Students are walking through the overcrowded hallways of middle school, talking about the upcoming test when they hear a teacher at his door joke, “Our salary is lower than an abyss.” The students understand this metaphor is a joke; however, every joke has some truth hidden deep inside its contents. The salary of teachers is a widespread problem in Tennessee and the nation. Teachers are drastically underpaid after working a minimum of eight hours a day, causing their low wages to become a main debate topic for the governor race in Tennessee. Gubernatorial candidates will say they will raise the salaries of teachers during their debates to become governor; however, it once again becomes a forgotten topic that our state does not change. Salaries …show more content…
However, the salary problem only means we lose the valuable and superior teachers we have now for the lower quality teachers. This dilemma leads to another main reason these salaries should change for the better. Salaries of teachers are making and breaking who leaves teaching jobs, and the school systems in Tennessee are losing more and more valuable teachers because of it. Based on an article called “We Are Losing More and More Good Teachers,” the Tennessee Education Research Alliance says in the article, “...top teachers are losing interest in the job because of low pay.” The departure of good teachers is causing schools to become worse and worse. The evidence clearly outlines the importance of increasing teacher salaries. The ratio of supply and demand for valuable teachers in school systems in Tennessee is completely unbalanced. Schools in Tennessee will lose their high spot in the education system because of it. A “Washington Post” article about teachers' salaries titled, “Why Teachers’ Salaries Should Be Doubled,” gives an example of one valuable teacher who left her job because of the low pay. Katrina Colon, who won a “Teacher of the Year” award, left her job in a public school because of the underpayment. Her departure from her profession proves that more and more of the valuable teachers needed in school systems are leaving because of the incredibly low salary. As more and more teachers leave due to the salary issue, the education system itself will plummet. If teacher salaries do not change, we will lose more and more qualified teachers, some being the ones who keep our educational system
The American public school system faces an education crisis. According to Benjamin Barber, American children barely surpass the lowest standards set for education, especially in literacy, throughout the county’s history. Barber supports the existence of this crisis in his essay “America Skips School”, but argues against a solution to remedy the numerous problems facing the system. Although he acknowledges no solution, Barber suggests a smarter flow of financial resources will address many of the issues, however, he fails to acknowledge the distribution of this money. Barber’s suggestion for smarter financial resources for schools can be effectively implemented through a structured committee focused solely on the distribution of money.
In “The Teacher Wars”, by Helen Goldstein, the book focuses on the historical implications of school policy and how it affects teachers. The author goes into depth with everything from the rise of female teachers to the rise of technology in today’s teachers. As Goldstein argues teachers have an incredible ability to be able to widen equality, yet can also narrow the achievement gap that is created from birth. Her showcase of the constant strife against teachers throughout the ages gives way to multiple ways politics and decisions affect the achievement gap.
Barber calls the reader 's attention to the low salary of teachers and how their wages need to rise. Although many people know about the salary issue for teachers, they often overlook
The first reason I agree with Matthew Miller’s “A Deal for Teachers”, is that something needs to be done about good teachers not being treated or paid right. I know many (in my opinion) great and intelligent teachers. They are working hard all the time to teach children everything they need to know. Meanwhile, they are getting paid the same as their coworkers who are doing nothing. In poor schools this might be even more important. In some cases, school might be the only place some children are getting taught important life skills, and their teachers might be the only good examples they have. I know a teacher who works in a poorer school. She’s told me about how hard it is to work at a poor school in general, with a lot of children who don’t respect teachers or adults and parents that also don’t respect the teachers. Couple that with low income and awful coworkers. If we keep giving our good teachers reason to leave by not treating them fairly, then we will never fix the problem of having so many bad teachers in our
An outdated education system is the largest problem Michigan faces because it affects not only the present, but also the future of the state. Important issues cannot be solved, nor policies created to remedy them, if the people attempting to solve them are not equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to make informed decisions. The state cannot run itself, let alone the nation as a whole, if its’ people are uneducated. The Constitution, the very basis of our government, relies heavily on the assumption that citizens of the United States are able to make knowledgeable and well-reasoned decisions, the types of which cannot be made when a person does not receive a proper education. This proper education is unattainable when low educational funding occurs. Lowering educational funding leads to lower standardized test scores, lack of resources, and an overall poorer education (Roy 2003). Even with these results educational funding has consistently been put upon the chopping block at all levels of government. Governor Rick Snyder’s budget cuts $470 per pupil for the 2012 fiscal year, while promising only small incentives to be added when re-balancing the budget in 2013 (Resmovits 2012). Snyder’s cuts in education stand in sharp contrast to the budget and policy passed in 1994, by then Governor John Engler. Engler, along with the House and Senate, created Proposal A. This policy increased funding to all levels of education, reduced the large funding gap between poorer and richer school districts, and opened schools of choice. Proposal A was largely effective in its’ objectives, but was unable to maintain the projected budget needed to maintain efficiency due to the recession, and Michigan laws requiring education cuts when school ...
