It is Time to Raise Teachers Salaries

It is Time to Raise Teachers Salaries

Offer me enough money, and I will do almost anything. Why? Because I

can exchange money for goods and services, and I want goods and

services.

My willingness to ``do things'' for money can be explained by the

fundamental economics principle of supply and demand: without much

exception, an increase in demand for a good or service increases the

price of that good and service, and an increase in supply of a good or

service decreases the price of that good or service. In other words,

given a large free market economy and a lot of dough, you can

accomplish almost anything. Hence, if my ``goods'' or ``services''

are in high enough demand (the price is high enough), then I will

submit to the wonders of capitalism.

Now, there is widespread belief that United States primary and

secondary education is not as exemplary as it can and should be (and

definitely not as exemplary as say, er, our military). There are of

course a myriad of reasons why our basic education system should be

exemplary, all of which basically boil down to the supposition that

we need educated people to maintain (and increase!) US prosperity. I

suggest that we use our current prosperity (money) and our free market

economy to bolster our education system. We can acquire more able

teachers by raising teacher salaries, thereby increasing the

effectiveness of our childrens' education and, in turn, prosperity.

In terms of supply and demand, the supply is measured by the size of

the pool of available teaching jobs, and the demand is measured by how

many people want them. If there are not enough teaching j...

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...an to 'educate' anyways?

In 1997 (according to the 1998 Digest of Education Statistics --

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs99/1999036.pdf), students' combined SAT scores

steadily rose from 856 to 1116 in positive correlation with parental

education, from high school dropout to graduate degree. A similar

correlation existed with family income: 873 for families making less

than $10,000, increasing to 1130 for families making more than

$100,000.

Perhaps parenting matters more than teaching, or perhaps more educated

parents bought 'better' education with their higher salaries (through

private schooling and/or by living in more affluent school districts).

Perhaps both. Regardless, the free market principles are clear: more

money yields higher test scores and higher test scores yields more

money.

Invest in prosperity.