journalism

But you probably already knew that. This is old news, but last May, Suze Orman was profiled in the New York Times Magazine, which reported that “She has been reluctant to work on school curricula on personal finance, because she says students can’t learn empowerment from people who aren’t empowered, and teachers, she says, are too underpaid ever to have any real self-worth.”

Really? Does she even know how much teachers are paid, or how much income most Americans make? Let’s just look at Alabama, which has below average teacher salaries. A teacher who goes through college and then gets a master’s degree and then gets a teaching job will have about 20 years experience at age 45, in the typical peak earning years. The base pay for that level of experience and education in Alabama is about $51,000, and is higher in some schools districts that choose to pay higher property taxes. (If a teacher decides to get a doctoral degree, at the same age he or she would have only 15 years experience but earn about $56,000). On top of that, teachers get job security, low-cost health insurance, and retirement benefits that include both health insurance and a defined benefit plan (pension), plus a program that allows teachers to retire but keep working, and draw both their salary and retirement income for up to 5 years to provide a retirement nest egg.

If we turn to Household income distribution in the US, we find that $51,000 is above the median for household income, and $56,000 is in the 60th percentile, assuming no other income. If we have a two-income family, with both parents earning a teacher’s salary, then we are looking at $102,000 to $112,000 in income, or about the 85th percentile. If the other income is a professional field other than education, then the family income may well be above the 90th percentile.

So with income above the median, job protection in the form of tenure, and a pension to retire on, how is that career path inherently no empowered? Worse than that, since when is self-worth based on income? By definition, teachers earn more than most of her readers and viewers. What does that say about her beliefs as to the possibility of self-worth and empowerment for the vast majority of all Americans? Is she elitist or just ignorant?

Thanks to Anya Kemenetz at The Narrow Bridge for the lead.