving performance. If we want more people eligible to teach we need to redefine the standards. - wordslinger - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:07 pm: Teaching is actually a profession, unlike, say, willfully ignorant editorial page gasbag, so professional requirements are necessary. A raise in the ridiculously low minimum wage for teachers seems in order. Crazy as it sounds to the troncs, in a capitalist system, higher pay is a widely recognized solution to a labor shortage. - downstate commissioner - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:07 pm: oh, voted “No”. $40,000 is probably a realistic salary in some parts of the state, but not enough in other parts. And count on it, some school boards will be trying to cut salaries to the “state recommended” wage… - DuPage - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:08 pm: Yes, but it should be higher, and include medical insurance. Other things that might help with the teacher shortage, waive tuition for education classes at the state universities, restore tenure,(abolish “SB7″), change Tier 2 back to Tier 1, and make income earned teaching tax-exempt for Illinois income tax. Any one of those things would help. Some of them would help attract new teachers, some others would help them to get more teachers to stay on until retirement. As it is now, Tier 2 alone makes a lot of new teachers think there is “no future here” for them. After a couple years, they leave to teach in another state, or go into some other line of work. - JS Mill - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:12 pm: I said “yes” even though my real feeling is “no”. The lack of appropriate financial support even though the state has and endless number of mandates is maddening. IN the private sector when does the minority share holder get to determine how a business operate? That said, teachers are paid far to little outside metro Chicago. The concept of dumbing down requirements for a teaching license is offensive, but it is already possible to get a Career and Technical Education (CYE) license with a high school diploma and 8,000 hours of industry experience. That license is only good for a maximum of 10 years but it is still something that is available. In the meantime, many of us have invested the time and money necessary to get the appropriate education and training to be a teacher. The state won’t do it’s job so lets just grab anyone off of the street. - DuPage Saint - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:13 pm: I voted no and I am pro teacher. If a miracle ever happens and the state funds all education let the state have a minimum now up to district. As to all the people who want to jump into teaching mid career wait till they find out they paid into social security for nothing. You get a teacher pension or social security not both no matter how long you paid into social security Those politicians want no double dipping for pensions unless of course you are a politician - Metro East Resident - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:13 pm: I said yes, only because there already is one. I think the 40K bill is like anything in Springfield…propose a bill to get a hearing. Get the hearing to make changes and discuss the root level. Ask our treasurer if he really wanted to make 4 years of math a requirement or did he propose the bill to get a conversation going on how to increase those skills? As a result we got legislation increasing computer science classes. I think the unions need to come together to agree on common sense licensing changes that as a result would give us more union members rather than what I think they are worried about which is less. I commend Senator Manar for starting the convo but can’t imagine what that starting salary would do to the teacher contract in his home district. I imagine Bunker Hill’s budget would explode and as a result teachers would be cut. JMO. - Earnest - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:15 pm: I voted ‘no’ because I don’t trust the state to fund at a level where all schools can afford the rate. Schools should have the flexibility to balance wages and ratio issues with their own judgement to achieve the best quality education for their locality. That said, if the state would commit to ongoing funding at a level to support the minimum wage, I’d change my vote. As for the qualifications issues I oppose a generalized watering down of standards but am fine at looking where we could expedite the process for teachers qualified in other states and for making very targeted exemptions if there are areas of extreme shortage of subject-matter expertise. - Just Observing - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:16 pm: === And count on it, some school boards will be trying to cut salaries to the “state recommended” wage… ==== No they won’t. There’s nothing stopping them from offering $40,000 now. They don’t, because those school district have already determined they need to offer more in order to attract the quality of teachers they want. - My New Handle - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:17 pm: The metric is what are the criteria for a “good” teacher and what is good teaching worth, anywhere. K-12 committees never seem to objectify those two things. Committee members mostly just try to not sound too uninformed when they ask questios. And