Let's do something but not too much. And we can also introduce lots of management bells and whistles from the private sector. Plus we really don't need to pay all of them very much more.
And this is why I distrust detailed policy proposals.
4
I began reading the article and couldn’t stomach reading the whole thing. Teachers should be paid a professional salary...not a livable wage but a thriving wage. A thriving wage attracts more to the field which in turn increases competition for the best candidates. I find it interesting that when a profession is primarily made up of women , then suddenly pay scales, benefits etc. don’t make a difference in outcomes...We live in capitalistic America yet teachers are supposed to be immune to that..I say, don’t let your daughters grow up to be teachers..
19
If we really want to have any legitimate discussion about this, we need to start by discussing the need for reform in the ways our schools are funded; tying funding to local property taxes, which fluctuate wildly based on psychological factors as much as any others, is probably the single dumbest way to fund educational institutions there is (no other nation does it).
There is no way to get a level playing field--or even one not quite as tilted--in that kind of system, and both the students and the teachers suffer.
10
Teachers' salaries should reflect two things: the teacher's educational accomplishments in the subject taught, and the proficiency of the teacher's students in that subject following a semester or a year of study under that teacher. Arguably the worst teacher I ever had was a woman who had a doctorate in "education," and the best teachers I've had possessed graduate degrees in the subjects they taught, and had published articles and/or books in their fields of concentration.
2
Teacher Retention. Losing experienced teachers because they can not afford to live is a huge waste of training and resources, as well as devastating to the teachers who leave.
8
Higher teacher pay is strongly related to keeping our heads above water, I know, I'm married to a wonderful, super hard working teacher, jeez!
8
I am a teacher. I am going to SCREAM if I hear one more person say that teaching is a 'vocation' or that teachers are 'intrinsically motivated' by seeing students succeed, as if that can EVER stand in for a decent wage. What arrogant drivel!
I have moved school districts multiple times. Each time, my main concern is pay. I will never move to a lower paying district simply for the joy of serving students. Teachers work their butts off. We prepare every single person in the US to be functioning citizens. We should be the HIGHEST PAID in every community.
14
"Still, while higher teaching salaries will relieve financial stress, they will not necessarily make teachers better." There is no evidence that increasing teacher's pay makes them a better teacher. Having worked with educators for more than 30 years, calling on schools and Education Departments in colleges and universities of all calibers, I can say, without a doubt, that there is no difference whatsoever after the raise that the education quality is any better and the students learn more from that teacher than they one's before them. Education Departments in colleges are, in many cases, the strongest political unit in a lot of colleges and universities, especially those that started out as "teachers colleges." I have sat through lectures in those departments that were so inadequate that the future teachers would learn almost nothing from them. Having been in school classrooms and the classrooms of education professors, the education of a teacher is little more than just basic. What needs to be done is to change the system where the student does not major in education, but in the courses for which they were certified. That is not the case now. I met with one new teacher who was certified in Social Science who was employed to teach political science, but had never had a course in college in political science. What is there, then, for the student to learn while the teacher is trying to be ahead of them.
I totally disagree. The increase of pay will draw the more people to the teaching profession. More people means more choice, and therefore, more stringent criteria for selection, and in turn better choice for teachers. And it is specially important, in the system that lacks the centralised programs. In such system, the role of teachers is much more greater than in system that relies on the centralised instructions and textbook. Personally, I think the centralized approach is cheaper and more consistent, but if you relies on talents, you need a system that will attract the talents, and a good salary is a good beginning.
10
@yulia
Drawing more teachers into the teaching profession is not the reason for teacher salaries increases. If it is, it is not working. Right now there are so many teacher positions that are vacant that schools are at a loss, but teacher's salaries are high in comparison to their abilities in many cases. I know of one teacher who got a graduate degree from a for profit college to increase her salary. When she retired, she was earning $70,000 or more. She was teaching 3rd grade and my belief is that 3rd grade was about the level where she was academically. If you want good teachers, stop giving majors in Education and see that future teachers are really educated in what they are to teach. There are a lot of other colleges in the university environment that limit what a student can take outside of their major. Business is one of the most egregious examples.
2
"The second most commonly cited reason high school students gave for not being interested in becoming teachers is the job’s lack of career development opportunities."
Career advancement is usually related to administrative positions. Prof. Kraft is correct; there should be ranks as there are in higher education with criteria for advancement not related to taking on administration.
2
From Sherry Teach: "Standardized tests do a poor job of measuring critical thinking, problem-solving, internal motivation, passion for continued learning, and so many other intangible qualities that combine to make a fully educated and engaged adult." It's worse than that. Standardized tests usually assume ONE "right" answer, whereas a student who thinks out of the box may see multiple potentially right answers. So the "critically thinking, problem solving" student can actually be penalized , , , ,
3
They may, but usually these answers are not in the provided list.
1
It is very entertaining reading an Ivy League education professor's opinion about what public school teachers should receive as salaries. No one thinks it's necessary to comment on what doctors, lawyers, accountants or university professors should receive as compensation because in the U.S. (apart from some state school professors) they are generally not paid with public funds. More importantly, these professions are generally respected in society and have powerful professional bodies to ensure licensing of members and adequate, not to say significant financial reward, unlike public school teachers. However, if you ask most parents what they value most, they will say their children. Despite that sentiment, these same parents refuse to treat the people with whom their children spend most of their day, who are responsible not merely for their education in academic subjects but for modelling good character with the same respect as other professions and with similar financial compensation. Teaching is an honourable profession to which only the best and most qualified applicants should be admitted. If you want improved student outcomes, you need to change what it means to be a teacher in society. Currently, teachers are regarded as glorified babysitters who weren't smart enough to get into medical school or law school and who don't deserve additional compensation because, as Prof. Kraft points out, studies show that more pay results in a negligible student improvement.
14
If teachers continue to be paid a less than living wage, they will continue to strike. More power to them, but maybe it would be better to do the right thing. Would- be teachers aren't choosing the profession for two main reasons - wages are low and the "pain" is high...the main pain being high handed administrators requiring all that corporate and endless testing then judging teachers by those results. Let's imagine a Secretary of Education in a Sanders or Warren presidency taking a page from Finland's book -Finland having the best public schools in the world.
5
There are many ways to determine the best educational system, but according to PISA, Singapore is the best, followed by Hong Kong and Japan. Finland came 8th, after Estonia, Canada and Taiwan. As matter of fact, our of 10 first places 7 are in Asia. I guess before we decide who is the best, we need to decide on the criteria of the best.
My public school teacher daughter, like so many of her colleagues, spends at least $2000 (if not more) annually on items for her classroom. Of that, she can deduct only $250 on her federal taxes.
Besides classroom supplies (books, pencils, paper, etc.), she's purchased personal items for students who come from struggling families--things like gym uniforms, sneakers, snow pants, deodorant, feminine hygiene products, and food.
We expect so much from them nowadays, including being the last line of defense, so yes, raise their salaries. It's the right thing to do.
9
I think it is totally unacceptable to force the teachers to spend on the school supplies, independently of tax break. The schools should provide these supplies. We don't expect the chefs in restaurants to buy stove and ingredients, we are not expect bakers to buy their own banking machines or computers, why should we expect the teachers to buy the supplies?
5
@yulia No one makes teachers buy supplies, we do it because we see a need that the school system does not recognize as important. (Feminine hygiene isn't important? Huh?)
3
Sadly, once again someone with no significant experience teaching in the classroom in public schools is making pronouncements about what is best. The biggest mistake that can be made is throwing money at new teachers while forgetting to recognize the contributions of our veteran teachers. Fairfax County in Virginia did this recently. They changed their pay scales to favor younger teachers and people with masters degrees. Suddenly, they lost all kinds of veteran teachers because they found themselves in a position where they would not get any additional money for years. I encourage the author to come and teach in a special education classroom in my school to see what it is really like on the ground.
11
As an elementary teacher in California I held down 2 additional jobs for 12 years, one on nights and weekends during the school year and the other over the summer weeks. And yes, you hope your students and their parents don't find you bussing tables or selling houses after school. They question how much energy you will have the next day.
Like most teachers I had to buy supplies for the classroom including soap and sponges as well as the usual paper, crayons, and books. I designed and made many of my own materials. Parents helped. Class size for most of my career: 31 to 33.
I was terrified that at the end of my life I would "end up in a cardboard box on the street." I could hardly save on my salary. Plus, although I paid into Social Security in my second and third jobs, I knew I was prohibited from collecting it. Reagan's clever tax laws prevented that if you retired with a teacher's pension.
Things improved when I got married. They worked out fine when we retired to a much cheaper country which also has good socialized medicine. We could not live on our pensions in California but here we have only needed a fraction and have saved the rest for our old old age.
BTW The urban schools here are gorgeous 19th century structures renovated inside. Village schools are lovingly cared for by the entire community. Universities are free.
12
That raise sounds pretty good to me.
I can’t speak for every teacher in every classroom but I can speak for me and my classroom. Making $13,500 more each year would enable me to quit my second job. The second job I’ve needed to keep me in the middle class. The second job that I’ve worked for 17 of my 23 years.
Without the second job, I could spend more time and energy on my main teaching job. Perhaps, as a science teacher, I could go back to assigning lab reports that I grade for accuracy rather than just skimming for completion. Grading for accuracy when I have 35 or more kids in each of five classes requires time in the evenings. Time I don’t have because I’m working that second job. Maybe that raise would make me a better teacher and lead to improved outcomes for my students. Feedback is important and, if something’s got to give to provide me with the time to work to keep a roof over my head, it is going to be work I do in the evenings.
Again, that raise sounds pretty good to me.
I’d write more but I have to go to that second job.
15
What is your definition of a “hard subject”? I taught English, and some students found the course “easy,” while other students struggled mightily. As far as rewarding “good” teachers, how exactly would that work? I taught Advanced Placement Language and Composition (juniors) so, naturally, they had high test scores. These students were amazingly smart and ambitious, and they made me look like a star. But most of the teachers in my department weren’t so lucky. They had students with much lower skills, absent and indifferent parents, emotional issues and so on. So they are never rewarded with a higher paycheck because they can’t perform a miracle in the space of one year?
18
This article has a fundamental problem, that raising salaries alone won't improve performance of kids, and that is true, mediocre and bad teachers and those doing it because it is the only job they could do, won't improve with more money, nor will it really motivate them to improve.
However, if teacher pay across the board is bad, like exists in many school districts in this country, the problem is you won't attract talented teachers in the first place, places like schools in much of the south are prime examples of that, and teachers who are good are going to move someplace where the pay is more reflective of the position, so if we don't address the salary issue, the rest is bupkus.
