This is a posting in response to the NY Times article a few months ago (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/opinion/01eggers.html) discussing the impact on our students and future of low teacher salaries.
The first portion of the article has an excellent statement regarding the current view of educators and education in America today compared to the military and soliders. Basically, we don't blame the soldiers when we do not get results in military operations. We do not blame their rate of pay for faulty planning. Instead, we blame the planners of the operations, the generals, the JCs, the defense department.
In education we do just the opposite, we blame the teachers. Not the lack of resources, not the educational system, not standardized tests and teaching to the test, but the teachers!!! Instead, legislators and the public blame the teachers and further cut resources....at a certain point (and for many of us we are there), there are no more resources to cut. Most parents can barely handle 3 kids all day during the summer. Today, teachers are facing 35-40 students per class at least 5 times a day. That's a lot of students and with minimal resources we are supposed to prepare them for a future!!! Have you tried to conduct labs with no supplies, with resources for 15 of your 35 students each period? What about getting them ready for the state tests? Is it about teaching to the test or preparing students for the future? Do we want students who are good test takers or students who can think critically and do well on the tests? Yes there are strategies to teach students to think critically and do well on tests, but often teachers are hampered by national, state, and district "guidelines" and policies.
According to the article and other research, the average teacher's pay is about equal to that of a bartender (without many tips) or a toll taker. Teachers are making 14% less than professionals in other occupations with similar educational requirements.
"In real terms, teachers’ salaries have declined for 30 years. The average starting salary is $39,000; the average ending salary — after 25 years in the profession — is $67,000. This prices teachers out of home ownership in 32 metropolitan areas, and makes raising a family on one salary near impossible."
Nearly every teacher must work a second job in order to make ends meet and every year, some of the best teachers leave the profession. According to multiple sources, the driving causes are long hours, low pay, lack of support, resources, and respect. Perhaps it is not enough to have a call to teach when you are teaching 150-200 students a day for low pay and at the end of the year called a bad teacher when test scores don't increase enough (even if they are way below and increase substantially). According to national research, 20% of urban district teachers quit each year and 46% of teachers nationwide quit before their fifth year costing the United States $7.34 billion yearly.
We must focus on fixing the system, not placing the blame on the teachers on the front lines. It will take effort from all sectors to improve our educational system. The public school system is not broken, but we must focus on making it better. We must look at those systems around the world, in places like Korea and Finland, that are working and be willing to change our own.
