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Comment by giantg2 | Hacker News Reader

"you need a masters degree to even be a teacher"

Really? The states I've been in doesn't require it. Generally a bachelor degree with a teaching certificate is all you need.

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That sets a cap on the salary. In the US southeast (last place I took a long look at the numbers, in NC and GA, but other states had similar numbers I just didn't study them closely), typically capping out with a bachelors at between $50-60k/year after 20-30 years. A masters degree often confers a $5-10k increase in salary, and a doctorate of education getting another $10k+ increase.

So, no, you don't really need a masters to be a teacher in the US. But you will be perpetually at the bottom of the pay scale if you don't get one, aren't in an in-demand subject area, or obtain some useful and in-demand specialist certificates.

GA: https://www.gadoe.org/Technology-Services/Data-Collections/D... (updated to 2021 PDF, fixed link again not sure how that got goofed before)

The T-# levels are certification levels, largely dependent on getting a graduate degree or specialists degree or certificate. Without those, you will stay at the lower tiers. School districts do offer pay above and beyond this, but unless you're in a wealthier district you won't get much past these numbers.

Yeah, I'm familiar with the pay being tied to the attributes, location, etc. That's why I was asking if there was a state that actually requires a masters.

This varies state by state. In several states, teachers have to complete a masters degree within a certain number of years to keep their job.

Interesting. Do you happen to know which ones or have an example?

Teacher training and Masters Degrees both involve a roughly-similar amount of coursework. I think someone once used it as an analogy and it stuck too well.

I think that's really only true if you do it separately after receiving a bachelor degree (adds 1-2 years). If done from the start, they have separate courses for educators that satisfy both the subject and teaching requirements/strategies for that material. Sort of like how you can take the business version or math version of stats - they cover similar material but from different angles (both have a math prefix but any math major will tell you the business one is less rigorous).

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