I don't disagree that there needs to be a way to reward good quality teachers, those with ideas, to allow them to have positions that combine teaching with mentoring or affecting change and yes reform of work rules need to happen, the NEA too often mimics the worst of other unions, protecting bad teachers while hindering good ones with stupid work rules out of the 1940's (put it this way, talk to private school teachers, who in my area are less well paid than public school teachers, and they will tell you it is because they have freedom to actually teach, not fill out union and school mandated paperwork, like rigid lesson plans, flexible curricula and the like, that they make that compromise).
3
This is one of the most regressive ideas I've ever heard, and from an Ivy League professor no less. No wonder parents are trying to bribe their kids way into these pinnacles of higher learning.
He wants to tie outcomes to pay, (doesn't every captain of industry and finance). But we have a far more basic issue to address. The point of paying teachers more is because the more and more of them are unable to earn a living wage in this line of work. We need to shore up the base wages in the U.S. The same principal applies to most jobs in this country. What all of America needs is a pay raise. We are rapidly heading toward underdevelopment status. What's actually needed is a general strike to underline for the "masters of the universe", who protects their homes, teaches their kids, builds the schools, grows the food, makes the country run.
9
So, Prof Kraft, promotion from, say, associate professor at Brown is finely tuned, not based on seniority and credentials? As transparent as the admissions process, I'm sure.
4
@silverwheel
actually it is, rigorous and peer review based. Nothing like the way tenure is dealt with k12
@RG . I didn't say tenure, I said promotion. The article is about pay, not tenure. Assuming you have tenure at a university, which is based on scholarship like publishing NY Times op-eds and not on student test results, promotion proceeds like clockwork regardless of your performance in the classroom.
3
Dear me, what balderdash. Raising teacher salaries won't benefit student performance because, after all, teachers teach for the joy of teaching, not for the money? Seriously??
I'm a teacher myself--a pretty good one, I think (and my students seem to think so too). I love the kids and my content area (English). But, make no mistake about it: I do it for money.
In a way, the author of this article is correct: raising teacher salaries will do nothing at all for student outcomes on any kind of an immediate basis. Paying competent or incompetent people more does not make them more or less incompetent.
But if we significantly raise teacher salaries, massive changes in student outcomes would be seen over the course of a generation. Currently, teacher pay is so low and working conditions are so lousy (and the respect we get so minimal) that only the students at the bottom of any graduating college class consider going in to teaching. The best students are going in to other professions with more money (and respect).
Raise teacher pay to put it on par with other professions, and that dynamic would change. Top college graduates would consider becoming teachers. Over a couple of decades, older teachers (the ones who, for the most part, graduated toward the bottom of their college classes) would retire and the newer teachers, those at the top of their colleges classes, would be the ones primarily determining student outcomes.
So, don't be deliberately obtuse, Matthew Kraft.
15
Public school takes all children and adolescents. No one is excluded. That includes kids that need lots of time and attention to succeed and graduate: poor kids, hungry kids, kids who are mostly raising themselves, kids who have been bullied and abused, kids struggling with academics, kids with mental and physical disabilities. Teachers don't educate only average kids or talented kids. They work with all kids because they care about all kids. That's the job. But it's hard to keep caring if teachers' salaries are sub-par and respect for public education is a thing of the past. Of course, teachers in most states should be paid more, lots more; and don't talk about cutting their pensions (that's like kicking somebody when they are already down). In addition, we need more teachers -- most class sizes are too big to begin with. Education is taking a back seat in America. We need to invest in our kids, and a first step is investing in our teachers.
12
Q: "What Will Teacher Raises Buy Students?"
A: "A more motivated and less stressed individual teaching them"
Wait, was that a rhetorical question?
6
These "automatic" pay raises folks keep commenting about usually work out to be around a few hundred dollars per year, before taxes. The reason they exist is because no career ladder exists for teachers. In most jobs one can rise from employee to assistant manager, to manager, to district supervisor, to vice-president, each with a corresponding increase in responsibly and compensation. For educators, the only path to earning more is to spend thousands on an advanced degree or leave the classroom for administration (i.e. sell out). Teachers want to teach, but they need to feel that they are also progressing professionally. The contracted salary schedule, often hard-won, is their means of doing so.
3
Public school teachers should be paid like people in the private sector. But they should work like people in the private sector, too: 240 days per year instead of 180. And they should be eligible, like the rest of us, for full retirement benefits at age 70.
3
Green Tea
Do the math: 40 hours per week for 50 weeks for the private sector; 50 hours per week for 40 weeks for teachers.
And since when do private sector folks have to keep working to age 70?
7
@malibu frank
Most people in finance and tech work more like 60+ hrs a week.
So many fallacies in such a short comment. During the early years, teachers do spend their summers working — to earn the Masters degree that is required for permanent certification in many states. Many private employers pay for graduate degrees for promising employees, but teachers pay out of pocket. Retirement age of 70? Utter nonsense. State , city, and employees in all categories are generally eligible to retire with full pension after age 62 or 30 years of service. Police and firefighters after 20 years.
4
It's interesting that the Times is running this piece concurrently with a long story on an Ohio school struggling to support students who have experienced trauma. Both of these pieces should drive attention to the broader point: schools are a frontline service for those ravaged by poverty and despair, and we show little interest in challenging the conditions that leave teachers underpaid and under-resourced.
And how disappointing it is to be informed that federal funding to better support children and their school communities are simply too expensive for our Congress to consider. The status quo is not good enough. We have the resources to pay teachers better and provide community support, both in terms of school resources and in waging war on poverty. It's time to demand better, to stop thinking in terms of moderate improvements and begin to build a society worthy of our children.
6
Someone message me when we ask these same questions of doctors, engineers, and business people. Sigh. I'm a high school teacher who left a more lucrative career for teaching. I love the work and the students, but the constant refrain of "are teachers worth it?" is blatantly insulting.
12
Supply and demand is the basic principle of economics. If you want better teachers, then raise salaries and benefits. Not real hard to understand. Better salaries mean a school is going to improve the pool of candidates it has to select from to fill vacancies and it is more likely to retain teachers that have a good set of needed skills.
Teachers have to pay for good and services at the same price as everyone else. Reward them.
Of course, schools could help with the tuition other costs of continued education that are required of teachers. Schools could explore moving to a year long curriculum giving teachers more paid hours of work and providing enhanced education for students.
2
My son, with degrees from two Ivy League schools, gives special credit to his second grade teacher. A woman teaching in an upscale school district who took a second job as a server at Cheesecake Factory to make ends meet.
What is wrong with this picture?
10
If teacher pay is raised to six figures plus, there'll be more competition for teaching jobs. Fewer people will go to Wall St and more of them will teach. The people in the photos holding signs will have to compete for teaching jobs. Be careful what you ask for. Now, teaching jobs are relatively easy to get, because fewer high scoring people want them. Those people want jobs in finance, tech, and even law. If teaching started to pay 200k/yr, most current teachers would be out of work, because Ivy League grads working on Wall St would leave Wall St to teach.
3
@Anti-Marx
you can't be sure that six figure salaries will attract good teachers. Teach for America provides an example of what kind of people financial success motivates, good business types but not necessariy good teachers.
The modest raises under discussion would not enable early career teachers to earn close to 100,000 per year. At even the highest paying districts — affluent suburbs adjacent to major urban centers — starting teachers earn about 60,000 and don’t crack 6 digits until the 10 th year. Teachers who have not just an MA but 30 additional graduate hours and 20 years of experience top out at 140,000. Recalling the rule of thumb that people can afford a home that costs three times the annual salary: A teacher who lives in Westchester or Long Island will be lucky to be able to purchase a one bedroom co-op in the District where they actually teach. Even at the top of the salary schedule, they can afford a modest three-bedroom ranch only if they choose an hour long commute to an exurban area or sacrifice safety and school quality for their own children by living adjacent to a low income / high crime area.
4
Error 1: Teach for America does not pay more than the average unionized district. Error 2: this organization cannot provide teachers who are skilled on day one because a summer - long orientation cannot replace the two year process of classroom learning and hands-on experiences obtained within an undergraduate certification program. Many teachers within this program do become skilled instructors over the two-year period, as they receive additional training both from mentors at their schools and through the graduate education study that the program funds.
You will have educators being given respect and oversight
as to the manner in which children and teens are taught
in this country.
The key to teacher retention is respect and responsibility
by parents, administrators and school boards.
Parents play a key role for the development of their school
age child. The must shoulder develop and build keys of peer
respect, following directions and sharing.
Parents may not have infused these elements into their
child. Some may even think that is the role that schools and
teachers must take to make their child”learn”
Instead of listening or supporting educators, many in the
public sector, blame, criticize, and second guess.
Why can’t my student learn? When will my student read?
Lots of theses factors can be resolved by fostering deep
appreciation for learning strategies, checking home work
each night and allowing student to build reading strength
by listening to your child read to you.
In many households many students don’t have these
elements in which to make their school experience
a great one.
3
"But if our ultimate goal — as parents, students and voters — is to improve student outcomes"
It's not-- it's to pay teachers more. It's similar to when other workers want raises, because, you know, they aren't paid enough.
6
Really raising teacher pay to complete with other professionals (lawyers, doctors, etc) would almost certainly attract a larger pool of people and a more educated one. In turn, this would reform the profession dramatically. Reading The Smartest Kids in the World by Amanda Ripley, convinced me of that. When Finland limited their education majors to those in the top 10% of the college, they "brain drained" themselves into an amazingly talented teacher force. We could do it in America, but it would take a radical change in values in this country. I am ready for that change.
9
@Margaret
Ok, but then what will less qualified people do for a living? They can't go into medicine or finance or tech. Right now, most teachers are well below the top 10%. They teach, because they can't get higher paying job, because they are not top 10%. Teaching is a safety net, in terms of employment for non-elite graduates. If we follow Finland's model, most current teachers will be serving coffee as a job.
I'm a former teacher. I don't think teachers matter. I think education and reading and writing matter, but I think homeschooling is as good as school (consider Abraham Lincoln). The mistake, IMO, is to equate teachers and teaching with education. Education can happen without teachers. I know autodidacts who are more well educated than people who passed through schools. I think one can highly value education (reading, writing, and arithmetic) without highly valuing the people who stand in front of the classroom, grade papers, and take attendance.
3
@Margaret
It takes a special type of person to handle 30 plus
students, all with special talents, upbringing and
backgrounds.
Ask a doctor, attorney or vehicle service person, how many patients, clients or vehicles they attended to?
