[Elfsea] Hello

[Richard Threlkeld]

A hot button! Teachers are paid very little for the value of what they do. EMS providers (EMT, Paramedic) are paid about half of what teachers are paid. And saving lives is probably worth as much as building them (though it takes less general education at the EMS level). As with the teaching profession, EMS professionals are leaving the field in droves to get more money. Those who stay either are not qualified for other jobs or do it because they love the job and get non-monetary rewards that make up, for them, for the lower pay.

The EMS profession has done something about it, but it will take time. The old supply and demand equation works. The Texas legislature just changed the training requirement for Paramedic from a six month class (after getting your EMT-B status) to two years of paramedic medicine (after EMT-B). If you add in English and history etc., you get an associate degree. If you have a BA/BS then you get a "Licensed Paramedic" cert. If you add one year to that, you can be a Paramedic PA (Physician's Assistant) which allows you to act within certain boundaries without "medical control".

All this is expected to reduce the number of qualified Paramedics and more than double their income within about 3-4 years. Teachers might well consider the same route. Increase the qualifications required to get the job and keep it and supply goes down. When supply goes down pay and benefits must go up. The major difference economically is in the number of teachers versus the number of paramedics. A large city school district has 10,000+ teachers and maybe 200-300 Paramedics. A $1,000 per year pay raise costs $10,000,000 for the teachers or $200,000 for Paramedics. That raises taxes $1.50/person for the Paramedics or $75/household for the teachers for the same raise per person.

My mother retired after many years as a teacher, then went back to school to get her Masters in counseling. She then worked for the state as a rural traveling counselor until she again retired. She worked hard for less money than she deserved, but she really loved the profession (and still does). She and I have had long discussions about the economics of education.

Caelin on Andrede

> -----Original Message-----
> From: elfsea-admin at ansteorra.org [mailto:elfsea-admin at ansteorra.org]On
> Behalf Of AerynGeil at aol.com
> Sent: Monday, August 05, 2002 11:26 AM
> To: elfsea at ansteorra.org
> Subject: Re: [Elfsea] Hello
>
>
> --
> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> I am not so sure about the more money (I teach for pennies and
> there is talk
> of us not even getting our "step" raise this year) and I know the
> stress is
> about the same.
>
> Just remember if you see a lot of blood you have done something wrong...
>
> Good Luck!
> Aeryn
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