Posted on 09/01/2011 7:30:31 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
How would the nation's school system be different if teachers were paid like engineers?
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan proposed last month that a significant boost in teacher salaries could transform public schools for the better by luring the country's brightest college graduates into the profession.
But it's possible that teachers would rather have more job security than a higher salary. When Michelle Rhee controlled Washington D.C.'s schools, she offered up to $130,000 salaries to teachers if they would give up their union's tenure and seniority rules and agree to be paid based on their students' test scores. She could not get the teachers union to accept her offer.
Rhee eventually negotiated a slightly watered-down version of her plan, but she resigned only a few months later when the ouster of Mayor Adrian Fenty was widely seen as a rejection of her education policies.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Agree totally
Salaries should be determined by the free market, not by arbitrarily comparing one profession to another. The “federalization” of education does not help in this situation.
I’m a 7th grade English teacher, and I’d settle for baby-sitting wages. Just pay me $2 per hour, per kid, and I’ll keep them off the streets, safe, and I’ll do my best to teach them into the bargain. I’ll read books with them, I’ll have them write papers, I’ll correct the papers and give them advice, I’ll read short stories with them and show them a few classic movies... just pay me $2 per hour, per kid.
Well, a friend of mine was making close to that teaching.
In college we used to joke that an engineering major was the same as a “pre-business” major. Not taking any shots at those with business degrees here, just illustrating the washout rate for engineering majors was high.
If a person with the smarts to be accepted into an engineering program instead ends up becoming a teacher, that’s a Win-Win for both programs.
This hooey about needing to pay teachers more to “attract” better people is so untrue. The problem is that teacher’s unions have school boards over a barrel. It’s like watching the NY Jets scrimmage your local HS football team. Eventually the fans (ie. the parents) tire of the exercise and put an end to it. Guess who is leading on the scoreboard when the game is called?
the fact of the matter is,
teachers’ sat’s are among the lowest in the universities.
they are no where near science, engineering, law, medicine, etc.
why would you give a high salary to stupid people?
There is a huge surplus of teacher applicants here whereas people with my particular skill set tend to be in fairly short supply. In the real world, this gap would be addressed by bidding their salaries down and my salary up. But it doesn't happen because the teacher's union and their political puppets conspire to distort reality.
...and if you can read this in English, thank a US soldier!
press 1 for “no” or 2 for “hell no”
If you do factor in that, paying a teacher 60k is way cheap.
Bad engineers can kill you. Bad teachers can only kill your brain.
I am getting old so I say what I want. I was a teacher and I have excellant teachers in my family. But when I hear any teacher whine about pay, I now gently point out the holiday time they get...maybe 2 weeks at Christmas, one week for Spring Break, sometimes 1 week fall break, days off or random holidays and at least 6 weeks-2 months for summer. Even “12 month” contracts offer the regular school holidays. What other job has that kind of time? And school days are not that long compared to other jobs. Good teachers spend extra time preparing and grading papers or tutoring students; coaches spend untold hours doing their job; small town administrators have extra time expected of them. But these vacations used to be the reason many people chose education; that and it is easier than other majors. It is very important to have good teachers but not every teacher deserves big pay for the job they do.
I think the starting salary for a teacher should be whatever it takes to get a qualified individual to fill each openining, and not a penny more, whether that be $20,000 per year or $100,000 per year.
In my area, teacher salaries are so high that is nearly impossible to get a teaching job. Economics 101 would suggest that they are greatly overpaid.
When will these fools understand that academic success does not begin with how much we pay the teacher, rather it begins with firing incompetent people currently tenured in our schools.
They aren't interested in getting the brightest graduates, they are only interested in getting the ones with degrees in education. Go get a PhD in literature and try to get a job teaching grade school English and see how you do. You won't be "qualified". I'm an engineer with 20 years experience, they wouldn't hire me to teach high school science without going through a lengthy process of "alternate path" certification and even then, a new grad with a teaching degree would get preferential hiring.
I know this because my wife, a practicing attorney with a JD and and undergraduate degree in literature, was told she was unhireable to teach middle school. She spent two years going back to school to get an education degree so she could teach.
I guess it's how the NEA protects their empire.
The most are teachers have teaching degrees because they didn’t have the stuff it takes to get into an engineering program but weren’t so stupid that they had to settle for a journalism program.
Absolutely correct. Engineers never had a course who's objective was to teach us how to make a neat bulletin board.
As an engineer, I can - today - if I so desired; walk into almost any school in America and start as a teacher. Depending upon the state, the teaching certificate is waived.
How many teachers could walk into any engineering job - and peform the skills required?
I really don't understand the hostility to teachers. Most parents are so glad when that ornery adolescent leaves the house in the morning, they sigh in relief. Well, that cranky pre-teen is heading in my direction with 15 of her closest friends and enemies, and 15 boys she either loves or hates. I'm in a room with them all day and I can't even leave them alone to go to the BATHROOM. Seriously.
Most people could not do my job. Many who try can't handle it.
Upon reflection, I think I would like $2.50 per hour, per child.
This is complete BS. Salaries don’t attract teachers. Getting a kid who hates reading to appreciate the Scarlet Letter and Huck Finn is what attracts teachers.
The pay is just to keep food on the table.
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