FTPA

Fair Teacher Pay Association

FactóThere is a shortage of qualified graduates of professional teacher preparation

programs entering the teaching profession in the United States.

FactóMore than 80% of the employing jurisdictions in the United States have been

forced to hire unlicensed, untrained, unprepared teachers because there are not

enough licensed graduates of teacher preparation programs to fill the need.

FactóThe overwhelming response from college students to the question of why they

wonít enter the teaching profession is that "teacher pay is too low".

FactóThe average national salary for a beginning teacher for the 1998-1999 academic

year was $25,735 , far less than the salary for other college graduates.

Would you want to be a teacher??

 

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Doe:

Do you care about the quality of your childrenís education? Weíre sure you do, just like most hard working Americans. Think about it. Our childrenís education is their future, and their future is our nationís future. This future is determined by our childrenís teachers. A lack of teachers and, more importantly, a lack of GOOD teachers is a big problem in our schools today. We, the members of the Fair Teacher Pay Association (FTPA), believe this injustice must be brought to the attention of all. In addition to informing the public, we want to do things to change the current system. This letter and informaional packet will briefly inform you of the facts you need to know on this subject.

 

 

We often hear people say things such as:

Teachers work form 9 to 3, less than bankers.

Teachers work 9 months, and then get the summers off.

Teachers themselves say:

Teaching is the only job where you work three times per day. First you teach a full day, then you work at school in the afternoon, and then you take work home to do at night.

The average teacher works a minimum of 8 hours and 37 minutes each day. 8:37 multiplied by an average school year of 180 days is 1551 hours a year. That is the minimum required for their daily tasks. Teachers also have supplementary tasks that they must complete on an irregular basis. These tasks such as pre and post school year activities, meetings, and continuing education add up to an average minimum of 318 hours per year. This adds up to a grand total of 1869 hours per year! Check out these statistics:

- A teacher works a minimum of 1,869 hours per year to perform his/her

minimum required work.

- The average number of hours per year worked by teachers is 2,108

- The average number of hours worked by first-year and second-year teachers is

2,534. It appears to be anecdotally-accepted that the stress of this

workload often leads to illness, and that this workload at least partially accounts for the 30%+ of new teachers that leave the profession.

Compared to other Americans:

- The Bureau of labor Statistics reports the average veteran worker works an

average of 34.6 hours per week, for 46 weeks, for a total of 1591.6 hours per year.

- That is 17% more than the minimum for teachers, 32% more than the average,

and 59% more than first-year and second-year teachers.

New teachers have all of that work to look forward to along with getting paid almost $10,000 less than their college classmates who are in other fields.

There are many other reasons for this teacher shortage problem and it is not going away. The number of students is increasing more rapidly than the increase in teachers. Many of the baby boom teachers are reaching retirement with our new college grads to take their place. Along with more students, the public wants smaller classes, that also means more teachers.

 

 

And there is one insidious reason:

To a large extent, the children of teachers are traditionally college-bound, college-educated, and college-graduated. These children are a primary source for future teachers. There are reports that many teachers are beginning to tell their children NOT to enter the teaching profession. They are telling them that the pay and benefits are low, the work is too long and hard, and that the profession receives little respect.

Schools compensate for the lack of college graduated, qualified teachers by hiring unqualified people to take their place. This is exactly what we donít want. With the loss of approximately 600,000 baby boomer teachers and the other needs for teachers listed above, we predict that our schools will be short of qualified teachers in the year 2008 by 30%. In 1998 the shortage was nearly 10%. 10 years later, it will be 30% That is nearly 1,170,000 teachers at the head of your childrenís classes that are untrained or unqualified.

We do not want this for our children!!

The (FTPA) has plans to help with this crisis. Much of these plans have to do with legislation and our governmentís funding of our schools. We have to tell them that the costs of implimenting higher teacher salaries are far out weighed by how much we will profit from raising them. We encourage you to read the enclosed materials. Take them seriously, this is a serious issue. Fill out our short letter that will be sent to YOUR legislators, fill out our membership application and

please, please, please

visit our website online at http://www.ftpa.org for much more information.

With your help, we can make a difference.

 

Sincerely,

 

Steven Warner

V.P. FTPA

 

 

 

FTPA

Fair Teacher Pay Association

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our childrenís futureÖ our nationís future.

Please get involved.