Some are; some aren’t.
I have less of a problem with what teachers are getting paid than with the fact that they are protected and get paid that regardless of whether they are any good at the job.
Considering the mindless crap that is taught in course of an education degree, no other segment would hire them.
The Free Market dictates that your appropriate pay is merely what it would cost to replace you with like kind and quality. For teachers, which is not that hard of a job, that figure is far lower than what they get now.
FTR my wife and I home school our kids and have done some classes for other’s homeschool kids, all for free. In two hours a day, we produced kids that are all WAAAAAAY above grade level.
If anything, as a profession, they are over paid, especially when you factor in bennies and job security and the over all lousy work product (see Occupy Wall Street for the residue of our education system).
If they think public school teachers are underpaid then they ought to try working in Christian and other private schools that don’t get taxpayer largesse.
The best teachers can put their curriculum and course lectures online and let anyone across the US access it.
Fire the teachers we don’t need- and that would be most of them.
The problem is the unions and legislators have made it impossible for a lot of well qualified teachers. Teaching history is something I might want to do when I retire, but as it stands, I’d have to go back to school for an education degree and certifications. This is ridiculous. General Patreaus is not even qualified to teach history at an american public school. Instead of these bureaucratic requirements, a simple test or proof of competency would encourage a lot more qualified teachers to the field that want to share their knowledge for a lot less money. Some do deserve the money, but there are way to many paper tigers teaching in the schools that simply got pushed through a teaching certificate programme. Because of their degrees, they are overpaid and have no real experience.
You mean 3 credit hour courses on decorating a Home Room Bulletin Board aren't as rigorous as Relativistic Physics? Classes on games you can play with a kick-ball aren't as difficult as Differential Equations, Organic Chemistry, or Statistics?
I will gladly compare my EASIEST required course to the most difficult Education degree required course. To say that they are less 'rigorous' is like saying the ocean is wet.
I think teachers should be contractors and be forced to offer the best deal for their services.
When the public schools are privatized, teachers salaries will drop while quality of education will improve.
Out with political agenda and in with education..
Sorry teacher with tenure is worth say,10,000 a yr...
Good teacher without tenure is worth say,70,000 a year..
That averages out to 40,000 a year for both...which is what they are all worth to the unions—but their union dues for the Democrats are priceless.
I dont know but lets find out. How about we put each teacher position into a one year consultant’s contract (at fully burdend rate) and then go to the market. We could put these out as base amount at the current salary and then open the positions up to commercial bidding to see if anyone would under bid the current price. Allow teachers to bid for thier own positions. Heck, allow unions to bid on those positions as well along with commercial staffing firms.
Establish minimum qualifications for the position (background check, credentials, etc) and place the notice out in Feb for businesses to respond between April and May for the delivery contract starting in Aug and run through the next school year. If not qualified contracts are received, then keep the same individual in the same position.
Reasonable assessment until the last line. Doesn’t he know WHo employees teachers? Not schoolboards, who only hire the top administrators. “educators do, and they set the standards for teachers, both in who they hire and in the standards they demand of the teacher colleges. They don’t want the teacher colleges to require high standards for admission; they don’t demand rigorous courses.They want the teacher colleges to produce docile employees of modest attainments. According to the law of every state, the school system decides whom the teachers shall teach, what they shall reach, and how they shall teach. For this reason, school teaching has never been a profession, but what the sociologists call a “semi-profession.” because while the teacher has responsibilities that are professional, they lack professional standing. Unlike doctors, lawyers, veternarians, accountants, etc, they do not have to meet rigorous standards. To require this of teachers would greatly limit the number of teachers, which is why public educators do not demand this of them. Furthermore, the whole concept of the general schedule added to the unwillingness of school system to pay premiums for teachers of subjects such as math and science, means that all teachers are paid the same. In Texas, the only field where a teacher can expect to earn relatively high pay is the football coach.
Get the federal government OUT Of the education business..
They should not be doing anything with education..
All education should be local... under local control..
Or State controlled..or a mix..
Then the kids and college kids would get a good education..
Rubbish. Everybody is paid what they’re worth. And if they’re not, they should go take the higher paying jobs that await them elsewhere.
That being said, there are damned few real teachers in the teachers' unions!
Get rid of the Department of Education, the teachers' unions and get the teachers back to teaching the basics and the truth and then let's talk about rewarding the real teachers for turning out quality products with real employment skills.
If they got paid by what they produced, they are way over paid.
Sometimes I think their pay should be compared with that of baby sitters, and not that of educators.
Trillions have been spent on education and all the turn for the most part are jay walkers.