those questions usually begin with the phrase “I guess.” - Jocko - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:23 pm: I voted “no” because the downstate communities (and Jeanne Ives) need to put their money where their mouth is. - SAP - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:28 pm: Voted no. Don’t like the idea of chronically underfunding schools and combined with another mandate. Once Sen. Manar’s recent education funding reform kicks in, I may revisit my opinion, but I lean toward a free market approach. Also, I am in favor of non-salary benefits for public employees, like health insurance and a decent pension. - Anonymous - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:31 pm: The minimum sounds good. Let’s fix our State’s finances a bit first before more spending commitments. - bear3 - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:31 pm: There are so many experienced people in life or retired that could be inducted into a student teacher type of program to Support our schools today with me included even without compensation and help relieve the pressure on various districts. Let us provide both support and initiative. Volunteer? - Anonymous - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:37 pm: Would anyone on the Trib staff accept less than 40k? - Maximus - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:39 pm: Dupage Saint has a very valid point. The fact teachers use a completely and totally different retirement system than all other professions makes it difficult to change careers to become a teacher. Future teachers should be enrolled in a good 401k (403b?) and social security like every other profession. Then they dont have to burden future generations with promised pensions that cant be funded AND they can get raises that only affect the budget for today’s money AND changing careers isnt going to screw up your retirement plans. - aunt_petunia - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:41 pm: No. Agree that we should be “lifting nonmonetary barriers that make the profession unattractive.” Let’s start with our elected representatives from both parties actually respecting the profession, our teachers, and their unions instead of incessantly bashing and blaming them. - wordslinger - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:50 pm: –Would anyone on the Trib staff accept less than 40k?– Half the paper is wire copy and freelancers. I don’t know if they still outsource to Filipino freelancers to do cut-and-past jobs under phony bylines like they did in the Journatic days, but you get the drift. - zatoichi - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 4:55 pm: I voted No but I fall on both sides of this. That $40K is great and so is $15 for direct service providers and $20 for home health workers. That $15 for fast food workers or $15 for minimum wage. All nice ideas, but who pays for any of it? The cost of everything keeps going up. People want to see taxes at 7% and prop taxes go up 1%-2% so all these wages can be paid for and not cut major programs? People want good services and products, but good does not come cheap. - Swift - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 5:00 pm: Voted no, but is there and data to suggest higher salaries will spur teachers to teach in rural schools? The Trib refers to Kankakee, but no mention of whether or not Kankakee has trouble hiring new teachers. I just can’t see 40k being enough to incentivize a teacher to teach at a rural school who otherwise wouldn’t have considered it. - PJ - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 5:02 pm: ==People want good services and products, but good does not come cheap.== Such is the quandary of good government. People want their kids taught well, their roads paved, their fires put out, their garbage taken, and their elderly relatives cared for. They also want to whine about taxes. It’s a fun little cognitive dissonance game we all play. - Teachers - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 5:02 pm: This sorry state we live in - Hector - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 5:10 pm: -zatoichi- please don’t equate the profession of teaching to fast food workers. There is a different level of commitment and education that sets these two groups apart. - Political Animal - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 5:19 pm: Man I love it when teachers tell “non-educators” that they don’t get an opinion on education policy. I’m about as likely to listen to a Union teacher on education policy as I am to listen to an Oil company CEO on energy policy or climate protection. They have their own interests and it’s not the kids interests. If we care about attracting teachers, easing licensing requirements is a great first step. There’s nothing about them that increase quality. Next we need to do away with tenure and union scale wages. People need to be hired, fired, and paid based on ability not arbitrary payment schedules. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 5:25 pm: I said Yes. With all due respect: let me know when a newspaper opines that the key to saving the newspaper industry is reducing writers’ pay and opening up the job to folks without a journalism degree. We all know how tough it is to recruit teachers nationwide, and let’s face it lots of kids go into middle school and high school wanting to be a teacher…until they compare starting pay of teachers with starting pay for engineers, lawyers, salesman or for that matter every single job at Amazon. My uncle got a geology degree at Carbondale (Rocks for Jocks) and makes $300K selling software. My cousin is a former camp counselor and would have been a great teacher, she was offered $80K straight out of college to be an auditor. Starbucks sets a base pay for it’s managers of $50K a year. We ought to atleast try to compete with Starbucks to attract the best and the brightest. - Ron - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 5:27 pm: Really, really terrible idea. - Wensicia - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 5:29 pm: No, not until student funding is equal across the state, including property tax contributions. All this does is punish poor districts, forcing cuts in programs and activities. - Occam - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 5:32 pm: Voted No. Our district received an incremental 32 bucks per pupil from the new EBF formula. Out of $366.6 million of incremental revenue, we got a measly 32 bucks per pupil. This new minimum wage wipes that out and will put our district even further behind. Meanwhile, residents are fleeing our county because of the high property tax rates and they can’t get any relief because the school district has to continue to take the max levy increase, because costs are rising faster than revenues. And now Manar comes along and dumps a bucket of gasoline on the fire. - wordslinger - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 5:37 pm: –With all due respect: let me know when a newspaper opines that the key to saving the newspaper industry is reducing writers’ pay and opening up the job to folks without a journalism degree.– Dude, you haven’t been paying attention to the tronc business model. It has had nothing to do with “saving the newspaper industry”. It’s been about ownership and cronies bleeding the existing papers dry. Edit boards, unlike reporters, just toe the line for ownership. Same as it ever was. - RNUG - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 5:40 pm: I voted no on the minimum salary because (a) wages vary across the State and (b) there are other approaches. Consider cross-state licensing like suggested to expand the teacher pool. Ensure adequate classroom tools and supplies. That amount of money is pretty much peanuts in the overall budget and would go a long way to make the teachers’ feel they are appreciated. Then figure out a way to get the disruptive students out of the general classrooms and make the teachers’ job a bit easier. If it is a big district, consider an entire school just for the trouble makers (like the way Douglas was used in 186 but expanded). Have teachers who can specialize in dealing with students with those issues. Note: I am not necessarily talking about learning disabilities; I’m talking about the deliberately disruptive ones. Those students are part of the reason you see public school teachers leaving to work for less money at private schools. Quit critisizing the teachers and start supporting them instead of automatically taking the parents side every time. If you need to, put in either room cams or body cams to show what is really happening. I realize that is a lot of money; maybe each school could have a few / strategically placed ones. Heck, you could probably get Homeland Security grants for the cameras making the schools more secure. And now the really controversial one that will cost some serious dollars … bring back the Tier 1 pension plan for K-12 teachers. Teachers used to put up with a lot of abuse because they knew they would eventually get that pension; it was about the only incentive left to motivate the teachers. The State took that incentive away so now the new teachers have no reason left to stay around. PS: Mrs RNUG worked for the local school district in Special Ed for a number of years, and also subbed various places for several years, so I’ve seen some of this up close. - Arthur Andersen - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 5:51 pm: No. As we discussed previously, less than 5%, around 3%, of downstate teachers with 0-5 years of service credit earn less than $40k. This isn’t a Statewide problem that requires an unfunded mandate to solve. - Wensicia - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 5:52 pm: ==Have teachers who can specialize in dealing with students with those issues.== Unfortunately, finding teachers who specialize in students with behavior issues is harder than finding special ed and bilingual teachers, also desperately needed. BTW, you can’t single out or separate any group of students without a connection to a severe mental/emotional diagnosis or medical condition. It’s not going to happen. - wondering - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 6:19 pm: As a retired teacher I say no. Do not relax standards, let the market determine the salary level. Shortage? Pay more or go without. - Anonymous - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 6:24 pm: No There is no reason for a bright young person to go into Education. There are no financial incentives, no retirement incentives anymore and the constant abuse for apparent amusement could not possibly attract anyone with self respect. At the rate we’re going, home schooling