In the United States, educators are valued for being more than just a teacher by society. Educators not only nurture and enrich student’s minds, but they are also preparing them for the future. They are the stepping stones to the student’s pathway of success. Yet, K-12 teachers around the country, with the exception of the East Coast, are often overworked, overwhelmed, and usually underpaid, due to the lack of funding, for the dedication and time that is required to succeed in their profession, but some areas of the country, for example Rhode Island, do over pay teachers.
According to Dana Goldstein, author of The Teacher Wars, “50 percent of all beginner teachers choose to leave the profession in the first five years” (7). This is either due
…show more content…
Texas is not the only state to face the lack of education funding, but they are one of the most severe in the United States. By forgoing 65,000 school employees, teachers are forced to take on different roles, different classes, and more students. Already underpaid teachers, are now forced to have more responsibility at the same pay. When schools also have reductions, raises are usually not foreseeable in the near …show more content…
According to Allie Bidwell, writer for US News, studies show that nearly “16.1 percent of teachers hold additional jobs…and in some states it closer to 25 percent” (Many Teachers). Having seconds jobs, and maybe even third jobs for some, can be difficult. It will often cause teachers to become tired, irritated, overwhelmed, and overworked to their limit. Teachers struggle to earn every penny that they make. Meanwhile, Americans value athletes, musicians, and actors higher. Americans will not hesitate to go the movies, pay for a concert, or go to a sporting event. Teachers are providing education and preparing students of the next generation to succeed and better the lives of everyone. Yet, society as a whole is uncertain about providing more funding for their local school districts. Without the backing of the local community, teachers will never be able to devote all their time to just one job and focus on enhancing their students’
School funding is a recurring issue in the modern era. Debates ranging from give schools more money, to get rid of the system in place and reform a new idea have been plaguing the world over the years. “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed in 2009, provided more than $100 billion in education aid to offset budget cuts..” (School Finance). Later, “Congress provided an additional $10 billion in 2010 to avert mass teacher layoffs (Education Week, "Total Recovery Act")” (School Funding). These numbers are just a sample of the struggles in school funding, that is costing a ton of money to keep afloat. “There are many ways schools fund varying from state to state and even school to school. Income taxes, corporate taxes, sales taxes, and other fees provide 48 percent of the elementary and secondary school funds. 44 percent of local districts draw money from local property taxes. The federal government makes up approximately 8 percent of state education budgets. These funds are a dealt out on a per-student basis, and categorically to ensure enough resources for each special program or facility” (School Funding). These funds play a huge role in every student's education, either positive or negative. The three main areas that need to be addressed in the school budget are extracurricular funding, building and equipment maintenance, and last but not least staff funding.
School funding for public schools has collectively been cut by $7.6 billion since 2002, forcing schools districts in Georgia to a tipping point. The 2001 recession had a major effect on Georgia’s fiscal condition, which consequently had a major effect on the financing of K-12 education in Georgia. School budgets are used to describe a district’s plan for the upcoming year as pertaining to anticipated revenues and expenditures. Each district’s budget heavily relies on the amount of money they receive from the state’s general fund and since that number has significantly dropped in recent years schools are not able to provide the best education for our students. The budget for public schools in Georgia should be increased because teachers are losing their jobs and schools are being forced to eliminate valuable programs that are instrumental in the education of our youth.
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.
With the low expectations of teachers, students are limited in their ability to learn. As discussed before, it is difficult to predict how well a teacher will do at their job before they begin working. This creates doubt when hiring anyone, and employers may not know if who they are hiring is the right choice. If teachers are judged by not only the basic requirements met, but also their interpersonal skills and how well they are able to teach in a positive manner, there will hopefully be less mediocre teachers hired. In the same way, both an advanced teacher and an average teacher are paid the same wages, which creates a flaw in education. Even more, there should not be average teachers in the workforce if all teachers are paid the same. Though this harms the advanced teachers, who deserve more than they earn, it also harms the students, as they are taught at a lower level by the inadequate teachers. Gladwell mentions these flaws in his article, but he also explains the traits good teachers should have, which brings a strive forward in this issue. Because of this, it is clear America must be more selective and strict when hiring
In February 2010 Chicago Public Schools (CPS) reported their shockingly large budget deficit which will affect the 2010 / 2011 school year. The decreased state funding, increased salary and benefit costs, and the increase of operational costs for Chicago Public schools leaves a deficit of $700 - $900 millions dollars. This deficit of funds will have drastic affects on teachers including teacher and staff layoffs, school closings, and loss of teacher benefits. More importantly the effects of budgetary issues hits hard on our students’ increase the inequities of especially poor urban schools. These children have nothing to do with poor management of the funds for their basic right of an equal and highly performing education. There are an increased number of dilapidated school buildings, an increased number of charter schools, and a loss of afterschool programs such as music and sport activities, minimal school supplies, no transportat...