Then ask a teacher?
1
@The Chief from Cali and @Anti-Marx
I am a teacher. I was a lawyer. I can assure you that teaching is the more intellectually demanding job. We need the very smartest and with-it people to be teachers. I agree it takes a special type, and first among those traits should be being an excellent scholar.
4
Interesting article. I was a teacher for five years and just resigned my position to work in government. There were a lot of reasons why I resigned, some personal and logistical, but one reason why was there was no room for advancement. I wanted to work for an organization that allowed me to earn more money and have different titles in the long run. As a teacher, and especially at the school I worked at, there was little to no room for advancement. Good teachers can make a huge difference in the lives of their students but teachers also need to be able to earn advancement and higher pay.
6
While Professor Kraft duly mentions his time teaching in Oakland Unified and Berkeley Unified in his biography, he is very coy about for how long. Looking at his long list of publications - and their dates - it seems Mr. Kraft would have had very little time to squeeze in much K-12 teaching. His bio also lists his bachelors, masters, and doctorate - but there is no mention of a teaching credential. Perhaps Doctor Kraft was a substitute teacher for a few weeks?
It seems that Doctor Kraft is one of many well-paid, influential academics that sees fit to use metrics to judge classrooms without finding much time to teach in them.
The solution to the problems that Dr. Kraft mentions? Not more monitoring and evaluation but less. Cut instructional minutes so that teachers and administrators can work as a team to run schools without econometric oversight. Does this sound crazy to you? Well, it based on research from the Dewey era and has been adopted in Finland for the last 15 years. Finnish students - including the poor and the immigrant communities - far surpass their American counterparts academically, precisely because the front-line workers - the teachers - are trusted to run their schools.
5
Teacher raises will reduce the relentless turnover that plagues the profession, affording the field more dignity and causing more high intelligent, hardworking people to aspire to teach. As a teacher making a barely livable wage in New York City I can only imagine the situation for those making barely $30,000 a year in other parts of the country.
3
I was so disappointed in Kamala Harris’s “Big Idea.” Really, Kamala, that’s all you’ve got? A gift to the unions? I was behind Harris until that point. I’m not now.
5
@Passion for Peaches. In some states teachers are not unionized or they are but have zero power.
2
@Kb, teachers’ unions and the workers they represent are, all together, an enormous voting block. That is how Harris is pandering to the unions...and all teachers.
Pay rates for teachers are a state matter, not federal. I have no idea how such a pay rise would be implemented on a federal level. I’m pretty sure Harris doesn’t know, either.
2
OK ... next question should we pay for work done or years on the job? or for that matter extra training?-- MA plus 60. One big problem with unions as I see it is that pay is linked to longevity. Longevity may or may not be tied to performance. Many a teacher after seven years gets out of the classroom and becomes a teacher's teacher (and a salary increase). Teachers with tenure can become very lazy.
Supervisors get paid much more than teachers for.... not having much to do with the classroom.
First of all, let's get over the notion that teachers can do all kinds of other wonderful jobs. (Most of those I know with other wonderful jobs work as salespersons!) IMO all teachers should be evaluated on student performance (mostly). Some teachers are naturally wonderful; others not so much but might be able to improve.
Children also have to learn behavior... and it's sad for everyone when a Kg-er like my nephew gets kicked into special ed because he will not behave. (The special ed helped for a while. Parents and all others at wits' end.) Sometimes I think that a boarding school type situation might suit all better than the current get out of school at 3PM and then what happens to Jane until 6:30 when mom comes to pick her up? (It is a very long day -- leave home 7:30 get home,6:30.)
Perhaps, I will see an article demanding that adjunct pay for college instructors is also increased.
And perhaps a few articles about who should be paid less. (MTA people?)
1
@Auntie Mame performance based pay is not realistic. Imagine performance pay for a dentist, they get paid based on the shape of the patient's teeth no matter the condition of the teeth prior to the visit or when they are out of the dentist's care. Some parents will feed the kids nothing but sugary foods. It's not the dentist's fault if the kid has cavities.
No single person can just jump a student's scores all on their own. It takes work at home. It takes good parents. It takes a life without worry and anxiety. It is silly to think a teacher's pay should be determined by the randomness of humans. What about special education teachers? Their students may never pass the standardized tests.
10
The way to afford higher salaries for teachers is not to pay people in other professions less. That is exactly the kind of scarcity mentality that has been ruining our country since the Reagan era. Higher income taxes and a shift away from using local property taxes to fund schools would not be popular with high earners who live in elite suburbs —but this is the path taken by all of the countries listed as having top performing schools. If we measured the outcomes only from wealthy suburbs, our schools would certainly rank with the highest performing in the world. However other first world countries take care to educate all of their children, where education in the USA is Darwinian.
3
The union that negotiates CUNY contracts has been quite focused on improving adjunct wages and job security in recent years.
The challenges of being a teacher certainly go beyond compensation, but raising compensation would be a good starting point to increase the pool of interested teachers. After all, how many new college graduates would be interested in working 80-100 hour weeks in the finance field if it didn't pay well. Or, would the number of students enrolling in computer science majors have risen as sharply if the field didn't pay well given the challenging nature of the work.
1
It always comes down to this when I read an article by someone proposing a reward system differentiating teachers' pay based on student outcome: I've worked in restaurants that pool tips and restaurants in which the wait staff competes for the better stations because they get the tips they individually earn. I had worked almost as long in restaurants as in education (close to twenty years apiece) and I could say from my experiences that the tip pool system results in better service for the customers and happier staffs. In the same way, I think every suggestion that teachers' pay be differentiated based on performance is misguided. Think about it next time you're in a restaurant and ask for something and the person you grabbed says, "I'm not your waiter."
1
Keep class sizes under 20 students.
In terms of High School reduce the class time
to 40 minutes, don't ask adolescents to concentrate
longer than they are normally capable.
Start classes at 9:30 and end them at 2:30.
Give all teachers a 50 % raise.
1
@John Brown
As a product of public school...
You are assuming everyone is an A+ student and ready to roll as soon as they sit down... 40 students or 20 students --- It can take up to 15 minutes to start class -- that would leave 25 minutes left for learning and instruction?
PLEASE!
1
@Aaron
My grandchildren attend 55 minute classes.
7 per day, starting at 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM
How much of that time do you think they
pay attention ?
How long do you pay attention at a lecture ?
If it takes 15 minutes to start a class
then those students are not ready for
High School.
Send them to Alternative/Trade School.
1
Yes it is very true that one key component in improving educational outcomes and teacher effectiveness is to reduce class sizes — especially in pre-K and early elementary school. Every elite public school system offers this advantage. And, every elite private school in this country, from Waldorf preschools through Ivy doctoral and professional programs, emphasizes that they are worth the high price tag because they offer much lower teacher to student ratios.
This is hogwash- All tenured teachers have great pay and many work second jobs..
What we need to do is make the starting annual salary for elementary school teachers $150K [with no pension] to attract more qualified [smarter] teachers out of college.
Teaching is a calling and a passion YES- but if that were the case, we wouldn't hear so much bickering from them about low salary and benefits.
2
@Aaron
If you pay teachers 150k/yr, finance people will go onto teaching instead of finance, and that will push out all the less qualified applicants (the people who teach now). Now, I assume, you can get a job teaching with a degree from Cal State. Then (150k), you'll need a degree from Pomona, UCLA, or UCSD.
How much do you think beginning teachers earn now that you can toss out a figure like 150k as if that were a modest raise ? The only teachers who can earn that amount have 20 years of experience and a PhD. Beginning salaries in expensive urban areas are 45- 60 k.
"Unconditional raises will not create new incentives for veteran teachers to be more effective, nor will it provide the support necessary for doing so."
It never ceases to amaze me that veteran teachers' / workers are perceived as being stuck in their was or inept.
My advice Mr. Kraft walk out of our his ivory tower at Brown University for a year and come to Gary Community School System. The first thing you'll see are posters on the school doors that say...
No one can enter the school building wearing bath rob, pajamas, house shoes, or lingerie.
No drugs,
No guns',
No profanity or violence.
Those posters aren't for the children but for their parents.
Teachers have no input about curriculum and basically are told what to teach. Reading and comprehension is taught via computer. Most teachers in the lower grades don't konw how to teach phonics. Study after study has proven phonics is the key ingredient for students learning how to read and decipher words. but elementary students in Gary spend their time on computer.
5
What will teacher raises buy teachers is the important question.
Teachers deserve a living wage, as do all Americans. When teachers have to work 2 and 3 jobs to keep a roof over their heads, our public education system is failing them as well as children.
My guess is Dr. Kraft and his precious tenure want for nothing including a secure retirement, some of the best health care in the world, and enough income to travel the world yearly and consume whatever he likes - all of which I'm comfortable guessing he imagines he fully deserves. And yet he's unsure if the educators that get his students to within three months of his tutelage deserve to live within 200-300 percent of federal poverty guidelines.
Shame on smug, entitled, dismissive Matthew Kraft. Teaching compensation is a crisis in this country. Significant salary increases across the board would merely bring teachers' compensation up to not-too-much below competitive salaries in comparable fields.
5
I am a teacher in a public middle school in New Jersey, where our pensions and benefits are constantly under attack. It's hard to accept consolations in our contracts because once we concede something it will never be earned back and our losses become the baseline. We took major sacrifices during the Christie administration, and a lot of us felt it was justified due to the nature of the economy after the 08' crash. However, we have never earned anything back after the economy recovered. When I started working 10 years ago I paid almost nothing for health care and now since Chapter 78 was passed it has gone up every year. Each raise I have received has lowered my net pay because it forced me to pay more for health care. Now my health care is over $500 a month deducted from my check.
This year I have spent thousands of dollars on materials for my classroom (ask what the raises will buy students? Maybe they will get the same but it won't come out of my pocket.) Imagine you work at a company and you need to buy your own pencils, paper, technology supplies, etc. I can't think of many professions like that.
I "technically" work a 40 hour work week but unlike other professions, my day is just a presentation of the material I made on my own time. I devote all of my planning periods to my students, so in reality I work at least 80 hours each week. Oh, by the way we are ten month employees so for the summer I need another job or I have to take a loan just to pay rent and bills.
5
Perhaps, if politicians actually stayed in a classroom for more than a photo op, they would see the level of professionalism that is demanded of a teacher. It is not just the hours of preparation and teaching. It is the hundreds of hours and dollars spent to assure a safe and productive learning environment. Most professionals in other areas are well compensated for all they do beyond their "contract". Not so teachers. Not by a long shot. Teachers are professionals. They should be paid as such.
