Posted on 12/27/2022 7:25:55 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A new bill introduced by a Florida congresswoman aims to incentivize states to increase minimum teacher salaries as the country’s education system faces a growing need for educators.
The American Teacher Act was introduced last week by Rep. Frederica S. Wilson, chair of the Higher Education and Workforce Investment Subcommittee. The bill would work to entice states to increase the minimum K-12 teacher salary to $60,000 through a federal grant program.
The bill is an attempt to persuade educators to remain in the profession as a national teacher shortage impacts districts across the country — a problem that has been happening for years, but was amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It also comes at a time when U.S. teachers, who have endured several tumultuous years during the pandemic, are at the forefront of political tensions surrounding issues such as critical race theory and book challenges.
“Teachers are the backbone of our education system and economy, playing a foundational role in the development of our children,” Ms. Wilson said in a statement when introducing the bill. “For seven hours a day, they help shape and inspire young minds as well as nurture students academically and socially. As the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill, teachers continued to play a critical role in our recovery, underscoring their indispensability.”
During the 2020-21 school year, the average starting salary for teachers was $41,770, according to the National Education Association. That would be an increase of $18,230 if the bill were to pass.
It also stands to have large implications on Western Pennsylvania schools where many teachers make under $60,000. And while NEA found that the average starting salary for Pennsylvania teachers during the 2020-21 school year was $46,991, the minimum salary set by the state is $18,500 . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
PING!
Let’s just pay everybody a million dollars a year so we can all be millionaires!
No enumerated power.
Holy crap. That’s ridiculous
Inflation is your friend ... SNL skit that predicted the present.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABvu0qZ2B6Q
That would be a pay cut in NYS.
I doubt this will happen. Salaries will rise due to inflation and otherwise they need to rise based on greater productivity.
Recent state $15 minimum wage laws have been a huge factor in inflation but seems no one wants to say that.
This is NOT a Federal issue.
We know folks who moved to PA to get away from NYS’s confiscatory property taxes.
They bought very nice homes.
Oh, boy...
A simple solution (to which the NEA would strenuously object) is to pay according to the law of supply and demand. Math, science and vo-ed teachers, in particular, are in short supply and their salaries would need to compete with what is available in the private sector in order to retain them.
Social science teachers have much fewer options in the private sector (just to name one example) and don't need to be paid as much.
Can we at least require them to dress as professionals instead of as harlots and pierced skater-wankers? Maybe also professional hairstyles instead of cotton candy college freshmen.
“I promise...” LOL!
What do you expect from a country than memorializes a pile of rocks on its currency?
Always something in the fine print. Sign the bill, brag about how awesome everythin is... and then skedaddle before the effects actually kick in.
If you set the minimum salary at 60k, everyone above that minimum also has to get a pay bump, and there's no way the union is going to settle for flattening out the pay scale so all those masters degrees, phony baloney EdD doctorates and education credits that teachers have used over the years to bump up their pay are going to lose their effect. The aides, janitors, secretaries, etc... are also going to want a raise, and the school falls apart without support staff.
So now your school's labor costs have jumped up 20% overnight and you have four years to figure out how to tell the public their school taxes are going to go up, because that's where the other costs came from and the state isn't chipping in the money. School districts start combining and cutting programs, teachers lose jobs and remaining teachers have to pull more of the load, parents pull their kids for cyber school that the district has to pay for. Meanwhile, the kids ain't learning.
All in all, a great plan.
BAT CRAP CRAZY
get rid of the incestual certification requirements ...
Just give everyone a “minimum guaranteed income” of $100k... solve all the woes... right?
I was a teacher for 14 years. I understand the fiscal burden, and now that I have been OUT of that longer than I was in it - I am thankful. My current salary is actually just barely more than what my last contract was for in 2007-2008, but I am happier now -and am not in the middle of the constantly-moving targets, pressure from lawyers, pressure from all the stupid hand-tying and lack of discipline that has infected nearly every school - plus my patience with the whole queer/trans fraud being forced... no thanks.
But I also know that teacher salaries are above the median income in our state. I also know that a LOT of teachers were the primary force in the insane lockdowns/quarantines/mask mandates/stupid policies that helped further cripple education (and set most students back at least a year). So my sympathy meter is apparently broken.
And I am utterly sick of politicians who treat money as if it is a “renewable resource” that magically falls out of the sky...meanwhile my grandchildren already have what is rushing toward $100k federal debt on their backs before they are even conceived...
And don’t get me started on one fo the most nefarious “gifts” Jimmy Carter foisted on this nation: The US Department of Education. A 100% unconstitutional department that has zero business in the Federal government.
Take a look at your local school boards budget....likely lots of FED dollars in it. The Feds bribe school districts
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