The most important reason public schools provide an excellent education is that teachers are required to be highly qualified and suited for the job. When asked if public schools were a wise investment for the government Barnard answered,” Yes, not every parent [very few in fact] are trained and suited to educate students”” (Barnard). In particular, they must acquire and maintain a license to teach. In order to earn this teaching certification, they must demonstrate proficiency in all basic skills, study their subject area in depth, and learn effective techniques of instructing all kinds of learners. They also are required to get on-the-job training under the guidance of an experienced teacher. They have to motivate students to learn and have a passion for teaching, maintain their license, and continue their own education and training throu...
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. Although some people may argue that performance pay is good, performance/merit pay is bad because it will result in teachers doing much less personalizing of the curriculum, and spending that time doing only what things need to teach in order to keep their student’s
Teachers may be one of the most important influences on children and teenagers throughout their adolescent lives. They spend a large amount of time around their students, anywhere between six to eight hours a day, five days a week, 180 days per school year. However, even though they are such an important influence on adolescents, the average base salary of a teacher is $31,645 (“Teacher Education”). In an attempt to reward teachers, many states use a “merit pay” system to reward teachers who have higher test scores with their students. Teachers at Oak Grove Primary School received about $900 in merit pay, while librarians and counselors received about $600 (Ciurczak). Although teachers enrolled in incentivized pay programs may benefit from
The state’s new evaluation system was in response to administrators who produced, “superficial and capricious teacher evaluation systems that often don't even directly address the quality of instruction, much less measure students' learning” (Toch, 2008). Too often, the “good-ol-boy” attitude would insure mediocre educators would remain employed. Realizing this was often more the rule then the exception, the governor created educational mandates to focus, “on supporting and training effective teachers to drive student achievement” (Marzano Center, 2013). Initially, they expected the school districts and the teachers would have issues and experience growing pains, but in the end the goal was, “to improve teacher performance, year by year, with a corresponding rise in student achievement” (Marzano Center, 2013).
Today, education is one of the most highly debated areas in America. Schools all across the nation employ teachers to make children and young adults ready for life, college, and the workforce. According to http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/breakdown, the federal government is set to spend 1 trillion dollars on education in the fiscal year of 2014. But the increasing pressure that is put on to teachers is actually harming the education system. The ongoing dilemmas that are the lack of incentive for teachers, the tenures of teachers, and the focus on the “outcomes” of students, are causing the students’ education to be lacking.
...equipped and unsupported teachers. As the old saying goes, “You get what you paid for.” Letting down these students, is ultimately affecting them and other citizens of America. International students look at America as this shining beacon of light, with endless opportunities and tools to help them succeed in life. According to University world news “enrolment growth has been driven by just two countries, China and Saudi Arabia. Since 2007, enrolments from China have grown by 186.5% while enrolments from Saudi Arabia have grown by a staggering 332.9%.” This proves that, not only are messing situations up for our students, but for other countries as well. Teachers are extremely important, and are the people who lead our future. If teachers don’t get the increase in their salary, then this affects the world because a world with no education is a world with no growth.
When choosing ones profession there are always two important questions to ask yourself. Is it what you love doing, and is the pay going to be enough to support you. For me the second question has never had much of an impact on my decision, along with most others who are educators or wish to become one. Teaching is not a job that one chooses to be rewarded by the pay. It is a job that is chosen for the rewarding feeling of knowing that it is the most effective, and most enjoyable way one can change the world; therefore, if teachers are noble enough to sacrifice such a huge aspect just to better our future generations, then don’t you think they should be paid what they deserve?
One reason being teachers only work around 185 to 195 days a year, compared with 260 days for typical for other careers. Teachers get summer, holidays, weekends off, and only working 36.5 hours a week. Now in 2005, a study was taken to prove that teacher get paid hourly around $34.06. Which was much 61% better than other careers. Now counteracting that argument the OECD found American teachers spent more hours in their classrooms working than almost every other country. Teachers still have to grade papers, create lesson plans, and have school board meetings. As well as that some public school teachers have second jobs. Another reason is the benefits that teachers can get. Some benefits that comes with teaching are retirement, health, dental, and paid time off. Teachers can retire if they have 25 years of teaching. Health and dental
Although we need to provide a better educational experience for children, with current budget constraints calling for tightening of belts, not expanding our spending on education. However with the United States falling further behind in world rankings, we have to look at cutting costs that do not take away from the classroom. A major expense of every school district is the administrative budget, not the secretaries and custodial staff, but the school board and superintendents salaries. Many states have copious numbers of school districts all with their own superintendent and support staff. In Pennsylvania, state officials are proposing caps on superintendents’ salaries. “Roughly 70 percent of superintendents statewide earn more than the proposed caps, according to the state. Administration officials estimate the salary limits would save nearly $9.8 million annually” (Giordano). Besides capping salaries some states are looking at consolidating school districts, many rural districts throughout the USA can have fewer than fifty to one hundred students...