Newsrooms have been quick to report that a certain teacher in North Carolina earns just $53 per day to educate his students.
Unfortunately, most reporters didn’t bother to check the numbers. If they did, they would’ve found as PolitiFact did that there is a slight discrepancy in the math.
The North Stokes High School teacher, Nicholas Brandes, gained media attention this month after he claimed on Facebook that his “take home pay” last month was just $1,715. That’s after he had deducted insurance, childcare, and taxes.
“I am roughly being paid $53 a day to educate your child,” the teacher from western North Carolina wrote on Facebook.
His post, which included a photo of a paycheck for $1,715.81, was repeated almost immediately by surprisingly credulous newsrooms.
“‘I’m paid $53 a day to educate your child,’” read one headline published by a CBS News affiliate. “NC teacher posts copy of paycheck [—] A North Carolina teacher showed his paycheck in a Facebook post and shared some raw emotions about what teachers in NC are paid.”
An NBC News affiliate went with this headline, “NC teacher posts paycheck on Facebook to draw attention to low pay.”
‘I’m paid $53 a day to educate your child’: Teacher posts copy of paycheck https://t.co/WQVAsMMS0e pic.twitter.com/EfunrAZAkt
— NEWS CENTER Maine (@newscentermaine) May 15, 2018
But the numbers aren’t quite accurate based on Brandes’ estimated pre-tax salary of $44,472, according to PolitiFact.
“To arrive at the $53-per-day figure for April, Brandes would’ve had to divide $1,715 by 32 days. However, there were 30 days in April,” the report notes, , referring specifically to the paycheck amount. “More importantly… Brandes worked approximately 21.5 days in April. So his check for that month — $1,715 — divided by 21.5 equals $79.76 per day.”
It adds, “That difference of $26.76 per day doesn’t sound like much. But extrapolated over 21.5 days, there’s a $575 difference between what readers might think Brandes earned in April versus what he actually made. Apply the same math ($575 times 12) over a year and there’s a difference of $6,906 between what Brandes could be taking home annually compared with what could be derived from Facebook and in the media.”
Though it may seem harsh to flunk Brandes’ claim all because of math error, PolitiFact isn’t wrong.
“The difference between what the teacher claimed and what the records show is about $26.76. In other words, his daily pay in April was about 50 percent higher than he claimed it was,” the group notes. “What teachers make is an important debate — one that should be won or lost on solid numbers. There are many ways of illustrating a correct number, but the $53/day is not the poster child it was made out to be.”
Brandes can be forgiven for the discrepancy. The journalists who parroted his claim uncritically, on the other hand, shouldn’t be let off so easily. It’s literally their job to check out these sort of things.
