"Mississippi schools seeking educators." Topic

["Teacher shortages are most critical in the Mississippi Delta. State recognition of those districts means teachers who commit to work there can get a maximum of $12,000 in loan forgiveness, undergraduate teacher education scholarships, moving expense reimbursement, eligibility to participate in a fellowship program to earn a master's or specialist's degree and $6,000 toward the purchase of a house."]

link

Yes, but this would all result in living in Mississippi.

Well we do have warm weather year round and Great miniature gaming.

I'm not sure a delta school district is going to be that attractive relative to being close to that terrific group of gamers in Jackson.

McKinstry: It is not just the Delta and I agree that would be a horrible place to live but it is the intire state that is hurting. There are over 5000 teachers that are going to retire.

The Jackson Metro Area has several school districts. Madison County, Ranking County,Jackson,Pearl and Canton School districts.

There are seveal good college's in the area to attend grad school.

BTW do you live close to Cummins? My wife's brother lives there. I think that he also lives in Forsyth County.

Reeves Lk – yup, for all intents and purposes it is Cumming.

Sorry about the spelling. I have been there twice and really enjoy the area. Close but not too close to Atlanta. Really enjoy going. I hope to get promoted one day. I kind of hope it is in Georgia.

Larry

But what is the starting salary, average salary and bennies for Mississippi teachers?

Dan

Well Miss. is competing with a lot of other national school districts for a finite amount of teachers. Even in Connecticut, where my wife teaches, we have school districts poaching teachers from each other due to the shortage.

Thanks to the sentiment in the late 1980s and into the 1990s that teaching is a low-end profession not many people went into it. In the next 5 years schools will really be hurting as the bulk of the Baby Boomers will retire en masse leaving a real vacuum to be filled.

Some of what will happen can be seen when Florida a few years ago shot themselves in the foot re: teachers. FL decided to forcibly retire teachers above a certain age to bring down costs by hiring younger teachers. Then when the new school year rolled around FL discovered they were short teachers by 15% or so. In order to meet the teacher:student ratio required by law they had to go back and beg the teachers they forcibly retired to come back. A lot did as contractors making *more* money then they did if they had stayed on the payroll!

"we do have warm weather year round"

Not true. You have warm weather for part of the year and the rest is hotter than blazes.

There's a Cajun musician I know who loves Louisiana but has moved to NYC because he can't take the summers any more. At the rate we're going it will be like his old home in a few decades…

Dan: I think for teachers with out any experience it is in the low 30's which is above the average income in Mississippi. Mississippi is not a very expensive state to live in. However since they are willing to help you move and the other incentives that could make up the different.

I work with a guy whoes wife is a elementry treacher. She started out at 31k. She has been teaching for two years. She just moved to another district and she is now making around 36K.

["You have warm weather for part of the year and the rest is hotter than blazes."]

Very True! LOL!

$6,000 toward the purchase of a house

Are houses *THAT* cheap in that area?

In the UK we're balloting for strike action over teachers pay after another below inflation offer. We're still getting significantly more than your schools are offering. A country that doesn't value its' teachers and education is up the proverbial creek.

Is this the area hit by Katrina? Houses are very cheap. If I had life to do over, I think I would have been a teacher, high school social studies/english. Not smart enough for science and math.

Is it the dream of many wargamers to teach history, put on games in the class room. Be the manager of the History (wargaming) Club. Start up an interscolastic wargame league.

Let me see if I get this right. I went to college and obtained a 4-year degree in Science or Mathematics and the state is going to pay me about 32K per year. If I sign a contract for a 3-year tour then I can realize about a 10% increase. I can see why they are lined up to take the job.

Perhaps the state could offer free college tuition for Education majors and have them sign a 4-year agreement to work in the state after graduation. This might recruit more students into the field, but I don't know.

I nearly took a job teaching in LA in one of the gulf parishes my first year. The salary was about the same back then (about 25K). Odd that it has changed so little in nearly 20 years. The salary of the job I did take has more than doubled in the same time. I wonder why teachers don't stay in the field more that a few years.

Well, I would consider moving there if they paid more. I could easily go to Alaska and make $50,000 as a starting teacher. I have a degree in education and could easily get certification to teach there in Mississippi, however, their pay scale starts at $25,000 less than I am making here in Montana. So why would I move? The teacher shortage isn't getting any better, and the job market is not getting any better, the incentives just aren't enough to encourage me to move there. With a major recession on the horizon, the stock market going crazy with all of the mortgage problems and the price of oil skyrocketing, moving to a new state, new job, and a whole new set of problems doesn't sound too enticing, especially for a substantial pay cut.

