321 Learn!

In a commentary published January 11, 2012 in Education Week, it is a mistaken viewpoint that public school teachers are underpaid. Additionally, Jason Richwine and Andrew Biggs go on to state that their “report is a sober, data-driven contribution to an ongoing policy discussion…teachers should still receive no more and no less than fair-market compensation for their skills.”

So, they go on to explain that teachers’ SAT and GRE scores are lower than the data supports for their pay scale, that more teachers than positions are graduating every year looking for jobs (supporting the fact that so many people want to get into the profession, obviously because of the pay) and that the turnover rate is not any worse than “similar professions”. They talked about how the “emotional reaction” to the issue is no way to scientifically look at whether a person is worth their pay scale and that they based their findings on the teacher reported number of hours worked, not just the contract.

And, they state that “current compensation” is “50 percent above market rate”, something that hasn’t improved the standards of education! Shocking!

Their recommendations? Start with pension reform! Teachers have a pension plan that is obviously too good for them. Second, let’s have “deep structural reform of the teacher-compensation system.”

Yes. Lets.

Let’s start thinking about what a teacher does in comparison to other workforces who get paid similar or less than they do.

Bankers – bankers get paid less, at least those below the VP/president level or those who have been there for the past 30 years. Bankers care for our money, provide loans allowing us to live beyond our means, buy houses and cars we can’t afford and extend lines of credit so we can have all the material goods we could possibly want.

Fast food workers/restaurant workers. Some might be paid more, top chefs in fancy pancy restaurants might be paid equal to teachers, maybe more. Ironic that teachers can’t afford to eat at those top restaurants (oh wait, administration can – superintendant’s all over the place could eat wherever they wanted whenever they wanted, if only they lived in a smaller Mc Mansion…) But that’s besides the point – Obviously the impact that food service workers have on the world is worth that of the impact teachers have on the world…

Store managers make approximately what teachers make. Yes! There you go – the ability to manage the store floor, work a customer over and close a sale. Because a new anything is worth the same in the long run as a 3^rd grader learning how to read fluently and comprehend what he is reading.

Here’s the thing – are you really willing to admit that the education of every child in America is worth only the basic comparable “skill set” that these other professions provide? I have never spoken to a single teacher who entered the work force because of the money. Honestly, if the job was more respected and work environment improved, I bet the argument that teachers are underpaid would go away! Teachers teach because they love kids. Ok, so cooks do what they do because they love food. But teachers want to make a difference in the world that food at a nice restaurant cannot touch.

What are teachers worth to you? I’m not saying teachers need to be paid more, but I am saying the pay scale is messed up – and upside down. The uppity people in the school board need to trade salaries with those doing the dirty work. It’s also time that people stop looking at teachers as babysitters who simply play with and color with children all day. So IQ may not be super high and SAT scores might be among the lowest professional jobs available. Is that where the value of a teacher comes in? I thought the value was in the molding and education of a future president. The education of future nobel prize winners. The shapers of the very future of our existence. THAT is why more teachers enter the field than there are positions – because teaching is one of the only fields where they actually work on sacred ground.

THAT can’t be quantified by data.