will hopefully be a reality. - wondering - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 6:32 pm: Anny 624, do you really think home schooling will result in a better education and socialization? - Pot calling kettle - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 6:50 pm: Voted no. If the state would send adequate funding to local schools, they would raise wages to get the teachers they want. The current low wages are the result of inadequate funding from the state. Districts with plenty of property tax revenue offer appropriate salaries and attract and keep the best teachers. Districts with inadequate funding constantly cycle through new teachers who are willing to work for a low wage for a few years while they gain experience. After a few years, they move on to greener pastures or leave the profession out of frustration. - Not in it for the money - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 7:16 pm: As a newer teacher I can see why we have a teacher shortage. The majority of people entering the profession needed to pay more for a year of their degree than their starting salary. It would be helpful if those numbers at least matched so teachers weren’t in debt and could be homeowners in their district and pay taxes into the area they work in. I don’t know if increasing the wage will actually help with this; however, it could be a start to more qualified teachers entering the profession. - Just Me - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 7:23 pm: No. First, this is a matter of local control. The State should not be getting into personnel decisions by local school districts. Second, a statewide minimum ignores the huge different costs of living throughout the State of Illinois. Legislators should focus on the real problems facing the state: our poor economic climate where employers and people are leaving the state in droves. Time spent on these other issues is wasted time, energy, and precious resources. - Anonymous - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 7:24 pm: wondering I absolutely do not believe home schooling would be a better alternative. But “taxpayers” want a Cadillac for Chevy prices. They want Harvard scholars and the best for their children but don’t want to pay, and refuse to garner any profesional respect for those educated and trained in the profession. Since many believe that no one know their child like they do–their strengths and needs–and they seem to feel that they’re experts because they consumed the product the schools provided them with, they should do it themselves. Who better? - Diogenes in DuPage - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 8:04 pm: Problem: complex. Solution proposed: easy. Truism: There is a simple, easy solution to each and every complex problem, and it is usually wrong. (Voted “no”) We are a society that prides itself on a capitalist, market-driven economy. Why should this matter be different? If communities or states want substandard public education, don’t offer a competitive wage, a good benefits package, a competitive retirement arrangement, better working conditions, and respect/appreciation. Illinois pays better than West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and more, but the issue is the same: You can’t expect good teachers to do more with less, and earn less — and then have a consistently good product. It is easier to expect better results (i.e. higher achievement) when these prerequisites exist. Treat education like a simple commodity, and, well, … Just look around. - Jones - Monday, May 7, 18 @ 10:56 pm: Voted no. No more unfunded mandates. - Person 8 - Tuesday, May 8, 18 @ 5:02 am: Yes, for opposite pension reasons. Raise the starting salary, lower the back end… - It Can Be Different - Tuesday, May 8, 18 @ 5:55 am: Yes, hands down. Current teacher making significantly more than recommended minimum. No complaints on salary. 19 years into pension system. No clue if it’ll be viable 16 years from now. Job portability near-impossible, though, as many collective bargaining agreements won’t even allow teachers to interview with more than a half-dozen years of experience (even if they voluntarily take pay cut). Not even phone interview. Often overlooked, but job portability in profession is a problem. Obtained a Master of Science in Computer Science about a decade ago. Wanted to acquire knowledge and skills to be able to teach profession (based on licensure requirements) with 22k open computing positions in IL (as of May 1st), with annual salary of $89000. Do some math, that’s approx $2B potentially into IL residents’ hands. Meanwhile, will be paying student loans down til my 3 yo is 16 yo. This is way more than unfunded mandate issue. And no, no matter how you slice it, standardized tests don’t do the job alone either of creating the kind of cognitively flexible kids our workforce needs. Standardized tests good at helping kids regurgitate info they cram the week before? Sure. A reflection of efficacy of schools? Not so much. I’m doing okay with decent salary to pay the bills, but let’s say a downstate teacher decides they want endorsement in computer science? I doubt $40k is going to cut it, and no way an associates in CS will cut it. This thus becomes a demonstrable case of inequity in access to high quality, in-demand education between Chicago area and rest of state. - Lynn