Now, getting to game with reeves lk is a potentially great benefit, and being somewhat closer to Historicon, GenCon, and loads of other conventions has some appeal. But not enough to look at the sorry state of affairs in Mississippi's education system and the fact that they have the potential to pile your classes full to the maximum level every year til' doomsday and sign up for it.

I just thought that if someone was unemployed with a degree or just tired of doing what they were doing, this was a idea. 32k a year in Mississippi is like 50k in a lot of other places. The cost of living is fairly low here. If you wanted to go to grad school from what I could tell from the story that they would help you pay for it.

"A country that doesn't value its' teachers and education is up the proverbial creek."

And one that has education boards constantly trying to merge its science curriculum with that for RE is even further up it.

I don't know about the cost of living, my mom lives in Jackson and makes good money working for the government. She hates it there cause she has less money than living in NE. Utilities are ridiculous, she was paying over $200 USD in the winter for electricity, I couldn't do that in a 1 bedroom apartment in the summer if I tried and I have. Maybe she's just getting ripped off or something is not quite "right" in her apartments, but she's had there.

I live in FL now and was looking at a move to MS (still am in fact), but a 5% income tax and luxury tax( to drive my car) has put me off a bit. Now that I fully realize the school situation and wonder about moving with my kids, it is looking less and less likely. The suitable housing didn't look much less expensive than where I am now.

But Lead Junky our Home owner insruance rates and property tax is a lot less. Unless you move to a coastal county.

Utilities are ridiculous, she was paying over $200 USD USD in the winter for electricity…

Does she have electric heat?
If so, that is pretty low (of course it doesn't get too cold there…)

If I had life to do over, I think I would have been a teacher, high school social studies/english.

Close dream, but I would continuously work in Colleges, getting Stipends, advanced degrees, and GRANTS!

And one that has education boards constantly trying to merge its science curriculum with that for RE is even further up it.

RE?
Please explain?

You know, the more I read about teaching here and in the US, I don't think it's a path I want to continue down. I've done my first teacher training here in the UK – basically it means I am qualified to teach part time in further and higher education. I enjoyed the training, I coulodn't stand the paperwork for the teaching – mainly the having to use correct phrases and words to show you are doing this,that and the other in a lesson. It seems it's more being able to tick certain boxes regards lesson prep than it is to teach. That and a total by the department left me not wanting to teach again and I turned down the chance to run the course again. However, I must admit if I were teaching the right subject I would be tempted, I'm a people person and enjoy the interaction.

Sadly, there are a fair number of us out here that had an interest, no, a love of teaching and left.

The sad fact is that the politics involved, the frustration of dealing with the system and the really lousy pay is enough to turn many off.

Dan

RE – Religious Education. The perception we get in the UK of the US schools system is that parts of it have trouble distinguishing between science books and religious texts.

aBHs; my wife gave up teaching a couple of years ago because the pressures of those parts of the job that weren't actual teaching (paperwork, planning and constant assessment for league table purposes) destroyed what pleasure there was in the job.

Maybe the teachers with sense could join forces with the smarter parents and administrators to provide a private (or not) school that actually taught the subjects and helped build
functional adults.

After a while,a few status-seekers might want inclusion for all the wrong reasons but by the time they got in,there would be too strong a foundation of reason and merit for them to do anything but gain a little wisdom themselves.

Hey,it could happen…

I know that my wife and I bailed on teaching careers as soon as we could. We were edge-of-boomer-wave and just couldn't handle the increasing fecal matter and low pay. Living a quiet retirement with no travel, little new stuff and a small house 'cause teacher retirement pay is not too great either but at least we don't have to write PC lesson plans any longer.

link

It's been 6 years or so since I departed MS, served 3 years there with a Navy/Marine school in NAS Meridian.

After my first summer there (and we are talking far-east MS, 5 miles from Alabama), my semi-serious observation was that I could not find any reason anyone would live in Mississippi on purpose.

I had no choice, I was under contractual obligation with the US Government, and I excused kids, they had to live where their parents did, but why, why, WHY would anyone stay there that has a car/bike/legs/wheelchair/crutches and could make their way to the border?

Call me spoiled I guess, but if I wanted to spend a quarter of my year (every year, like clockwork) in 100+ degrees and 100% humidity… wait, scratch that – - I never want to do that. I can only imagine the hell that living near the Delta would be, weather-wise, never mind the flooding and insects.

For those that have been to the area, and seen the MS economy, and experienced it, there is no amount of money that could bring me to relocate, even for, "just three years," when there are other school districts that are hiring in more, ah, sane weather-pattern areas?