Higher teacher pay will bring quality education
By Lindy Almony | gargoyle@flagler.edu
Americans speak often about investing in the future with K-12 education. President Barack Obama said during a speech in February that, “Education is an investment that we need to win the future.”
How much, though, do we really invest in education in this country? And how much does the success of our education programs depend on the teachers?
Nationwide, 47 percent of K-12 teachers come from the bottom one-third of their college classes. Many of the higher performing students are lured into more profitable careers. Three countries renowned for their educational performance—Singapore, South Korea and Finland—draw teachers from the top third of their colleges and pay them well. In South Korea and Singapore, teachers earn more than lawyers and engineers.
The Program for International Student Assessment report, which compares education systems in more than 50 countries, ranked American students 15th in reading, 19th in science and 27th in math.
In America, if we are concerned about education, these statistics should serve as an incentive to pay our teachers more, not less.
Paying teachers less is exactly what Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) has proposed in his recently released budget for the next fiscal year. Scott proposed $1.75 billion in cuts to education. This would result in $2,335 a year pay cut for the average teacher, according to The Palm Beach Post. Part of this plan is a merit pay bill- a statewide teacher evaluation and merit pay system based on students’ performance on standardized tests. This merit pay bill would also do away with tenure for teachers hired after July 1, 2011.
If this bill passes, not only would it jeopardize the jobs of great teachers, it would also certainly deter potential teachers from entering the field.
Exceptional student education teacher Natalie Giacosa said it well about Scott. “He’s a businessman, so he sees it as a business. You cannot see education as a business. You simply cannot.”
Higher saleries would be an incentive for brighter men and women to become teachers. New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof said, “If we want to compete with other countries, and chip away at poverty across America, then we need to pay teachers more so as to attract better people into the profession.”
A study by Eric A. Hanushek of Stanford University found that an excellent teacher raises each student’s lifetime earnings by $20,000. An excellent teacher is defined being one standard deviation better than average, or better than 84 percent of teachers. In a class of 20 students, that is an extra $400,000, compared with a teacher who is just average.
Most people agree that education is the key to a successful future. To attract better candidates into the profession, we must pay teachers more. Although budgetary problems are difficult to solve, statistics show that educational problems are not.
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Pay raises across the board for teachers won’t do anything. Pay raises need to be merit based and tenure does need to be done away with. Continuing to pay failing teachers does nothing. Abolishing the Department of Education and granting the power back to the individual states would go a long way to help raise our nation’s education level as well since education on a more localized level will meet students needs much better than a federal bureaucracy will. Finally, promoting free school choice, vouchers for homeschooling, and most importantly – more hands on parenting are more beneficial solutions than simply increasing pay.
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[...] be making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year at law firms or investment banks. Nearly one half of all public school teachers come from the bottom third of their college classes. Their compensation is actually inflated, especially when you consider the quality of the service [...]
Agree! Teachers and lecturers are very important assets for a country, they should have got better!
Lindy does not indicate whether Singapore, South Korea and Finland have a teachers union that protects low performing teachers. We do.
“If we are concerned about education, these statistics should serve as an incentive to pay our teachers more, not less.” How much more, Lindy? How much does the student GPA increase per $1000 increase in the teacher’s salary? Why do we spend an average of $15,000 per student annually for public education but $5000 annually for my daughter to go to a private Christian school? Is it the overhead for the Department of Education?
I agree Lindy, teachers should be paid a better salary. Private schools do a better job than government schools. Get rid of everything above the county board of education and put the savings in the class room.