What Teachers Make

For a while, a big part of how I made my living was to study how teachers bought, how they made decisions, where the money came from, how they spent it, and more. My job was to discover how the market (us) met its customers (teachers) and what happened there.

I learned a few very interesting things. One is that teachers are universally underpaid, and it gets worse as the age of the student gets younger, even though every study says how important early education is.

I also learned that teachers spent up to 800% more of their personal income on work-related supplies than any other profession. Working with a woman from Scholastic Magazine, we checked our numbers three times before presenting our findings to our bosses.

Even though my boss was my dad, I was pretty nervous about making a marketing presentation to him and the Missco board; I was actually much less nervous than when Stephanie and I traveled to New York and Chicago to present it to her bosses. Even though I didn't make such great grades in the Millsaps College Else School of Management, they effectively prepared me for the moment.

Working professionally with teachers' unions, teacher trade groups, and teacher-related PACs, I came to respect and understand their perspective more than a lot of young people who aren't teachers ever consider.

I get really very angry when I see people try to politicize teaching. Working in the classroom is a professional position, just like being a doctor or a lawyer, but not as well paid. Sometimes politicians treat them like they are the same age as their students, and try to make teaching part of their political agenda.

I haven't talked to my friend from Scholastic in a long time. Once they started distributing the Harry Potter books, the company changed quite a bit. I still think about the days we spent, she in Chicago, and me in Jackson, trying to figure out how and why teachers do what they do, and how they spend their money.

We don't respect teachers enough. We, in particular, don't respect their opinion on how they do their job enough. It's been a long time since I was in the marketing business, but basic truths don't change, and that's a basic truth.