2
I am a retired teacher with over 30 years of inner-city special education experience. I find it extraordinary that nowhere in this article is mention of the incredible frustration many teachers (including myself) have experienced, or are now experiencing. Imagine that you are a licensed house painter. Only before your next job, your boss tells you that you must use a toothbrush, instead of a paintbrush, to paint the living room. After an hour, he comes in and reprimands you for all the streaks on the wall. This is what it is like for many teachers: forced to teach a curriculum ill-suited for so many students, or to ‘prepare’ them for tests that everyone knows they will fail. We are not allowed to teach them what we think they need, or to engage them in what they are interested in and care about. We are forced to fit them into a system where the fast runners win the race to the top, and the slow or average runners get nothing. Before we talk about what is fitting or not fitting as pay, we need to address this system, which burns out and embitters so many who enter the profession.
10
This opinion piece barely says anything about what might be able to improve school outcomes, or reverse the decline in pay or respect for teachers.
What types of promotions is he talking about? Can't a PhD who studies this full-time be a little more specific?
5
What will a raise buy students? Nothing here. Their parents already are paying sky high property taxes - high enough many have left for other states so they can have enough food for the family and get appropriate courses rather than study hall.
I'd rather see a plan to fully fund special needs. Too many unfunded mandates paid for by families that can't get those lucrative property tax exemptions. Too many students in multiple study halls.
3
My 27-year-old son is in the process of getting his secondary teaching credential in California. He must take two years of post-undergrad work, including many hours of student teaching, observation, and classroom work to qualify, which costs $20,000 for the two years (instate tuition).
In addition, he has to pass the CBEST for admission to the program, then pass 3 additional tests during his program, called CSETS, that are extremely hard (he is getting a history credential). He had to take those twice, and each one costs $100. Also, he is working as a varsity football coach (which he loves) at a public high school, where he earns a stipend of around $3600 per semester.
It is truly a labor of love to become a teacher. And unlike many others who study for two years after college to earn more money, he will most likely start at a salary of around $60,000 per year.
Teachers should be paid more. If they were, teaching would attract more quality, dedicated, young people like my son to the profession.
1
@sharong
Continued success to you and your son.
New York State teachers have the highest salaries in the country along with excellent benefits that far exceed anything you can get in the private sector. In return for this, they basically cannot be fired, it doesn't matter if they do a good job or not, after a few years they can't be fired, and they only work 180 days a year with days off. I could not agree more, lets give them all more money and less accountability.
4
I was at a gathering recently where a recently retired gym teacher bragged about how he/she manipulated the “final average salary” computation that determines pension to the point where the school system changed the deal the following year. I looked up this person’s pension on seethroughny and learned that this “underpaid profession” is using our tax dollars (and some Wall Street gains, I acknowledge) to pay this gym teacher’s $122,000 annual pension. I do not cry for teachers based on this and the other factors cited in this comment. I echo the remarks of fellow teachers cackling in the teachers’ lounge about public school teaching being the best part time job in America. The unions are very powerful primarily because teachers have more free time than any other workers to man phone banks and stuff envelopes—retail politics’ bedrock activity. I left teaching because I understood how hopeless the institution was...and is.
2
@Usedtoteach
I heard from people 15-20 years ago who did the same thing you heard about. That was wrong of them, and since that time, our state has put in place a law which makes such a thing impossible. There are definitely some pensions that are simply outrageous, and some of those came from gaming the system. I'm writing to tell you that as a teacher.... I'm embarrassed. But that doesn't mean that there isn't a problem with funding public education, especially in poor and rural communities. That's the point. Sorry you gave up on teaching. I hear from countless students that their education was fantastic and that a caring teacher made all the difference in their lives.
2
New York City and suburban teachers do have higher salaries than in most other parts of the country. However their housing is exponentially more expensive as well. Brand new teachers cannot qualify for a one bedroom apartment in any safe community that is within an hour of most parts of Westchester, the boroughs, or Long Island. Even the highest paid veteran teachers cannot afford to live in any middle class town in the region.
1
If teachers made a decent wage they would also be able to earn more respect from the community. The separation of education between those "stuck" with public schools and those who can pay more is a scandal.
We need universal K-12 quality public education that everyone can attend. Making it a context is wrong on so many levels!
Germany is a good example. Teachers are highly regarded and respected, and they make enough to live on. We should and could do better. "Doing more with less" is not a good model for the United States of America, which is becoming small and mean and full of victim blaming in a big hurry.
When it comes to kids, everyone should have equal opportunity.
While I'm at it, children should be at least as valuable as fetuses. They may not be "pure" potential, but they're actually here. Somebody should care about them and their families, especially mothers. Education is part of that.
1
How about we at least start with teachers making $30,000/yr not having to pay for student supplies out of their own pockets?
1
What Will Teacher Raises Buy Students is the the wrong question. The reason it is the wrong question is because no one knows the answer. In any business, including education, simply raising salaries does not preclude that teachers will teach better nor will students study harder. What we can hope is that higher salaries will attract a better quality teacher. Some individuals who may be interested in a teaching career may have go into another profession that has better pay and advancement opportunities. Many of us progressives agree that improvements in the physical facilities, up to date books, and addressing some of the social issues that inhibit many children from having a successful student experience are equally important. Conservatives have been attacking pubic education for decades and taxpayer assistance of private and religious schools must come to an end if monies are to be available to address the many issues facing public education.
Move along, folks. Nothing new to see (read) here. "Career Ladders" for teachers? Been there, done that. Kraft presents this as some sort of new, revolutionary "reform". Teacher "career ladders" have been around the state and local level going back at least 20 years. They didn't work then; there's no reason to believe they will now.
1
Tying fair pay to student outcome is the fatal flaw in Mr. Kraft's opinion piece. I doubt that his professor's compensation is
based on his Brown University students' GPAs.
5
What specious, supercilious "you don't understand" drivel. Mr. Kraft continues in the long and hallowed tradition of so many sanctimonious education professionals before him. If we hew to his logic, we can forget about seat belts because they do not save the lives of everyone involved in car crashes; we should dismantle OSHA because kit does not protect all workers from all on-the-job hazards. And, of course, we should forget about teacher raises unless they guarantee that all students will "succeed," whatever that means.
So please, spare us the anti-union, anti-living-wage sanctimony. Teachers deserve a living wage, and they deserve it now. Sadly, that is not what they are getting in far too many school districts.
Ever wonder why students who major in education are at the bottom rungs of academic achievement? Could it be because their programs are being run by folks like Mr. Kraft, whose arguments are so poorly formed? Really, sir, for someone who positions themself as education academic you should be ashamed.
7
Lets hear from the professionals in the field if they even have time to churn out an opinion piece. Professors are fine but at the end of the day, this guy isnt in the trenches. Theory is fine but at the end of the day, next!
3
@Mahalo
I wonder if there were any home visits done?
Interesting. Our small wealthy district lost about 10 teachers last year. They couldn’t afford to live within commuting distance. We had no physics teacher, and our second rate biology teacher needs to have a coteacher because of anger management problems. Apparently having a teacher who doesn’t yell a kids is impossible find. One of the teachers was working a second job taking care of wealthy peoples children in order to make ends meet.
Seems to me it’s good to have teachers who enjoy a reasonable quality of life is a good idea.
3
I always read criticism of proposals to increase teachers' pay, but rarely do the critics have a solid counter-proposal to offer. Low teacher pay, and specifically low teacher pay in STEM fields, is a demonstrable barrier to entering the profession. These students have many professional options; even those who wish to "teach" have options where the teaching mindset can find employment that utilizes this talent or calling outside the traditional classroom.
Reducing or removing this barrier to entry will have one certain benefit for students: assuring that qualified teachers are available for science and math courses. Far too many classrooms are led by teachers whose preparation in math and science is (charitably) inadequate.
3
I provide science education services (Science assemblies) in California, with an emphasis on STEM labs. Before that, I was a middle school science teacher. In the past, science teachers were given a budget to purchase science supplies (about $500) for the classroom. Now that budget is basically nothing. How about a fully equipped science room at every elementary school. This would include sinks, labs supplies, lessons, etc. Teachers could visit the fully equipped science room much as they would visit the library, or computer room. When outside vendors come to a school site, they would use the fully equipped science room. While we are at it, how about a budget for outside vendors, and guest lectures.
How nice, another piece suggesting that we should all be motivated by the lofty goal of doing the right and joyful things.
What do you suggest we eat?
6
I spent 40 years in public education and could never understand how the AP English teacher and AP Calculus teacher earned the same salary as the gym teacher (sorry, physical education teacher). The current pay structure in education across the country is a failure when it comes to evaluating the contributions of educators in various disciplines. Unless there is a serious look at who is getting paid and for what, there will be an ongoing crisis in recruting and retaining educators who are expected to raise critical reading and writing skills and improve student ability in math and science.
1
@RMB
(Disclaimer, I am not a gym teacher) It's hard to imagine that after your first year that you had not seen how the educational system works. Who decides which subject matter (or the students in those classes, for that matter) are more valuable? Are we going to call the Kindergarten teacher a babysitter next? Will it be Art over Music or, which foreign language is more important? Had you not attended a football game and saw the support? Many students will be using those extracurriculars on their college applications for admission or scholarships. Of all the problems in education in this country, gym teachers and their remuneration are not it.
Teachers, if they are fortunate, get the opportunity to teach the courses they enjoy and, few, if any, consider AP assignments, or their particular subject matter to give them any extended value rather, they accept the assignment as a privilege and an honor. Schools that function well have a staff where comradery, cooperation, and a sense of shared responsibility for the students (and parents) interests are paramount. In fact, probably the least valuable teacher in the building was the one who thought he or she was better than everyone else.
1
@Charles The education system doesn't work. While football players may get cheers on the field, once off they can't read nor write. A major problem exists at the college level where many, usually male, players are coddled as long as they have a useful playing life but with a serious injury they are dumped into the regular college class where they can't compete. We all know that for football and basketball in particular, the term student-athlete is a joke. And there must be people who are considered more valuable than others in the world which might explain why the accoutant earns more than the janitor in the same building.
1
I’m not a gym teacher. I absolutely hated my PE classes when I was a kid. But during the weeks I spent as a substitute teacher I learned that those classes have real value. Young people need a period of activity on a regular basis to enable them to concentrate better in the sedentary classroom environment. The hormones released during exertion lower stress. Team sports teach important values concerning both cooperation and leadership.
