On Wednesday 20 June 2001 21:23, you wrote: > I'm sorry ahead of time but sometimes I just can't help myself. When I hear > someone talking about how underfunded the education system is I just can't > help it. > > > <WARNING BIG HONKIN RANT> > > If I can beleive what I hear on the radio Minnesota will spend between 7 > and 10 Billion (yeah that's a B) dollars on public education in the next <snipped> > > The average teacher makes $35K a year to start and after ten years can make > $70K a year, they have a 1200 hour work year. ( I bet you work over 2000 > hours in a year.) > > I wish I could be so underpaid. > > > </END OF BIG HONKIN RANT> > > Sorry, sorry, sorry. > > > Spencer J Sinn wrote: <COUNTER BIG HONKIN RANT Warning=Its got lots of numbers!> I'm not sure where you came up with 1200 hours a year but let me give you some numbers to think about before you solidfy you're opinion that teachers are overpaid for the amount of work they do. Last time I checked the school year was 180 days long so these numbers are based on that. They are also based on my wife's experience teaching in the St Paul Public School System for time in the early 1990s. Start Time: 7:00 AM End Time: 3:00 PM Lunch break 30 min Day Total: 7.5 hours day school/class time Year Total: 1350 Hours Assuming that the average secondary teacher carries a load of 150 students and spends an average of 1 minute per school day per student grading homework, tests, etc. That adds 150 min * 180 Days/year = 27000 min/year or 450 hrs/year Also assume that the same teacher spends 1min/day/student on course planning, parent teacher conferences, and misc. paper work and you get an additional 450 hours. Grand total: 2250 hours/year Average corporate employee's year. These numbers are based on my own experience of 17 years, give or take a bit, as a corporate employee. Much of that time as a contractor who has had to count his hours. Weeks per year: 52 or 260 days (5 days/week) Days paid leave(aka vacation): 10 Holidays: 6* Personal Holidays: 2* Total days worked: 242 Total hours @ 8hrs/day = 1936 Total hours @ 10hrs/day = 2420 *Holidays are New Year's Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Also most companies give you a couple of extra days that are technically not vacation. If you get any other holidays at your place of business subtract those for a more accurate calculation. While most of us would hope that the average High School teacher is spending more than 2 minutes/day/student outside the demands put on them inside the school building most of us don't make a habit of working 10 hr/days in the corporate ranks if we are making $35K-$70K per year. I'll close with this one thought: If teaching were such a desirable pay/work ratio why isn't there a glut of teachers? </COUNTER BIG HONKIN RANT> Jack