S. - Tuesday, May 8, 18 @ 6:36 am: @ Not in it for the money: Are you serious when you make your remarks about taxes? Are you truly that uninformed? Any teacher who is renting a home or an apartment in the district they live in is paying HIGHER property taxes than any homeowner for an equivalent property, because the homeowner can get a homestead exemption to reduce the amount of the value of the homeowner’s property that is taxed. If it’s a county with a sales tax to fund school facilities, teachers are not exempt from that tax when they go to the hardware store or purchase furniture or clothing. Let’s stop this fantasy that renters don’t pay taxes. They’re usually paying just as much or more than homeowners. - MyTwoCents - Tuesday, May 8, 18 @ 6:59 am: I voted no, I support the concept but where is the money going to come from? As for licensing, just because I have a bachelors or even a masters degree in a specific field does not mean I know how to apply that knowledge to developing a curriculum for students. I certainly don’t know about classroom management techniques or any of the other factors that go into being a teacher. - It Can Be Different - Tuesday, May 8, 18 @ 7:38 am: @MyTwoCents An advanced degree in a subject area alone won’t earn you a license. It’s a supplement to a mandatory teacher prep program culminating in a bachelors degree with course work in ed psych, special ed, classroom management, on top of all other subject-specific stuff, plus a semester’s worth of student teaching (at full college tuition). And then there’s two six-hour tests (at cost to the teacher). That was back in 2000, when I graduated from an in-state univeraity. Last I checked the cost of tuition was rising much faster than the rate of inflation. As far as where the money comes from, that’s rhetorical and nuanced at this point. Why not dedicate the lottery fund and all state gambling profits once and for all exclusively to the education system. Why not legalize marijuana and legislate all future money go exclusively to the education system.. and ONLY the education system? Yeah, I know how that went in the past…. why does it have to be the same in the future? We are spending too much time admiring the problem and not coming up with a solution. No solution will be fun or beneficial to all, but until we see sensible investments into education (and please don’t gloss past the sensible part nor the investments part) as investments in our economy, our economy is not going to get any better. - General Aubrey - Tuesday, May 8, 18 @ 8:17 am: I’m a teacher involved in my local teacher’s union and I’m oddly going with ‘No.’ As much as I would like a $10,000 raise, it’s just not feasible for my downstate, and rural, district. Without an attached revenue source, this seems likely to cause more problems than it might solve. - VanillaMan - Tuesday, May 8, 18 @ 8:47 am: No It will result in fewer teachers hired. You want more teachers? Right? Then stop it with the ridiculous regulations like that one. - Anonymous - Tuesday, May 8, 18 @ 11:38 am: OK. Considering threshold for poverty level for family of four in IL (as of Jan 13, 2018) is $25,100, and of our 852 school districts statewide the lowest-paid teachers in districts predominantly-located in rural, downstate IL are making an average salary of just slightly higher than that (with a disproportionate drop in cost-of-living relative to the wealthier areas of the state, where teacher salaries tend to be higher). Honestly, I’m struggling to see how we can justify such an inequity. - Anonymous - Wednesday, May 9, 18 @ 1:03 am: I know two teachers. Both graduated from same high school. Both had highest grade average in their graduating class but in different years. Both went to same university and one chose to graduate with a very high grade average and chose to work in med. size town in the Midwest as a high school substitute teacher. The other pushed very very hard to graduate with super high grade average and chose to work in private high school which came with all the bells and whistles and is located in a USA coastal town. I sometimes wonder which one is the happiest until I spend a little time around them and somehow I always decide that the substitute teacher is the happiest and most satisfied with their life choices. I hope the substitute teacher makes enough to buy a house that is a pleasant, comfortable and afford to have all the things to be very happy. - Da Big Bad Wolf - Wednesday, May 9, 18 @ 6:32 am: ==Man I love it when teacher tell non-educators” that they don’t get an opinion on education policy. I’m about as likely to listen to a Union teacher on education policy as I am to listen to an Oil company CEO on energy policy or climate protection.== Nothing beats someone having insider knowledge. I want to hear what the teacher AND the CEO have to say. Why not? Kathie Griffin’s editorial eloquently said that teaching itself was a skill. How is that selfish to point that out? - Da Big Bad Wolf - Wednesday, May 9, 18 @ 6:42 am: ==Next we need to do away with tenure and union scale wages. People need to be hired, fired, and paid based on ability not arbitrary payment schedules.== Oh yeah. That’s really going to fix the teacher shortage. I bet there will be a real stampede to get at all those low paying, no security jobs./s Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.