Understanding the basic concept of minimum wage is important for every single individual. We all live in this world together and it is obvious that there is an order. In order to continue our lives and afford our basic needs, we all need to work and gain wealth. As the old adage says ‘‘There ain’t a such a thing as a free lunch.’’ We need to give up on something that we like to get something else that we like. That’s why, every single individual in the society face trade-offs. However, people have different status. Some people work as employees and some work as employers. In that case of minimum wage the trade off is between employees and employers. Employees work for employers in order to gain money and afford their minimal living expenses whereas employers give up on their money and pay for employees because employers take care of their need of labor. Employers pay for their workers who we call employees and employees gain hourly money. The calculated minimum money that they gain in an hour base called minimum wages. Besides, there is this cycle that everyone actually works
Title I is funding for elementary and secondary schools in the legislation that was passed by Congress on April 9, 1965 (Phyllis McClure, Center of American Progress). Furthermore, this title is to ensure that disadvantaged children in middle to low class neighborhoods have a fair and equal opportunity to receive a high-quality education like other individuals in other districts. Moreover, Title 1 was also to help students reach at least a minimum score of proficiency on state standardized tests (U.S Department of Education). Also, the California Supreme Court in 1971 created the Pupil system to equalize the funding throughout the school districts throughout the state. (Margaret Weston, PPIC Publication). Title 1 funds are still used today in public schools.
Taylor Mali, an American slam poet and teacher, wrote a poem titled, “What Teachers Make”. In this poem, he rhythmically tells about other professions criticizing teachers based on their choice of occupation. While teachers will never earn six figure incomes, they make a difference. Teachers dedicate their lives to leading, inspiring, and educating future generations, all while earning meager pay. Though teachers form foundation of education, their pay does not accurately represent their skills. Using merit pay systems will properly assess how much a teacher should be paid, based on their teaching ability.
Salary schedules for public school teachers are almost a common feature in public school districts. These schedules largely determine the salaries for the teachers. A single district schedule sets the pay for hundreds of thousands of teachers in thousands of schools (Besharov 1). The key factor that influences the pay for the teachers in the salary schedules include experience in terms of years and the total number of graduate course works that a teacher has completed. This paper will look at the cons and pros of the salary schedules in terms of an economic point of view.
In my experience, the majority of my teachers were dedicated and caring people to their work. I previously thought that maybe I had gotten lucky with my instructors in which classes I participated in, or maybe I am a more open minded person than those who criticized our educators. Now I see that teachers are scapegoats for other complications outside of their control. Even if some are no longer of a higher caliber, a reason for the decline could be disheartening caused by their limited resources and general disrespect year after year. The government may not be willing to reverse past changes, but now the system whose purpose is to prepare the children of today to become the adults of tomorrow is being annexed by business behemoths striving for ever greater profits to fill their
Some locations in the United States are trying to improve their education by adding quality teachers. A major reason why there is an achievement gap in education is because there exist a gap in teachers as well. Research has shown that teacher quality counts. Some states are seeking ways to keep quality teachers and ways to attract them. In New York City, the schools will not hire teachers that are not certified. Also, New York and California are adding some sort of incentive in public schools, to attract quality teaching to minority schools. Sometimes school add annual bonus up to $10,000 for qualify teacher to work in public school, with low achieving schools. Also, many state provide some sort of tuition assistance for teacher, but of all of the states only seven target the candidates to commit to the lower achieving schools (Olsen, 2003).
There is no more critical role in our current society than that of a teacher’s. Teachers help shape the minds of the future. Tomorrow's engineers, scientists, politicians, and educators are all greatly influenced by today's instructors. Without teachers society would not be anywhere near where it is now, and only a select few would have access to learning. Sadly however important teachers are in human civilization, they are still drastically understated, unrecognized and under paid.
There are many ways to compile data on a teacher and determine that person’s performance. Teacher performance can be based upon classroom observation, a teacher’s continuing development and education, and students’ standardized testing scores. The controversy centers around using student test scores to determine the performance of a teacher and thus her pay. Scott Andes, a research analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation voices the merits of performance based pay with his article “Getting Serious with Education: Why Can We Measure Students but Not Teachers?” High School English teachers, Jordan Kohanim and Ashley Ulrich vehemently state why there is no merit with performance based pay with their article, “No Merit to Merit Pay Arguments.” In each article both sides debate how performance based or merit pay will affect students, teachers, schools, and com...
Strauss, Valerie. "Why teachers’ salaries should be doubled now." The Washington Post. N.p., 25 Mar. 2014. Web. 5 Apr. 2014. .
Referring to Tell (2013), teachers continue to clarify simply that quality learning in private school is a result of an improved environment for teaching and learning, including innovative leadership. Apart from that, children in private school come from worthy economic backgrounds when compared to children attending public schools. According to Telli (2013) teachers maintained that education would not improve, if teacher’s salary remains low or frequently delayed. Expressing their feelings, according to Telli (2013) teachers insisted, “pay us what we deserve and pay us on time…you will” witness a revolution in education (p. 5). Any improvement that lawmakers execute without teachers and students’ engagement will indeed fail. Tell (2013) study tries to validate that the quality of education rest on the hands of teachers. Thus, teachers supposedly, confirm that proposed policy for education, will sooner or later lead