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Washington DC jobs in education may soon pay better than anywhere else in the nation. Union representatives and school officials are currently going over two different salary options, one of which gives area teachers with five years of experience the possibility to make as much as $100,000 between wages and bonuses. The average educator in America receives a salary around $47,600 a year.

That being said, the discussed change in pay may possibly cause DC teachers to lose their tenure. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee believes that the best way to fix the metro’s floundering education system is by increasing teacher accountability. She believes that the current seniority system protects ineffective educators from being fired.

Instead of simply increasing a teacher’s salary in relationship to the number of years experienced they have in education, Rhee wants to create a direct correlation between the amount of money an educator receives and their results in the classroom. For the most part Washington Teachers’ Union officials have been resistant towards the idea due to the fact that there too many outside influences that factor into a student’s success in the classroom. Because of this and several other concerns, Union leaders have said that the proposal is still considered a work in progress, not a tentative agreement.

Currently there are two separate payment plans on the table that teachers would be able to chose from. The first of these scenarios would increase educators’ pay by 28 percent over the next five years. Teachers would also receive two $5,000 “reform stipends” each in 2009 and 2010 for being willing to work during the transitional period. Under this plan, an educator with a bachelor’s degree and 10 years of experience would go from making $56,000 to $73,800 after bonuses by 2012. Teachers who have been working the same amount of time, but have masters’ degrees would make somewhere around $84,400.

The second option would entitle educators to a 20 percent pay increase over the next five years, the reform stipends and annual performance bonuses of up to $20,000. The criteria to receive these bonuses is still being discussed.

Educators who accepted this offer may stand to make as much as $122,500, but they would also be taking a greater risk. Scenario number two requires current teachers to spend a year on probation and those new to the system are expected to spend as many as four years under that status.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 12:35 pm and is filed under job search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.