My experience has been that for an entry level school teacher, in Massachusetts at least, there's no way you can make ends meet without picking up a second job. Your salary is also determined to a large extent by which town you work in. My wife works in Brookline, where they pay a much better salary than most towns.

Also, if you calculate the pay per hour of a school teacher, it's pretty low. Most teachers work quite long hours during the school year.

I feel the key here is to follow the thumb rule of spending less than what one earns. Prioritise whats things into necessities and desirables and spend more on necessities and less and desirables if the budget permits...

Honestly? Compared to what I was making before a teacher's salary would be a HUGE step up for me. Granted, I live in a LCOL area, but at least here in Cinci I don't think teachers have bad salaries at all.
I'm in school to get my masters in education right now so that I can teach. I had a lot of motivations for doing this that were focused on this being the right profession for me and doing what I love, but I would be lying if I said the giant increase in salary was not a motivator.

He claims it's not just for the summer vacations, but I have my doubts. Seriously, he seems pretty determined. I'll have to pick this book up for him.

I have been living for years as a seasonal employee, waitress, odd jobber. Along the way I have collected debt, scrimping on everything I could. Cutting my own hair, living in horrible apartments and buying clothing only when it came in under $10. I CANNOT WAIT to live on a teacher's salary. I have a bachelor's degree, but no job I was qualified for made me feel excited or good about myself. I am very excited to teach.

I have quite a few friends, family, and neighbors who are teachers and their standard of living is great to compare to a lot of people. I work for a small environmental working to improve the environmental conditions for our community. Our firm won't even look at someone unless they have a master degree and even then, starting salary is mid-twenties and your lucky to 30k after 5 years. So many of our friends who are teachers are making at least in the mid-forties. Plus, they have great health insurance, retirement plans, programs for continuing education, loan reimbursement, and have the summers off. Sorry, Janel. Teachers having to work 40+ hours for 10 months, plus two weeks off for winter vacation, 1 week off for spring break, and how many national holidays off are not getting any sympathy from the rest of working class/middle class. Sorry to say this, but I think a majority of Teachers have gotten into a bad habit about complaining about salaries and work requirements and forget that the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

I'm glad the issue of "average pay" was brought up. Starting salaries can be quite low. I've seen under twenty thousand, and the issue of spending a ton of your own cash to fund "mandated curriculum" that the school districts can't or won't pay for is real. When you are making under twenty thousand, those expenditures really hurt.

Add to that nearly everyone on the planet assuming they can interrupt you when you are at work early on unpaid time, not even being able to pee when you need to, standing in line on your only bathroom break of the day to return a parent's phone call . . . the list goes on.

Now, if you work for a school district that has separate instructors for the extra classes like art, music and PE, and actually pays for a reasonable amount of supplies (I don't mind dishing out for glitter and pom poms if it's a special project I really want to do), then yes it is a bit more fair. Especially if the district pays decently and you are a few years in on the salary scale. Personally, the only schools I ever worked for where this was true were overseas where my lower salary was tax free. Now THAT felt a bit more fair. I totally feel for the person who mentioned having to pay for photocopies. I've had to do that before too. Older students can take notes off the board, but try doing that for more than a mini list with first graders. Not fun.

All that being said, I always enjoyed the students and do miss seeing their completed projects and academic growth. I've started a little project to help teachers get their job done on a budget.  http://lessonmag.com/ There's also a link there to a curriculum site, which we are in the middle of revamping. Feel free to take advantage of any of the free articles there.

In North Carolina at one point I heard beginning salary was around 25K, but I just looked and for bachelors with 3 years of experience it is just under 31K. Again what people said, the salaries really vary. I know in our state we have a pretty big dropout rate for beginning teachers because of the combination of high workload/bureacratic responsibilities paired with low salary. Also many teachers pay for school supplies out of their own pocket because the school is underfunded.

Didn't realize salaries for most teachers in most states are so low... From some of the comments above, tenured teachers are making well under $50k. Up in Canada, most provinces start teachers around $40K, moving up to about $65K within 10 years (this can range depending on education, province, etc). But most teachers with a good 5 years under their belt are making over $50K.

But then again, slightly higher taxes here, but also virtually zero healthcare costs. Our schools are underfunded too, but teacher don't have to pay out of pocket for the basics.

Time off doesn't mean that teachers are not working on grading, planning lessons, buying resources, writing curriculum, etc. Please don't be so naive to think that because your kids aren't in school that teachers are not working. Please, get accurate information before you assume things.

Laws nowadays require continuing education for teachers so that they can keep their certification.

In one school district in CA -- so I've been told anyways -- teachers have to buy their own liability insurance.

Have you spent a day on the job with a teacher? It's not all a picnic as some may assume. It's certainly not at all like babysitting.

Just like to comment that I started teaching 12 years ago in Northern NJ. Small houses/condos were already $100,000 at that time, and I started at $17,000 for part time kinder. With all the prep work, I was working 30+ hours at a part time job. Then, when I got full time I was only making $27,000. Now I have a masters + 60. I didn't qualify for loan programs and paid for it all. I earn a very good living. But as the sole bread earner, I am not able to afford a home in Los Angeles were I work. Granted a house the size of my apartment (1,100 sq") is listed at over 1 million just down the street!

As for benefits, I have 30+ children sneezing and coughing all over me daily. I have been barfed on and peed on by other people's children. I deserve my benefits.

Teacher's salary is relative to the cost of living in the area to some degree: a teacher in a small town in the midwest makes less than a teacher in New York or Florida, but the cost of living is lower in the small town. While teachers make less than others with a master's degree, they make more in comparison to a lot of other people who also struggle. Plus frugality in teachers is applauded, while they same teacher in an high profile job would have to spend more on a car, clothes and lunches. I applaud teachers for what they do, but think they should be happy in the recession to have a stable salary and job that many would love! You go into teaching for the intrinsic rewards, not the financial ones.