Public Schools or Private: Where Should I Teach?

Public school teachers are paid according to a salary schedule that is based on years of experience and degrees earned. If another teacher in school has the same experience and educational credentials as you do, she is probably being paid the same amount you are (though some school systems have instituted some forms of merit pay, it is not common and the merit pay is more likely to be a bonus than a permanent part of the salary).

Public school teachers generally participate in a state-wide teacher retirement program and have a substantial portion of their health insurance premium paid. Other employee benefits like disability insurance, maternity leave, sabbaticals, and educational benefits are not uncommon.

Private schools are not bound to a strict salary schedule and can pay teachers whatever mutually agreeable amount they want. As a general rule, religious schools tend to pay less than the local public schools. Expensive private schools catering to the well-to-do may pay as much or even more than the local public school, particularly to a teacher they really want to hire or retain.

While some Catholic dioceses provide a substantial benefits package to their employees, including the teachers in their schools, many other private schools are small and employ too few people to get advantageous pricing on benefits or to be required by law to offer Family Medical Leave. [/quote]

Job Security

Firing a public school teacher is difficult. Even states that provide for graduated licenses and require satisfactory evaluations in order for new teachers to maintain their positions have significant safeguards to keep teachers from being fired without adequate cause. Generally speaking, when a reduction in force is required, layoffs are on a last hired/first fired basis.

Private school teachers are generally at-will employees, meaning they can be fired (or not rehired) if the school does not want them anymore. If layoffs are necessary, a private school is generally not bound to let the new people go before the long-time staff. While a public school teacher may be able to afford a contentious relationship with his or her principal, and will not be fired simply because parents complain, either of those could end the job of a private school teacher.

Worksite Choice

Some public school systems hire people first, and assign them a worksite second. Public schools may transfer people from one school to another if student populations aren’t what is expected. There are often district rules or union policies that govern transfers between schools. In general, the larger the school system, the more likely a new teacher is to end up in a school in which he or she would rather not be.

Private school teachers are usually hired by a particular school to work at that school. If being close to home is important to you, there are areas where teaching in a private school is the only way to guarantee that.

Religious Beliefs and Morals

Public schools and public school teachers are not supposed to promulgate religion and their religious beliefs (or lack thereof) are not supposed to be a factor in employment decisions. States or school systems are allowed to ban overtly religious garments, such as t-shirts with religious messages or Muslim headscarves. Public schools are not allowed to insist that teachers follow any “morality clauses” beyond requiring them to obey the law.

Private schools are often established for the purpose of promulgating religious beliefs, and even those that are not specifically established for that reason may choose to allow some degree of religious indoctrination or practice. Those schools may give hiring preference to those who practice their religion and can require teachers to sign contracts with morals clauses requiring them to not live their public life in a way that disagrees with the teachings of religion sponsoring the school.

Curriculum

Most public schools follow a curriculum laid out by the state, and perhaps modified locally. Individual teachers generally have little say in determining what is taught in their classroom. They are also usually required to document that they have covered the prescribed material and done so in a variety of ways so as to reach students with learning differences, which can lead to time-consuming lesson planning formats. Even if it isn’t explicitly stated, the goal of most public schools is higher test scores than the school had last year.

While most private schools have some curriculum guidelines, individual teachers may have a lot of input into those guidelines or may be able disregard them to a degree–perhaps spending extra time expanding on a topic that has caught students’ interest, even though that means another topic will not be taught that year. Teachers may not be required to follow elaborate lesson planning formats, though that will depend on the preferences of the school and/or principal. While most private schools do some sort of standardized testing, often those scores are not made public and the pressure to “teach the test” is less than in public schools.

Working Conditions

Especially in larger school systems with union contracts, the working conditions of public school teachers can be relatively inflexible, for good and for bad. They are usually guaranteed a certain amount of planning time, a lunch period and certain non-class duties (recess duty, lunch duty, bus duty, extra-curricular activities etc.) They are expected to be at school at certain times and cannot leave without taking formal leave. Sometimes smaller systems are able to be more flexible with their employees.

Private schools are generally not bound by union contracts and may not have as many written policies, and may leave more discretion in the hands of the principal. For example, a private school might allow a teacher to leave school to attend to personal business during a planning period, or might “request” that a teacher use his planning period to cover for a sick colleague so that the school does not have to hire a substitute.

While teaching in a public school usually means higher paychecks and more job security, many teachers prefer teaching in private schools where they can share their religious beliefs or where the standardized test does not rule the day.

Have you taught in both public and private schools? What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Ruth CURCURU — Classloom Blog Writer

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Originally published at blog.classloom.com on October 28, 2016.