No Children

Yeah. In the US, teachers are mostly seen as daycare providers. Nobody wants to give them a raise because they're "off in the summer" (even though they're paid as 10-month employees).

My woman has three degrees, is nationally board certified, has been teaching for well over a decade and still barely makes what I made as a GI Joe ten years ago.

People want to have all these kids but they can't/won't/don't want to raise them. So they send them off school to be watched/educated by qualified strangers.

But god forbid the person that supervises and educates your child from 7 to 3 every day for a fifteen years make a comparable wage. That's unacceptable.

...

Seems like it is far more lucrative to be a child care provider than a teacher.

 

Actually, no. My wife has worked in childcare and is currently a teacher. Small money in both.

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I see a viscous cycle, generally speaking:

Folks with money think that public schools suck.
They send their kids to private schools.
They fight against tax increases to improve public schools and increase teachers salaries.
They fight for tax breaks for what they spend on private education.
The subsequent lack of funding hurts public schools.
Folks with money think that public schools suck.

We don't have kids. We don't whine about paying school taxes.

 

There were a couple of years where Jadzia actually was paid less each year.
They froze teachers salaries and the Chris Christie decided they weren't paying enough for their insurance and pension so he upped the percentage they had to pay.
So all the teachers actually made less then they had the year before.
This is while more work is getting piled on.

 

Just pointing out that the current exchange rate is $.76 . Canadian teacher salaries suck about the same as US ones.

 

That sucks. I use the present tense because it's still happening.


My wife works at a private religious school.
Her salary after five years of being an official/actual employee (she first spent several years working there through a sub-contractor) is roughly 75% of the first-year salary offered by most local public school districts.
She pays more for her health insurance.
Her summers vacations have steadily been getting shorter (currently about two months).
Her employment is a yearly contract. Exemplary performance during one year is no guarantee of being offered a contract the next year; many years of exemplary performance is no guarantee of a contract for the next year. There is no appeal process. A lawsuit, or the threat of one, is the only recourse.*


* One teacher my wife knew very well was fired for refusing to take an extra class (she had the easiest schedule and cushiest teaching position at the school, she used to brag about it). She threatened a lawsuit, and received two years salary "severance." I mention this because it's seems extremely unfair to the dedicated teachers.

 

I don't know exactly how "At Will" works in Texas. I have known several people who used the threat of a lawsuit as leverage against former employers. I've worked at companies where once certain people reached a certain salary level, they were "let go" and replaced with younger people at a lower salary (that could qualify as age discrimination, I suppose). Perhaps some of other members here who have to be up-to-date on employment laws will post an explanation.

 

What kind of college degrees and certifications do you have to get to be a childcare provider? I feel like the 3 degrees my woman has (as well as the student loans) makes being a childcare provider more lucrative simply by time+cost/benefit.

 

I think that Street Pattern used to post comments re employment laws.

My understanding is "there is nothing the other party can do about it" isn't as simple as it sounds. For example:

At one job a woman (Sue) was hired because she had many contacts in the business, which the company owner anticipated using. But the position for which Sue was hired was not in sales or client relations, which was a blunder by the company owner. She was eventually fired with no explanation. The real reason was the owner wasn't able to win new clients using her contacts. By far the biggest problem was the company had a really bad reputation and was on thin ice financially*, namely massive borrowing for several expansions that didn't work out, and him not anticipating, and responding properly to, growing pains. Sue took the company to court and won the lawsuit by proving the real reason for her being hired and then fired.

* One of the sales associates shared that info with just about everybody in the business when she saw the inevitable implosion coming. I don't know if the company sued her.

 

No job security in child care.

I've worked in child care. I've worked as a therapist in the schools. I still don't want kids. Ever.
I watched more than 80 kids die, worked with 280 families or more in healthcare. I can't even count how many others in mental health. Probably at least 1k families in that area alone.
Best. Birth. Control. Ever.

 

What, people are going to stop having kids?

 

Any answer I give about licensing to start a daycare facility would be incomplete and probably incorrect. As far as the employees go, you can hire anyone you please (within reason, of course). Two of the general requirements that I know of are some employees need to be certified for First Aid, and Food Safety.

 

My old supervisor's wife runs a daycare out of their home in lorton, Virginia. The nice area, not right next to the prison. She watched a dozen infants to toddlers with her sister assisting. The entire basement was set up, including its own side entrance. I believe she charged 300 a week, and she was making about 90k a year. Had to pay her sister, but she also deducted all food, training,supplies, a major chunk of the house,etc. This was about 10 years ago. Btw, they had seven children together.

 

That 4-5 years out of the workforce is incredibly hard to make up for, especially if you are in a corporate position where being "present" is critical to being relevant and having a current skillset for your career interests. I've seen Stay at home parents re-enter the workforce with varying success.

 

I would entertain the idea of staying at home. However there's more than just salary that comes along with it. I work for insurance. My employer has way better insurance than DaddySquirrel's for both me and our LittleSquirrel.

The only true sad thing I think about when people say they don't want children is that, aside from @borla and some others, they are usually very intelligent. The idiots are procreating and the people with common sense are not. Society continues to get dumber and dumber.

I did my duty for the world and am spreading my genes to combat the morons.