Teachers and Coaches Need a Pay Raise

We can all agree that an exorbitant amount of work and numerous people were required to get where you are today. Some of the highest paying jobs in this country are being an athlete or a doctor, both needs a great amount of coaching, schooling, and work. So why is it that doctors and athletes make so much more than the teachers and coaches who made them successful?

Let's begin with the teachers. The majority of teachers buy their own supplies for students, never being reimbursed. A study by the federal Department of Education showed that 94% of public school teachers paid for their own supplies. Parents and schools expect a good education for their kids with help of supplies, activities, and tools, but yet teachers are already getting paid low wages and are expected to spend their own money on supplies to supplement their classrooms. Not only do teachers just teach core subjects such as math and science, but they also teach life lessons. Teachers are there for kids 8 hours a day; therefore, it can be assumed that teachers play a big part in the moral development of children. If the median annual salary for a cardiothoracic surgeon is $296,086, then shouldn't the median annual salary of a teacher, which is currently estimated at $55,185, be raised?

Now we move onto athletes. Forbes, for 2018, puts Floyd Mayweather as the highest paid athlete in the world. He made $275 million in one night, not counting the $10 million in endorsements. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo both hover around $115 million in pay. Sure, these athletes are professionals and have worked hard for where they are today. They train during holidays, are constantly traveling, have several games a week so they deserve an endorsement for sure- but aren't the coaches there too, every practice...every trip...every game? Becoming a professional athlete takes a lifetime of work, most athletes started when they were just children. From pee-wee football coaches to high school coaches, they all make an impact - each one of them, but yet the average salary for a high school football coach is $55,187 while the average NBA player salary is $7.1 million-129 times more than a high school coach makes.

If you were to break down salaries by the hour, teachers make 4 cents more than doctors, that's after you factor in years in school, loans, time, debt, pension, and more. Although if you look at the livelihood of both jobs, doctors are still making hundreds of thousands more than teachers. Many teachers have multiple jobs to keep themselves and possibly a family afloat. Teachers also work an insane amount of time out of work that isn't paid for, such as grading and preparing lessons. When studies are conducted, by a medical website, to prove teachers get paid more than doctors, these studies only factor in the hours counted in school, not outside. I'm not saying take away athlete's and doctor's salary because I think they do deserve it, I'm saying add more to the salary of the people who got them there.

Having graduated high school, I have seen this low pay on teachers take its toll more greatly than ever before. Many teachers will stand in front of the class asking to bring in supplies since they can't afford it themselves. I've had teachers with multiple kids who have had to work jobs on the weekend to provide for their family. I have friends who want to be teachers, but they also want a big family. Right now, it doesn't seem like those two options go hand in hand which is why I think there is a teaching shortage right now. There needs to be a change to the salary of teachers. I want teachers to love their jobs even more with the bonus of a healthy paycheck. I don't want to listen to another professional athlete thank his high school coach for where he/she is today when the athlete is getting paid 129 times more than that coach. The pay of teachers and coaches is such a blatant problem but yet nothing is being done.