average salary is over 60k in baltimore area, i believe. they have great benefits and have the summer off. masters degrees in teaching are easy and the school system pays for them. The majority of local taxes goes to teachers. I know many people making 80+k teaching in baltimore area. Work a full year and get the same amount of days off as any other public worker.
I wouldn't complain so much about their salary but when i went to school in howard county, teachers seemed to be getting in the way of my education. Slowing everything down to their level. I hated high school so much because I wasn't really learning anything. Thank god in college you actually have intelligent professors who care about what they are doing and reward independent thinking.
as for the hell holes... why did you teach there? You can teach in baltimore city in the hell holes without even a teaching degree. Seems with your qualifications you could qualify for a better school district.
I don't have the time to break it down now but you just proved that you really have no clue what you are talking about. I taught in Baltimore City and it's not anywhere like what you assume it to be. Oh, and I did try to get out and into other systems. Most won't touch you unless you are brand new (cheap) and fresh out of college. Also, there are contractual issues involved that often prevent one from moving on.
Go teach, or TRY to teach, in that pit for a full year, then come back and we'll talk. As of now, it's very, very clear you haven't a clue what the real pay, benefits, reimbursements (which sometimes doesn't come through and are never as much as you are assuming), and other issues. Don't forget all of the extra graduate classes one must keep taking just to keep the job or they will fire you and replace you with someone straight out of college, and, as you said, with no education background. Yeah, they do that kind of crap. When do you expect these teachers to take these classes? Most years, I only got no more than 5 hours sleep a night, every night, because there was just not enough time to keep up with the job. It was literally killing me. Again, you wouldn't know about that because you have no clue what you are talking about.
Then there are the vast numbers of teachers that I've known who have been severly beat up by students, pushed down the steps, tripped down the steps, set on fire, had guns pulled on them, stabbed, punched, cars and other property vandalized, robbed, purses and other things stolen, etc., etc.. Several of those things, some of the worst on the list, have happened to me. And believe me, the system rarely protects the teachers in these cases. Instead, everyone of them have their principals say to them 'what did you do to cause that student to do that to you.' In fact, they sometimes do everything they can to prevent you from filing an incident report and from either calling the police or going to the doctor because they think it makes their school look bad. Screw it! There is no way I would ever go back to that.