1
Teachers have been striking around the country over working conditions, not just salaries. But salaries are a bedrock issue. If Professor Kraft doesn't think so, perhaps he should reflect on his own Ivy League salary and benefits.
4
You want to improve education? 1) Create more full-time positions and end the exploitation of part-time labor. 2) Ban all smartphones from the classroom. 3) Limit class size. 4) Yeah, I could use a raise. I am a full-time community college prof teaching fifteen courses per year and living check-by-check, 4) Free books and coffee for everyone!
Do raises improve education? What kind of question is that? I think nurses and police officers deserve raises because they deserve them, not because they need a carrot at the end of a stick to do a better job.
3
Mr Kraft indirectly implies that the reduction in salaries over the past decade was deserved when he states that raises should be earned and not automatic. They were not. The reduced salaries of educators was the result of a bad economy and an obsession with lowering taxes, not the result of poor performance on the part of teachers. Teachers should be lauded for staying in the job despite poor working conditions.
4
A few questions for the professor:
Why do you think the students in your program are the weakest students at Brown?
How many years did you teach in public schools before offering them advice?
3
Pay more to "high performing teachers"? Read lots more standardized testing for our kids. Its also a great plan to put teacher's pay into six year olds hands. No unnecessary pressure for everyone involved or anything. Its already working so well! Geez.
5
The prob, Dr. Kraft, is that bit about “earning,” raises, and integrating “high performance,” into salary schedules. What criteria do you use? Who does the measuring? How do you get some kind of equitable assessment across rich and poor schools?
There’s also a prob in three of your underlying assumptions.
1. That performance isn’t evaluated now. Trust me, every contract out there includes eval of performance, if only to separate the total losers from the adequate plodders. And SLOs, learning outcomes, are all the rage...as is testing, endless testing....as are “objective,” measures.
2. That the evaluators are themselves well-evaluated. Admin evals are, in general, a joke. And yet somehow, nobody ever researches admin quality—which is weird, given their rising numbers.
3. That our passel of CEOs, CFOs, bosses and so on out in the “practical,” jobs are rigorously evaluated, and rewarded in proportion to performance. That’s an even funnier joke. Their expertise, all too often, is only in one thing: getting to the top, and scratching as much loot as is humanly possible.
To put it briefly: I assure you that any faculty lounge in the country talks about their paperwork a lot more than they talk about just plain teaching.
I like the idea of tying higher pay to opportunities for teacher leadership. But at the same time the base salary should be equal to salaries in jobs requiring similar levels of education-- now it is 11% below that. I suggest examining school administrator weaknesses in our education system, as well.
A huge problem in teacher performance (and status-- due to the way they are treated) lies in the people with power in schools. Administrators typically make an impressive salary (especially compared to teachers), yet they are not always well qualified, and often have less understanding of good education than teachers do-- and they have the power to impact the entire school with their pet theories. I have seen these theories range from "one size fits all" as a so-called social justice move, that in fact impedes access to rigorous education to poor, smart kids; to "kids won't do their homework," which leads to school-wide policies of assigning no homework and reading all assigned material aloud in class, which do not support student learning at the rate required for those who intend to go to college.
We need both higher expectations for teachers AND the rewards for meeting these higher expectations. Politicians do not find popularity in pointing out that there are some bad teachers-- but there are. They also need to look more closely at school leadership, which can steer the entire enterprise off course, regardless of financial resources.
2
Please stop using the word "impactful." It's an awful word. In any case, raises will help people like my spouse get a little rest. He's a veteran who chose teaching after his military and business careers. The pay is not all that good and he barely makes what he made nearly 20 years ago in a middle level management position. And, to make that amount, he works his full-time position, is available before and after school, teaches in the evenings at a college, and has several time-consuming extracurricular activities he's responsible for, including fundraising.
A recent article in The Atlantic dissected the problems with educationalism concluding that better public schools will not fix the underlying socio-economic problems in America.
Among the conclusions: "To be clear: We should do everything we can to improve our public schools. But our education system can’t compensate for the ways our economic system is failing Americans. Even the most thoughtful and well-intentioned school-reform program can’t improve educational outcomes if it ignores the single greatest driver of student achievement: household income."
In other words, income inequality is the underlying cause of poor educational and societal outcomes. Pay people a living wage and the children do better. Good teachers in decent schools cannot overcome the problems caused by income inequality and poverty.
It is fine to pay teachers more, but naive and counter to the evidence to think that better paid teachers will fix the unequal educational outcomes between wealthy and poor areas.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/education-isnt-enough/590611/
2
Nothing.... My state pays the most for education and is still ranked almost at the bottom. Throwing money at problems does not solve them.
4
What state is that?
1
Increased pay will absolutely help in the classroom. I am an educator who received a significant raise last year and now that the stresses of paying bills and living paycheck to paycheck are reduced I have more patience in the classroom, am willing to spend more time on lesson plans and grading, and actually love my job again--which has an outsize effect on my effectiveness and energy in the classroom. To be sure, across the board increases in all education funding is needed, but let's start with the health and wellbeing of teachers and students first.
1
My daughter's public school teacher with nearly thirty years of experience works as a cashier at a local supermarket to make ends meet.
Meanwhile, the school district that has five elementary schools has four administrators making north of $150,000, including a "dean of admissions". The district superintendent is making $300,000. That is FOUR times what the most senior teacher makes.
I struggle to see how the problem is that everyone is paid the same.
4
This is the most bottom-line only article I've ever read. We pay teachers far less than we pay folks in much less honorable, useful, effective fields. Incentive to be a better teacher shouldn't be tied to getting a salary that's worthy of the profession in the first place. Requiring 'incentives' implies most everyone is lousy and bored and lazy rather than working hard a a job that is less than remunerative in today's economy.
Ick.
4
With this logic, I suggest Brown University cut its salaries down to, say, $40,000. I'm guessing even Professor Kraft will be out looking for a better-paying position (even if he is a professor because he loves it).
Without a doubt, higher salaries attract the best people. That's why students go into engineering rather than film studies or...teaching. If being a film critic paid as much as being an engineer, you would see hordes of students moving into that area of work.
Let's try an experiment. Pick a school and add $13,500 to all teachers' salaries. I guarantee that school will receive resumes from the top teachers and new graduates in the whole region. Meanwhile, the turnover will be very small. That's how you attract and retain the best teachers.
8
What a sad sorry waste of time stories like this are. The Federal government has zero, that's 0.000000, authority over teacher salaries. All they can do, all they can ever do, is throw money around and get the states to promise, no backsies, that they will spend the money as desired. Which they sometimes do. Or not.
And even if they did have authority, all the signs and chants in the world won't do the job, nor will a successful candidate who doesn't have a willing Congress in place. In other words, the Democrats and their long train of kumbayah-nistas don't get it, a large part of the population doesn't get it, and apparently that shortfall extends to many journalists.
1
How about college educated teachers in charge of educating our next generation of Americans simply deserve to be paid as much as Trumps golf caddy???
I hope Mr. Kraft will be the first to put his money where his mouth is and accept a salary that’s below the level of a living wage, just because teaching brings him so much joy. Perhaps Brown University will apply Kraft’s economic expertise to his compensation package.
9
What would raises purchase:
1. a sense of professionalism for educators
2. a willingness for young people to enter the profession
3. a commitment by educators to stay in the field
4. a societal recognition that educators and school staff matter to their communities.
2
Its not that extra cash will immediately impact the performance of teachers. Its that the next generation of talented college graduates will be able to see teaching as a more sensible option. The idea is to lead more talented young people into the profession of teaching and, in a culture where higher salary is often the main reason one job is considered "better" than another, its a small step at bringing some prestige back to teaching.
As long as being a public school teacher is considered an act of self-sacrifice, we will never get the bulk of the most talented people into the field.
4
"Providing teachers with meaningful promotions and sizable pay raises that are earned — not automatic — is a way to elevate both the teaching profession and our students success."
I agree...But! how do we measure the performance of teachers and administrators? What is a meaningful promotion? How sizable should be pay raises be? What about increases beyond inflation? Should we measure teacher performance or equate student success with teacher efforts? Not all students are equal and not all teacher efforts are rewarded equally. How do we measure the outcomes for special needs students and others who despite our efforts remain incorrigible? What standards and metrics will be used and how will they be applied?
We know that money makes a difference in education. No teacher should ever have to be concerned that their career is held hostage to student performance, parent irresponsibility, lack of funding by state legislators or federal assistance. Communities and school boards must understand the necessity of properly funding schools and our state and federal governments must be responsible for shortfalls.
Until we address all the issues and are prepared to make a sustained investment in education then teachers and students will continue to be shortchanged. So will America.
Our Democracy is at risk if our education systems are made bankrupt and impotent by right wing conservatism and left wing idealism. There is no future when ignorance saturates our culture.
2
Teachers need livable wages. Beyond that, teacher's wages should reflect the value they provide to our society, and the argument that these plans will have modest short-term positive effects "... while higher teaching salaries will relieve financial stress, they will not necessarily make teachers better. Most educators are intrinsically motivated to work hard because of the joy they experience when students succeed" misses some major impacts paying teachers a higher wage would assuage.
Teacher turnover has a massive impact on school communities, and it should come as no surprise that paying teachers a better wage helps school systems retain experienced teachers. Also, the argument that teachers "...are intrinsically motivated to work hard because of the joy they experience when students succeed" is ridiculous. It's like saying doctors are intrinsically motivated to work hard because of the joy they experience when [patient's outcomes] succeed. Teachers deserve to be paid for their hard work and time. Pay is important.
Better pay will also attract more people to the education field. I'm unsure if Mr. Kraft saw this recent news, but in 2017-2018, teacher shortages affected every state in the US. I can understand a need to also ensure teachers are effective, but we also need teaching to be a viable profession. Anecdotally, of my friends and acquaintances who entered the education profession on graduation (10 yrs ago), more have left the field than stayed.
5
Perhaps like others state you give the teachers a raise because it’s the right thing to do. Not only do teacher educate but often they provide young people the support and values which may not be given or modeled at home, for whatever reason. Teachers just don’t teach anymore they are on the front line providing social services for our children and community.
2
Here’s what New Jersey teacher’s face;
- stagnant wages
- frozen pensions
- increased healthcare costs, made worse today when the legislature votes to put additional burdens on teachers to pay even more for healthcare while decreasing benefits.
-increased pension payments
- the state’s refusal to contribute to pensions as agreed.
- lower take home pay.
The result? Teacher shortages.
If you want good teachers, give them a living wage.
4
Once again we think throwing money at a problem makes the problems go away. Public Education is a mess and has been for decades. We need a Marshall Plan to overdo education from top to bottom.
