How well are teachers paid in Nashville versus Atlanta?
Questions such as these can not be answered without taking into consideration the cost-of-living for the two cities. Georgiou, Villarreal, and Moore, (2005), research associates and senior policy analyst for the conservative think tank NCPA (the National Center for Policy Analysis) report in their 2005 publication titled "Teacher's Cost of Living Matters More," that public officials and teachers unions often compare a particular city to the national average. That is good to information to know but it does not tell one how one's standard of living will be affected. As their data shows, one working as a teacher in Memphis, making the average salary of $45,000 would actually be taking a significant pay cut insofar as standard of living if he or she took a job at $59,300 in San Francisco. Their data shows that when one compares "apples to apples" the adjusted salary goes down from $50,800 in Memphis to $32,700 in San Francisco.
This above information is good to know but other matters must be considered. Depending on what one values in life another type index may be necessary. For example one may be glad to take a pay cut, maybe not as extreme as the above example of Memphis versus San Francisco, but a pay cut none the less if some other "valuable" consideration were attained by this move.
An interesting idea also related to this is the idea of not measuring the validity of something, a country for example, by its GNP (Gross National Product) but by happiness. This make sense. In a three minute YouTube video (What is Gross National Happiness?, n.d.) narrator Morten Sondergaard explains how the seventeen year old King of Bhutan devised a GNH (Gross National Happiness) measure. He noticed that many first world countries were striving hard for happiness largely by fiscal means. And some were achieving this. But in addition to stress and other bad elements there was a large portion of the population in these countries that were not doing well at all. That were not happy. Also, he noticed the effect of the successful group took a serious toll on the environment. He, starting his reign at seventeen, did not want such a legacy associated with his name or his country.
The Bhutanese King devises his GNH measurement by balancing economics with emotional and spiritual well being. These apparently is a good or valid measurement as seen by its use in more and more countries today. People working with this GNH idea are currently (i.e. 2011) working in areas such as "bioplastics" and "fuel from the forests" -- the latter being a program where the trees are not cut down but are tapped for their turpentine which is then converted into fuel.
Please see references below for current teacher salaries working with Metro Nashville Public Schools and a cost-of-living website showing the Nashville/Franklin area to be less costly than the national average.
Many things should be considered when contemplating the results of one's work.
References:
Georgiou, D., Villarreal, P., and Moore, M. (October 24, 2005). "Teacher's cost of living matters more." National center for policy analysis.
Retrieved from
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba535
2011 Cost-of-Living Index: Nashville/Franklin TN. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.williamsoncounty-tn.gov/index.aspx?NID=715
"What is Gross National Happiness?" (n.d.) YouTube video retrieved at http://youtu.be/7Zqdqa4YNvI
Teacher Salary Schedule (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.hr.mnps.org/Page50417.aspx
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