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If the U.S. Won't Pay Its Teachers, China Will

posted by mrpg on Thursday December 22 2016, @07:50AM   Printer-friendly
from the ni-hao-ma dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Today, Mi is 33 and founder of a startup that aims to give Chinese kids the kind of education American children receive in top U.S. schools. Called VIPKid, the company matches Chinese students aged five to 12 with predominantly North American instructors to study English, math, science and other subjects. Classes take place online, typically for two or three 25-minute sessions each week.

Mi is capitalizing on an alluring arbitrage opportunity. In China, there are hundreds of millions of kids whose parents are willing to pay up if they can get high-quality education. In the U.S. and Canada, teachers are often underpaid—and many have quit the profession because they couldn't make a decent living. Growth has been explosive. The three-year-old company started this year with 200 teachers and has grown to 5,000, now working with 50,000 children. Next year, Mi anticipates she'll expand to 25,000 teachers and 200,000 children.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by aclarke on Thursday December 22 2016, @02:05PM

    by aclarke (2049) on Thursday December 22 2016, @02:05PM (#444716) Homepage
    I'm not sure the title of the Bloomberg article, or this one, is completely accurate. It looks like they pay teachers $20-22 per hour, plus some perks and bonuses. It's sad that that seems to be more than some teachers are making in the US, but on the other hand I think they're hiring American teachers generally because that's what the parents in China are looking for. I'd imagine there are many, many, many, many teachers in China who would love to make US$20/hr on the side to teach in this environment as well. According to https://www.quora.com/How-much-are-Chinese-teachers-salaries-in-China [quora.com] it looks like teachers in China generally make US$300-800 per month, plus maybe a yearly bonus.
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  • (Score: 1) by Francis on Thursday December 22 2016, @05:52PM

    by Francis (5544) on Thursday December 22 2016, @05:52PM (#444779)

    As long as you aren't in a major city, that's quite a bit of money. If you're in a less expensive part of the country, you'd have plenty of money on that salary. The issue is more like places like Beijing or Shanghai where the cost of living is much higher.

  • (Score: 1) by RS3 on Thursday December 22 2016, @09:32PM

    by RS3 (6367) on Thursday December 22 2016, @09:32PM (#444844)

    Here's one of many:http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/edu/5927739886.html [craigslist.org]

  • (Score: 2) by wisnoskij on Friday December 23 2016, @03:03PM

    by wisnoskij (5149) <{jonathonwisnoski} {at} {gmail.com}> on Friday December 23 2016, @03:03PM (#445034)

    $20-22 per hour. Factoring in prep time, that comes to $10 an hour.

  • (Score: 2) by wisnoskij on Friday December 23 2016, @03:44PM

    by wisnoskij (5149) <{jonathonwisnoski} {at} {gmail.com}> on Friday December 23 2016, @03:44PM (#445046)

    Lets be accurate here. The parents do not want American teachers, they want white teachers.