We treat teachers as a afterthought because we allow our politicians to treat our schools
not as institutions of learning but as if its another service utility.
Education separates us from the animal kingdom and our racist policies ensure that not every child has a certified teacher teaching in their area of expertise. Charter schools were the hot beds of innovations, the myth that was parroted across the land. Charter schools can't erase poverty, cant erase lack of technology no matter how much money they drain from the public school budgets poverty doesn't disappear.
All teachers need more than a decent salary and they need a decent school to teach young minds in. Teachers are the leaders of the free world and instead of slicing budgets we need to create holistic environments for our communities and stop giving our tax payer money to corporate entities that do not improve the lives of children.
We can not be fooled by the clarion call of salary increases without a Marshall Plan for education. No matter how much money a teacher makes true education can not take place in a vacuum. To do Education right we need to do the surround care needed to be successful. A myth is just that a myth we have had decades of education myths and we have done a disservice to society .
1
I am in my seventh decade. Many years ago I wrote a thesis essentially arguing that there was a continuing downward spiral in the quality of teachers. At my high school graduation, when the Principal addressed the top 10% of the students in the class he asked how many of us wanted to become teachers. One student raised her hand and said "maybe, but probably not." The best students went on to the best schools. The students who wanted to become teachers went to lower ranked schools and the cycle is repeated each decade. Low teacher salaries also resulted in the "union, blue collar" mentality many now have. In 1970 teachers in Newark, NJ were paid $4,500.0 per year. Additionally, there was a time when the best women became teachers, because they were precluded from other careers. While that circumstance was deplorable, it produced better teachers. The only way to attract the brightest and best to the position and enable it to regain professional status is to increase salaries.
5
Targeted pay raises for teachers with critical skill sets will bring more benefits than across-the-board raises. For example there is a critical need for teachers in the trades such as electricians, plumbers, metal workers. There is also a need for teachers in math and science. There may also be a need for teachers in some school districts. It is important to get benefits for the students, not just for the unions.
2
Here is a modest proposal that Professor Kraft might endorse, offering matchmaking services for education majors. Help
them find future spouses and studying in fields that lead to more lucrative employment. As my wife says 'I support teachers, I'm married to one."
3
I find it to be very cynical to hold teachers' devotion to their children against them. If we agree that teacher salary is not directly linked to student performance, then we can agree it is not an effective lever in trying to improve it. As such, we should apply the same compensation philosophy to teachers that we do to any public employee. How do we fairly compensate those who could be making more in the private sector, but instead choose to serve their community? Unfortunately, it is this dedication that reduces the price elasticity of their labor and makes them easy targets for spending cuts.
3
Stop treating teachers as so many factory floor workers and students as so many pieces of output to be subjected to faddish micromanagement experiment after experiment designed on high to wring incremental gains in highly speculative performance metrics that no one can long agree constitute true education. Teacher salaries are unarguably low. Teacher prestige is even lower. Teacher recruitment is a joke. Just start paying a respectable, competitive wage for college educated intellectuals, for that is what teachers are, grant teachers the autonomy in the classroom their own intellectual accomplishments and credentials warrant, and stand back a decade to let the change take hold.
Restructuring the teaching profession, under yet another micromanagement scheme that gains some purely political traction, to promote and reward those who most quickly hop to run the current instance of the ever-changing educational theory maze is not the Holy Grail solution. It's more like yet another exercise in "educationalist" sadism, recruiting trustees who most cannily lick boot from the prisoner population to more thoroughly cow the whole. If you want to save taxpayer money, fire two thirds of the radically over-paid administrative/consulting apparatus we have built upon teachers' backs and distribute it among actual teachers in classrooms.
17
This may come as a shock to Mr. Kraft and others who question fair compensation, but when I don't have to worry about making my mortgage payment, I'm a better teacher. When I can pay my student loans on time, I'm a better teacher. When I can spend time grading essays instead of clipping coupons, I'm a better teacher. These kinds of tired arguments that tie compensation to higher test scores make my blood boil. You entrust me with teaching your child to read and write, but require me to take on enormous student debt in order to do so. OK. But then you prevent me from earning a wage that's even close to my private sector counterpart with similar education and experience?
The 2020 Dem hopefuls are talking about this issue because it's about much more than students and test scores; it's about shaping a national culture that values and prioritizes education. Given that our president just bragged about meeting "The Prince of Whales," I'd say we could probably use more of that.
28
We are the country's favorite scapegoat and whipping boy. Without our unions, we would be making minimum wage. Why? Because everyone in feels like they are educational experts because they have "gone" to school. They have no idea what it means to be an educator in an environment where crass consumerism, trash culture, sneering parents and enabled students rule the day. I dare you, any snide, self-righteous critic out there, to come and teach for a year and see the degradation we put up with on a daily basis.
15
I am a retired NYC school teacher. I enjoyed my profession as an educator with the Department of Education. I always felt that I received an excellent salary from the Department of Education. I have an excellent pension, health insurance that is free and Social Security check.
If you are not happy with the salary as a teacher find another profession.
18
@howard cohn You are very fortunate. Your situation is not the norm in most states. Here in Arizona, we are near the bottom in terms of teacher pay but way up there in terms of class sizes and resources. So to tell teachers to just find another profession if they don't like it is not a viable solution to the education crisis. We have a severe teacher shortage in my state already. Should the rest of us just leave too?
52
@howard cohn Currently a starting salary for a NYC teacher is$60k, which if you have a college degree is not an attractive salary, compared to other professions. New grad nurses make $89k
23
@howard cohn Hi Howard. I, too, once was a teacher in NYC. I did leave because I was making less than $40K after 3 years of teaching and was surviving by not paying my student loans and by putting groceries on a credit card. It's important for all workers to support each other. If Wall Street can give each other million dollar bonuses while the economy is spiraling out of control, then NYC can afford to pay its teachers a living wage. Only when we stand together will workers be payed what they are due.
44
I have never written a comment, and I am not a teacher, but this piece is so disturbing I have to say something. Raising the salaries of teachers should not just be about how can we manipulate equity to get something more from what would amount to more fair wages for hard and important work. Yes, being paid fairly does improve peoples ability to do better work because they can pay their bills, live closer to work, pay their health care bills. Obviously, like for the rest of the world professors, CEO's, doctors, builders, farmworkers etc., it does not guarantee it, but it is the condition of possibility for doing good work. Instead the article seems to be asking how can we get something more from certain people based on his abstract ivy league criteria for success, without knowing the context or the classroom or the student. This is such arrogant dribble, give me a break! Moreover, this is just plain narrow thinking and bad policy. I would like my daughters teacher to evaluate your tenure case. How did this end up in the paper?
7
C. Wright Mills had a name for the type of "thinking" displayed by Prof. Kraft:
"Crackpot Realism."
I've noticed a massive return of Crackpot Realism in the Opinion pages of the Times lately. Must be the Zeitgeist.
1
The worst people in education are education professors at elite ivy league universities. Ignore him as he does not believe teaching is a real professor. They should get paid more because their job is difficult. period.
6
@Jg he taught K-12 in Oakland
Yes, teachers need a raise and avenue to career development. But, there must be more support for infrastructure like facilities, materials, lab equipment, and much more vocational focus with support - plumbers and electricians and mechanics are still needed with a high standard of performance and regulation to ensure high qualify craftsmanship that customers deserve. DJM
2
As an educator for the past 25 years, I understand the need to draw young people into teaching. Certainly financial incentive is one way of doing this.
However, it has always been my opinion that local control of a school district is the first step in offering a first class education. A community that values education will allow all other things to follow.
Teaching is a love of vocation. People who go into teaching for money are in the wrong profession. That being said, our teachers need to make a decent wage to live. There has to be a balance. If a local board of education feels like it needs a top notch educational system, it will pay for that honor by giving its educators the best pay and benefits and most importantly, hiring a leader who allows teachers to be creative and show their ability to educate children rather than a top down management model.
Instead of focusing on pay, we should be priming our young people who show a talent for teaching by encouraging them.
Like any good business, success will follow if you hire the best and retain them not only with salary and perks but a sense that they are making a difference.
While my salary has been good and better than my parents who taught before me, it has been the satisfaction of watching someone flourish under my tutelage that has been worth more than money could buy.
2
Once again, we have an Ivy League Professor of Economics putting forth an economic argument for improving education, not a human one. After all, we are educating humans, aren't we? The raises that teachers are striking for is the only aspect of the teacher strikes Prof. Kraft talks about. He completely ignores that many of the strikes are about reducing class sizes, putting librarians and nurses back on campus, and stopping the spread of charter schools which routinely underperform compared to public schools despite their cherry-picked clientele. No, it is all about the money, so instead of looking at education as a human/community issue, he wants to reward great teachers with more money and prestige because this will improve outcomes. How this will help children that are hungry, neglected, sleeping in cars or on the street seems to be beyond Prof. Kraft's thinking. Teachers have been overdue, just as minimum wage workers have been overdue for a raise, but unless you fix income inequality, the outcomes (however you measure them) will not change much for schools in disadvantaged communities.
144
@Unclebugs I couldn't agree more! Throwing money in block grants is not a solution. Looking at broader inequalities and regional challenges for funding public school at a local level is absolutely necessary.
13
@Unclebugs
When "No Child Left Behind" was passed, there was no money to support it, only the additional paperwork required to track a child in the system. My experience was that we were required to fill out a form every day with a student's observed behavioral and learning tendencies, even if to say there was "No Change Noted." Imagine filling out 150 pieces of paper every day for 183 days (the average number of students a teacher manages and the average length of a school year). Compounding the problem was that all schools were trivially assessed based entirely on test scores. It doesn't take a Mathematics PhD to determine that if you provide a person with a singular mechanism for keeping their job, that person will focus on optimizing that mechanism. (i.e. if test scores are how we assess schools, eventually teachers will focus only on test scores in their lesson plans) This focus does not address that education and intelligence require curiosity and innovation as well. I had far too many students think that there was 1 and only 1 way to solve math problems proposed to them. A few years ago, I overheard a presentation given by the CEO of Google who tried to exclaim that a web search was equivalent to critical thinking. There was no comment about where synthesis was involved, so the tech industry is also helping to undermine our nation's ability to think in addition to those with political interest in 'dumbing down' those they want to control.
8
@Unclebugs
While I have questions about more than a few charter schools, many of them in bad areas outperform the regular public schools, and this claim that charter schools "cherry pick" is for the most part false, most of them use a lottery, the real problem with charter schools is that the kids who get in there have parents actively involved in their lives, there are a lot of kids out there who stay stuck in public schools because their families aren't aware of alternatives. I think Charter schools can be part of the solution, as long as they aren't the for profit model of the DeVoss's of the world and someone is holding them accountable.
