Should Kindergarten teachers earn more than college professors?

[LindenCy]

Just for the record, professors don't really make all that much money in many cases considering the amount of schooling they have done.

[dmclone]

Teachers salaries IMO are just like any other salary. If there is a high demand for teachers and not enough qualified applicants than salaries would rise. Right now becoming a teacher is relatively simple and a lot of people want to do the job. If you want salaries to rise than make the qualifications tougher, you'll have a smaller pool, and wages will increase. Don't forget having two/three months off in the summer. I'd take a 10K/year pay cut for that bonus.

[LindenCy]

Just come to Chicago. Teachers get paid a lot more, but it is very hard to get into the union block here.

And the education is way better than other places.

[Freebird]

I don't know who deserves to be paid more but a big reason our country is now behind most other developed countries in education and preparing kids for college is our lack of commitment to early childhood development. We could learn a lot from countries such as Germany.

And kindergarten teachers certainly do much more than make sure kids don't "poop on the floor." That is a ridiculous statement.

[CycloneErik]

Just come to Chicago. Teachers get paid a lot more, but it is very hard to get into the union block here.

And the education is way better than other places.

I was really hoping for a typo or spelling mistake here......

[CycloneIMSE]

I honestly think both are adequately compensated.

While the starting salary for a teacher is low, they eventually will reach a relatively high compensation (for only doing 9-10 months of work). They also have numerous benefits, and a union which makes it all but impossible to fire them after 2 years of teaching. Is it a considerable amount of work those first few years? Absolutely. At the end of the day though, all teachers know what they are getting into as far as salary is concerned. If they don't like it, they should have chose another career.

College professors do plenty well for themselves. While they are in college for a long time, most will receive a graduate assistantship that pays for some (or in many cases ALL) of there education. Pursuing a professional degree (ie. MBA, DVM, MD, OD, JD, ect.) are the ones that typically do not offer assistantship style compensation and have students who leave with copious amounts of debt (given most MBA students can get there current company to cover the tuition cost).

[pulse]

Besides teaching kids the basic foundation that everything is built on, as simple as it may seem to some, having a great Kindergarten teacher who can start the process of developing math skills and reading is something a person will carry on. This isn't nearly as important as the one thing that nobody has mentioned yet, teaching a child social skills. The basic societal social skills are learned in Kindergarten. The teachers have to deal with everyone's unruly kids kids who don't know how to play nice, all the while teaching them. Professors don't have to worry about half the students making a lot of noise and causing disruption in a lecture. Professors certainly earn their pay, but Kindergarten teachers do more for kids then they get credit for. They are generally the first teacher a kid has and what they learn they take with them.

[LindenCy]

I was really hoping for a typo or spelling mistake here......

I went to private school.

[BKLYNCyclone]

I think the government should start paying parents, they have far more influence on education and learning than a teacher.

Honestly, there are a lot of parents out there who should pay teachers for raising their kids.

[Tre4ISU]

Find me one person who would say professional athlete is a more important profession than school teacher. (Other than those athletes' entourages)

He said that they are more lucrative. More lucrative=higher paid.

[CycloneErik]

I went to private school.

Explains the social skills..................

[heitclone]

College professors are the worst teachers, thats plain and simple. Many don't think they have to actually teach anything, their job is more to relay information. That doesn't take away from research and other things they do outside of the classroom but as far as being in a classroom teaching they are lacking. Most just use their time in front of impressionable young kids to spew their political agendas and puff up their own ego. IMO they're just a small part of whats wrong with the grossly overpaid and mostly redundant modern idea of higher education.

[RandomFan]

He said that they are more lucrative. More lucrative=higher paid.

No he didn't. He said, "Societal importance of profession has everything to do with earning potential."

[tazclone]

no, not that i think kindergarten teachers are dumb, just the materials needed to teach them isn't so high.

that being said, i think some professors need to take a pay cut, the average pay in iowa state is 88k for the teachers, the ones i have talked to person to person taught for 6 credit hours, had meetings, and office hours, much less than a 40 hour week. So either do more research, or teach more credit hours equivalent to 40 work hours.

What? Are you saying being a Kindegarten teacher is easier than being a college professor or are you saying it cost less for the materials used to teach?

Either way, I would disagree 100% and so would my wife (a teacher)

[tazclone]

Professors do something called research, which benefits all of man-kind. Kindergarden teachers make sure kids don't poop on the floor.

You tell me which one should get paid more?

Wow that is an ignorant staement.