And just like not anyone can put up with 30 kids with all different intelligence levels. We do what we are good at and love. Unfortunately for teachers, people aren't paying them $300/hour to get them out of a drunken driving ticket.

Oh, here's something else I wanted to throw in.

One of the sticking points in my old SD is that the teachers do not need to live in the SD to teach there - so if taxes were raised they wouldn't have to pay them. How does that work other places?

I'm not saying anyone could. I just don't like the assumption that "anyone" can go into certain professions.

Also, there are very few lawyers that bill at $300/hr. Salaries for law are a LOT LESS than you think. My boyfriend is interviewing for public interest jobs right now and most of the starting salaries are lower than what my dad makes. My boyfriend went to a top 30 law school. My dad didn't go to college.

Listen people can do that. They may not want to, but they can.

And using your logic, i bet there are more people that can put up with 30 kids than there are people who can successfully operate on a brain or represent a man on death row.

-Rudey

Rudey, what do you mean? You know perfectly well that all lawyers get $300 an hour to defend jaywalking tickets because they are all ambulance-chasing shysters.

I don't get this -- if the teachers do live in the school district, are they required to buy a house or condo. so they're paying property taxes? If not, why does it matter where they live?

Thank you, GP. VERY few lawyers make $300 an hour, except maybe corporate in some instances. Attorneys who handle DUIs make MUCH less than that, or else they wouldn't have any business.

Also hate how people think anyone can go into any profession. There are MANY people who can't get into law school, med school, etc.

I wanted to be a teacher for the longest time... I love children and have spent a good portion of my life working with them. I love teaching people things, it's in my nature. But I decided that I wanted to do something that would challenge me more intellectually. Teaching can be mentally challenging, but it's not the same thing as the puzzles I have to solve and arguments I have to make everyday as an attorney. But teaching would've been very rewarding in other ways. I do realize as i've grown older that I may not have had the patience for it...

GP, I'm glad you know what's up with the salaries before you actually go to law school. When I applied to law school, the average starting salary from my law school was $80K. I'm not sure of what it is now, but it's lower. And they also play with the numbers a lot. It can be very deceiving!

Like GP's boyfriend. I go to a tier 1 law school. My dad didn't go to college. I may make less than my father, actually, a good chance of it.

I haven't spend much time on the NALP website, I need to look at their methodology. But the salaries that were stated seems very high.

ETA: Most AV-rated lawyers (the highest rating one can receive as an attorney) don't even make $300 an hour...

$300 an hour... 8 hours billable a day= $2400 a day. 5 days a week= $12,000 a week. = $624,000 a year.

VERY few lawyers make $624,000 a year

Also, people need to remember taxes aren't fee for service. You don't pay school tax in relation to how much you "get out" of the schools. You pay it because your community has made a decision that its wants to provide schools which are open to everyone in the community regardless of whether they can pay or whether they own homes. If school tax was about how much you used the schools or how much you "get out" of the schools there would be no point to public school. There'd just be private school and that's it.

Note: NALP is a nationally recognized organization which every ABA aproved law school is a member of. They do the largest survey of associates and law students in the country. In addition, most larger employers participate in the NALP survey and give them direct hiring info.
Truthfully, I don't know where you live but I think you are somewhat misinformed on lawyer's salaries. I know people in large cities, rural towns, big and small law firms and I haven't heard anything about such depressed salaries. Much of the drop from 9/11 has bounced back. And except for a few people I know who work for very poor non-profits or have clerkships (which as you know is a temporary thing you do for the experience), I don't know any people making less than 45K (not even people who graduated from less prestigious law schools).

Yes, and my cousin started his own business and was making 6 figures at 19. It doesn't seem fair, but it happens.

And there are lawyers that charge $300/hour. In my area, actually. And I know this because we recently had to find one for a girl who had to go to court for a DUI. My point is that there are careers where the revenues are much higher, so the salaries are much higher. Let's take NBA basketball, for one. I find it extremely unfair that someone can do something that is a GAME and make that much money off of it. But the fact of the matter is that there are people who pay 100's of dollars for one Lakers ticket, and that's how they get their money, and that's why there are superstar athletes who went to Duke who could have been doctors or lawyers or *gasp* teachers that are playing basketball. Now if we could get people to pay that much to have a good teacher in a school, we'd be in business.

I was a music education major for what seems like a second (actually, a semester). I did it because I wanted to go into music business and at NYU the program is in the education school. Anyway, the band director at USC came in and said that he was upset that people ever think of his career as a "fall back" career. But the truth is that there are teachers out there that are people who used it as a fall back. We all know the professors that we had in college like that. The ones that tried to make their way as an economist and couldn't do it. Because unfortunately it IS one of the careers that you go to school, you get the right education, and people (in some areas) will hire you in a heartbeat. Which is why we have sucky teachers around and underpaid good ones.

I thought a Junior partner in Big Law made at least 500K not including amenities and all that?

-Rudey

Teaching is very intellectually challenging. It sounds like you are saying that teachers are just not as smart as you, and that's ridiculous.
You're right, not everyone can go into every profession. I didn't get into law school, I scored 15 points lower on my real LSAT that I did on all the practice ones I took. AM I smart enough to go? I think so, I dont' believe that was the route I was supossed to take, otherwise, I wouldn't have bombed the tet that day. On the same note, not everyone can teach. It's very hard, no matter what people think. I used to think anyone could do it, but then I saw two other first year teachers leave after 1 semester because the kids ate them alive. I have the same kids, and I love them.

Sorry if it came across that way, but that's not how I meant it.

I learn new things everyday in the law. I'm sure you learn something new every day as a teacher, but it's a different kind of knowledge.

I never said one was better than the other. Don't put words into my mouth, please. I picked what was best for me, what I found to be most appropriate and enjoyable for myself.

And, not to be rude, but there are plenty of teachers out there that aren't as smart as me. Looking at some of the people that I know are teachers, I can say for certain that I'm smarter than they are. I'm sure there are some that are smarter than me. But that goes for anyone. Don't go looking for something that's not there in my post

How is it unfair what an NBA player makes? The market determines that rate. If anything it's unfair that they don't make more given how much money they make for the owners. It's even more unfair that a white university takes a black basketball player and robs him of millions for the rest of the university, its leagues, and the NCAA.

There are also teachers and tutors that are paid handsomely, but not many. You don't get rich from teaching. Why should you? Should everyone just be paid incredibly well from pool boys to teachers to lawyers and bankers?

Again, you don't need to be a nuclear physicist to be a teacher. You are teaching young kids how to subtract and divide, not launch a fricking rocket.

Not only do they get decent wages, but they get great benefits like long ass vacations and a union that is so strong it bullies governments to the detriment of students. You can go on and on about how teachers don't always make decent wages, but you can do that about everything. The average wage of a teacher is high enough.

-Rudey

There are very few of those jobs... I've had senior partners as professors and they don't make that much. Perhaps some in the huge markets like NY and Chicago. But that's a very small fraction

But those teachers that left could do it. It just wasn't something they enjoyed. That's the difference.

-Rudey