And yes, you are correct, salaries alone won't solve the problem, but if a job pays poorly enough, you won't get quality people to go into teaching (which already is a big problem), to be blunt many of those going into teaching shouldn't be there, for a number of reasons.
1
I'm a paraprofessional in a public school. I recently got a $2.25 pay raise so now I'm making over $15 per hour. It is a godsend. I've been able to buy a gym membership where I can swim a few times a week and go to an occasional yoga class. I have also increased my monthly contributions (from $5 to $10) to organizations that promote climate justice and that makes me feel good. With the rest of my pay bump, I'm setting it aside for retirement, putting it into an IRA and that makes me feel (a little) better about my elder years.
So, how does this pay raise affect the children I serve? I'm less stressed because I'm healthier and happier. I can focus more attention of the children without worrying about myself. The children are benefitting.
155
@Sio $15 an hour is criminal for what you are expected to contribute to your students. I'm glad to see you got a raise but REALLY??!!?? We pay folks so little to educate our children, it is absolutely criminal.
20
@Sio
You're making minimum wage if you lived in most high-cost metro areas. That's insane for someone with your education.
13
@Sio
Just so I am clear, what exactly is the job description of a paraprofessional at a public school? A principal, vice principal, other administrators, librarians, teachers and teachers's aides all fall under the professionals category.
2
How about doing it for no other reason than its simply the right thing to do?
Personally I would love to live in a country where the government does the right thing simply because its the right thing.
216
@R
Exactly. Teachers in many areas earn poverty-level wages, either due to incredibly low pay or high cost of living. It's simply the right thing to do to pay them a living wage. Teachers perform an incredibly important role in society, we should start paying them like they do.
9
@R
Yes.
The reason for raising teacher pay across the board is simple - if you believe in public education for every child in America, then teachers are not paid what they are worth today.
No matter what state, county, city, subject matter, student body, gifted, special needs, kindergarten, high school.
Teaching is hard and they deserve higher salaries, generous benefits, retirement plans, and summers off. Above all, until parents and students give them the respect they deserve, even with better pay, many will leave the field because of burnout.
Mr. Kraft seems to be missing humanity - or he has never been in the public school classroom.
10
@R In that case, move to a western European country. They all enjoy a longer life expectancy at a lower per capita health-care cost, and their higher education is easily affordable for all citizens whose educational records qualify them to pursue higher degrees.. Corporate capitalism has turned the United States into a pigsty from Orwell's "Animal Farm."
1
I think Mr. Kraft should disclose his own educational salary before writing a hit piece on low paid teachers across the country.
5
I'm a Los Angeles public school teacher with 22 years' experience, and I think this column ignores the biggest obstacle to the success of our public education system, which is that there is infinitely more money in keeping it a failure than by facilitating its success.
We professional educators know what would work, but somehow those things never happen. An end to social promotion; massive investment in elementary-level literacy and math; fresh, nourishing food served to students instead of massive amounts of sugar and starch micro-waved within an inch of its life; smaller class sizes; sufficient support for student-discipline, including removal from class of disruptive students so others can learn; and an end to standardized testing before the 11th-grade, at which point it becomes necessary for college.
None of this happens because of money. The testing industry alone is huge, and sucks hundreds of millions of federal dollars away from classrooms. Our educational system isn't designed to properly educate our young people, but to provide gobs of money for private entities such as charter schools, test-prep companies and the like to grab.
If we really wanted our public education system to succeed, we would emulate national systems that do succeed, such as that of Finland.
That we don't do this tells us everything we need to know.
143
@Vesuviano
Excellent summary. I think a promotion to Secretary of Education is in order ( couldn't hurt)....
6
@Vesuviano great post...no one talks about Pearson and The College Board and the hoarding of educational financing.
9
@J. McMahon
I am very proud that the L.A. teachers' strike, in which I participated, was mostly about issues other than compensation. We struck for smaller class size, more nurses, librarians, counselors, and other support staff. along with a cap on the number of charter schools within our district and a reduction of standardized testing by 50%.
It's not only teacher-pay by any means. Cheers.
7
I went on to get advanced degrees in English and Linguistics instead of enduring the Education courses necessary to teach in public schools, then taught at the college level. A person who has a degree in any subject, from Chemistry to Music, should begin as an apprentice teacher, working in a classroom, having a few seminars on various necessary subjects (discipline, signs of emotional, physical, or mental distress or abuse, how the educational hierarchy works, etc.) gaining credentials working under a master teacher. You'd scoop up a lot of people if teachers were allowed to earn right away instead of fiddling around in Education courses.
5
A rise in teacher pay would help alleviate the second-job necessity many teachers face. A teacher that can support themselves fully with the job they are hired to do can be more focused and productive for their students. Not sure this author is aware of that necessity for many teachers. Let’s also raise salaries so they can live in the communities where they teach and not have to face long commutes.
5
A generally sexist article. Women make up the vast majority of teachers so Mr. Kraft seems to think that joy is what women professionals need, not money. Many women, including teachers, are heads of household these days. Guess what they need money to make ends meet.
Will more money improve student outcomes? Yes, because teachers could go back to focusing on educating our children instead going to their second job in the evening. And no, because many factors impact children's ability to learn. The middle class has suffered in this country for more than four decades of stagnant wages. The formerly middle class's children are living in poverty. Poverty is a big factor in in student success. To ignore it is to ignore reality.
86
@BB
The average salary of teachers in my community is over $100,000, some $35,000 over the average income of the families in this town of barely 35,000 people.
And, sorry, the performance of the students graduating from our high schools isn't even up to the average of our state.
8
@The Owl
What community are you talking about? 100k is the top salary scale in my district after ten years of teaching and a third masters. We are adjacent to BPS and match their structure which is the highest in the state. Even Lincoln-Sudbury and Concord-Carlisle do not have the average you speak of.The statewide salary average for our sate is 78k. Please use real numbers and not anecdotes when decrying 'greedy' teachers. Also with 1-2 graduate degrees $100k is still far less than the equivalent in the private sector.
14
@BB
Stuyvesant and Bronx Science high schools are filled with children from poor immigrant families. It's about culture, not money.
4
Before even considering raising teacher's salaries we need to reconsider the way those salaries are funded. Currently we fund schools with property taxes. This means of funding is deeply unfair to the middle class and to older people who are being forced to leave high property tax states when they near retirement age because they have paid off their mortgage and lost that tax deduction but still have to scramble to make property tax payments that amount to a second mortgage.
In wealthy Greenwich Connecticut the mil rate for property tax is about 14. In nearby Bridgeport the mil rate is 45. In plain language this means that a person in struggling Bridgeport pays THREE TIMES the annual property tax on the exact same make and model of car that the wealthy Greenwich citizen pays.
Funding schools with property taxes screws the poor, the elderly, the middle class and teachers. And it lets the wealthy off the hook.
You want to fix teacher's salaries? Fix the way they're funded first.
7
Not everyone can get into medical or law school. And the pay for those professions (historically) reflects that. It should be the same for teaching. When I worked in the office of teacher education at my university, I was surprised to see a fair number of students who could barely meet the minimum GPA in their area of expertise, e.g., math or English, so that they would be qualified to student-teach. People who want to be teachers should get their four-year degree and then pass a test to qualify for graduate school. And then, of course, pay them commensurately. (I'm anticipating the chorus about student loans, so I say forgive the loans if the teachers go to a struggling school.)
4
I have always felt that all teahers should make insane slaries, like $1 MM + annually, but all current teachers should also be fired and all facilities should be torn down and no longer funded.
There is not a single child in this nation, despite all the dollars, books, smart boards, facilities etc, who receives the same quality education that Plato received from Socrates with just a stone tablet.
Our teachers are far too mediocre.
2
Oh, baloney.
2
What did the raises in Congress buy us??????? I vote for teachers over politicians. At least they are working with our young.
5
#1 - Higher salaries will attract more applicants and higher quality applicants for teaching positions.
#2 - Teachers may not have to work a second job to make ends meet, and may spend more time with their students ad preparing for their students as a result.
#3 - It is a profession that is critical to our future and perhaps we should fund it like we are aware of this fact?
4
Who decides which teachers are high performing? This is bound to be abused, e.g. the †teachers chosen will be the ones who best praise the administrator.
5
Close the schools. Have the kids go on youtube if they want to learn.
1
Obviously, there is a wide variance in education funding. I am a teacher in a district that prioritizes education. While our union always has to work hard in negotiation, we have been paid what I'd call enough, commensurate with the cost of living in this area. I purchase some items I feel are needed, or helpful, in my classroom(s), but next to the urban and rural districts which lack teaching materials, safe learning environments, and the ability to pay teachers so they can afford to do their jobs and live in town, we are flush. I am all for an evaluation that determines which teachers and school districts across the U.S. are underpaid and underfunded, and for a remediation of that. Please, voters, prioritize public education for every child.
1
Dr. Kraft's thoughts are apt for applying to the NEXT stage of healing this profession, but across the board increases now are essential to get good people in the door and in the pipeline to begin with. If salaries are miserly at the beginning, with years of work needed to become moderate salaries, you are missing many fantastic teachers that can't afford to take a job that will need to be supplemented in order to make a living until they get established.
Teachers are professionals, and it is time to treat and pay them that way.
5
Professor of Education? Of course! I spent 55 years in education and watched as time after time silly ideas emerged from Colleges of Education. Someone sneeringly told me long ago “those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach”. My response “those who can’t even do that teach Education.” Pay people a living wage, for goodness sake. Teachers dragging around tired from their second jobs and worrying about their sick children with inadequate or no insurance certainly don’t benefit students.
13
Federal money for raises for teachers? You can keep it and the scores of strings that will be attached to it (looking at you, Obama, and your silly Race to the [Bottom] Top ). No matter. We would be in court for years fighting about who is a "teacher" and how much everyone gets before it disappears or gets handed to "consultants."
There is plenty of money for weapons systems that even the military does not want. There is plenty of money for tax cuts for people who have more money than they or their descendants could ever spend. There is plenty of money for Amazon to pay no taxes while it sells us things we don't need to impress people we don't like. There is plenty of money to pay someone millions to hit .245 and strike out 150 times.
There is no money for many school districts (usually poor, usually urban but often rural, usually comprised of minority students who may be hungry) to have a clean building with heat and reliable plumbing let alone books or internet access. Forget band and art class. Forget mental health services. Now put on another sweater and make sure you pass that standardized test that the millionaire reformers expect you to fail so they can turn your school into a for-profit charter.
It's all the union's fault anyway, right?
And you wonder why it's hard to retain teachers? Keep your raise.
5
@Michael M
So...no raises for teachers? How exactly will that help retain talent?
Typical argument from another Ivy well doer. While it is apparently acceptable that our CEO's in this country need to be paid in the millions - to 'lure the best and brightest' to ensure our success here in the united states, I guess it's not apparently good enough to pay those who teach our children even a decent salary - it should simple come from love and other touchy feel good means. It's a high nosed approach to say money alone will not 'serve the children'. It seems that always the approach when it comes to teachers - pour on the guilt that it's all about the children - teachers financial health (and in many cases physical health) be dammed.
Quit hiding behind the kids! Pay the teachers the salaries they deserve, hold the schools accountable to educate, and for goodness sakes, quit expecting the schools to be the parents - hold Americas parents accountable for parenting !!
6
This article sounds like it was written by someone who never had to live on a teacher's salary or do a teacher's job -- or someone who left the schoolroom as quickly as possible to make a career doing research about what makes teachers stay in classrooms.
7
This is a bunch of bunk. Teachers are not the problem. Teachers unions are not the problem. The education system does not need some deep systematic reform. It just needs to be given higher priority, which means resources. You know, like the Defense Department, gets all the money it wants, very few questions asked. Tell you what, here is a one thing that will vastly improve the education system. Very simple. Lower the student teacher ratio. Oh, yeah, I forget, that costs money. This whole reform thing is a Trojan horse for corporate take over to stifle free and critical thinking. Got to stop those liberal indoctrination mills, as Rick Santorum says.
7
@James Smith
"The education system does not need some deep systematic reform."
Really? I agree that teachers and unions are not the problem, but how we fund the schools is a major contributing factor that really does require systemic reform.
3
Anyone who chooses to be a teacher is crazy, considering the low pay and deplorable conditions, not to mention the criticism from politicians and so-called experts who've never set foot in a classroom. This country doesn't deserve teachers.
3
"Most educators are intrinsically motivated to work hard because of the joy they experience when students succeed"
Yes, given their low & declining salaries, this is called exploitation and it's shameful.
9
@Hendrik F See the recent article about how doctors and other health care workers are being exploited because they will take care of their patients no matter what the conditions.
2
In every profession the logic that greater salary = better performers is used; no stipulations or fine tuning. But teaching is somehow different? Ridiculous.
If money isn't linked to performance then let's pay them nothing and see how wonderfully educated are kids are.
The author's argument is specious at best.
4
Such a ridiculous piece; perhaps there is more to the issues surrounding education than simply what helps the students. We cannot weigh every decision based on if the decision has a payoff for the students. The faculty are a critically important part of the equation and deserve to be compensated for educating the minds of tomorrow, even if that doesn’t have a tangible kick back for students.
1
It’s an ongoing punchline that those with the “best” ideas about how to improve classroom education spent zero hours per year in a classroom environment.
6
There are real reforms that need to happen in US education, including vastly increased rigor in teacher education, better metrics for student performance, and far more attention paid to both higher-potential AND lower-performing students.
Teacher salaries are a small-but-vital part of the equation, but are the only piece anyone in education -- or politics -- talks about because it's an easy band-aid to apply, and because it has no nuance, making it easy to understand for even the least educated.
Sadly, by itself it accomplishes nothing.
There are actually three issues involved, not just the one of improving the scores and grades of students. The other two are bringing down the administrative cost of high teacher turn-over for many school districts and the other is basic fairness to teachers. Yes, they should be judged on their outcomes, but we forget that much of the success of the students derives from factors well outside the control of the teachers— are their families supportive and stable? Did they have a good dinner the night before and a breakfast that day? Is one of their siblings in jail? Can they afford clothes that fit and fit in with the other students? Setting teacher salaries based only on students’ performance implies that only teachers play a role in a child’s life/success.
Teachers in all fifty states need to be paid a living wage that allows them to work only one job for at least the nine months school is in session. They also should have an annual budget that covers the cost of basic school supplies for each student in their classes.
Stating that student outcomes are the only foundation for improving the base salary of teachers overlooks our national need to retain such professionals as one of the cornerstones of the middle class and ignores the many years and ways in which we have not done right by them, while further distancing many parents from their responsibility for their child’s success.
9
Pay is the equivalent to respect in this country. In order to attract the best people for corporate CEO’s, it is often said that these companies “have to offer good salaries”. Why wouldn’t it be the same for teaching?
In Australia, the starting salary for teachers is in the $70,000 range. Why wouldn’t we want to pay teachers well to start their career as well as other countries? Teachers should make a salary that is adequate to pay living expenses and raise a family without having to take a second job. Making more money on top of that should be a bonus to retain excellent teachers.
The next generation of children will be the ones who take care of us. If we don’t show that we care for them, by providing the best teachers and conditions for learning, there is no reason for them to care about us.
9
In Indiana our part-time lawmakers receive an average of $60,000/year. My son, a high school German teacher, receives an annual salary of $32,000/year. He is constantly buying his own classroom supplies. His days are never 8-4 or 8-5. He is often up late grading papers or preparing lesson plans. He has six students in Austria attending the Indiana University Foreign Language Honors Program in Graz, Austria and will be taking and additional 21 students to Friedrichshafen, DE for a German American Partnership Program (GAPP). He is not compensated for any of this extracurricular activity. His health insurance is a high deductible affair that cost him over $5,000 out of pocket last year. Frankly speaking, he can't afford to be a teacher. It simply does not pay enough to survive, much less raise a family.
13
@mjc
Universal single payer health insurance. NEEDED for all people paid under 50K to start!?
In NYC he would be paid more (double) and have health insurance and be paid for his summer work. Does he have an MA or MA plus 60 credits?
BTW what are the pension conditions for teachers in your state. After how many years? what is the salary for the last three years? Does your son have tenure? Does he get a salary increase annually? (the longevity issue needs to be resolved.)
Yes, we all need a law degree.
"Attracting and retaining talented teachers will require confronting the egalitarian norms of the profession that have created resistance from its unions to differentiated pay and roles."
BINGO! Well-meaning efforts are doomed to fail as long as teacher unions regard protecting ineffective teachers as being part of their mission. The unions have to get on board with their bosses - The Taxpayers. And for the union leaders to ask the taxpayers to believe that every teacher is high performing - let alone EQUALLY high-performing - is simply an insult to those taxpayers. The question to the unions is "Whose side are you on?"
2
Give TEACHERS the pay and resources, but get RID of the layers of much higher paid administrative overhead - at all levels of education system - K12 and university etc.
9
As a teacher of 30 years, I can say that most everyone thinks teachers deserve a raise. Until they realize that they will be paying more of their money in taxes.
The benefit for the students will be holding on to quality teachers. I have seen dozens of young teachers go due to two things, the inability to pay their bills on their salary [I'm in NY state, expensive to live here], and the piles of paperwork that go along with the job now.
Our future is our children and how they will learn, grow, and lead. How can this happen if nobody qualified wants to teach?
4
Why do teacher raises have to be pegged to student outcomes? Doesn’t the public have an obligation to pay teachers a fair wage? If we don’t, why not? Back in the 70s Jerry Brown tried to convince California educators that their poor pay was supplemented by “psychic dollars.” Psychic dollars didn’t pay the bills then, nor do they now.
5
Sure, give teachers "meaningful promotions and sizable pay raises that are earned," but in the meantime give teachers living wages that recognize their great service to their communities.
I'm from a very long line of teachers, but only one cousin in my generation became a teacher. The best teachers love to teach, and don't worry about the low salaries, even though the income doesn't compensate for the long hours, lack of resources (ask any elementary teacher if he/she buys classroom supplies. The answer is always "yes."), limited advancement paths, and ho-hum level of community respect. These teachers know they are making a difference in students' lives, but the public doesn't always agree. This is sad.
Increasing teachers' salaries would encourage better-qualified teachers and benefit everyone. Look for example at public schools in Scarsdale, NY, where it is not uncommon to find PhDs on the faculty. High income parents gladly send their children to those public schools, even when they can afford good private schools. Low income parents have to scramble to find affordable housing in an area with decent schools or spend time researching scholarship opportunities for their high school students. Proper compensation for teachers would help to level the playing field.
5
Higher teacher pay will bring bring the teaching profession's pay more in line with its overall value to society. Certainly there are some problems with capitalism if the average hedge fund manager makes 100 times what the average teacher makes. So raising teacher pay does not necessarily need to bring measurable results to students, but there will be intangible benefits to teachers and students and society as a whole if this economic injustice is rectified.
6
So the point of this article is because good teachers are intrinsically motivated paying them as little as possible to fund tax cuts for rich people is ok?
Good teachers should be paid better than most professions because when it comes down to it - as a society they perhaps one of our most indispensable needs...
5
This may be tinkering on the margins but one thing the federal government could easily do to help teachers is improve the public service student loan forgiveness program. Simplify the process for determining and maintaining eligibility. The teaching profession is rife with nightmare stories of people who thought they were chipping away at the 10-year service requirement but later found they didn’t jump through the proper administrative hoops.
Unfortunately, the Trump administration, and Betsy DeVos in particular, appear determined to undermine the program and make it difficult to qualify for loan forgiveness. There is a fundamental economic disconnect with the teaching profession. If you want teachers to have master’s degrees, licenses, certifications, etc. but pay them $40K/year – something has to give.
Alternately, do something about teacher pension systems wherein they become ineligible to collect Social Security retirement benefits. I have one relative who became a teacher as a second career. Since she will have a teacher’s pension she won’t be able to collect Social Security – despite spending 20 years in the private sector workforce.
1
Wow, when the Professor’s pay is increased what does it buy his students. Probably nothing because his assistant probably does all the teaching! Sorry but the question exposes his bias. Anti union and anti teachers.
Teachers deserve a fair wage and they also deserve to be protected from arbitrary and capricious whims of administrators who tend not to be educators but get paid much more than teachers while they spend their time hiring consultants, some of whom are their friends.
I’ve spoken to young people too. They look at the way teachers are treated by administrators and parents and the way they are paid and they say why do that.
Teaching is a profession like being a doctor, lawyer and teachers in our public schools are the back bone of our society Yet we treat them poorly and expect them to buy school supplies for their students and struggle with buildings and books that are crumbling.
Professor, you need to get out more. Maybe you should try teaching.
6
Dramatically increased salaries will not only benefit current teachers (many of whom spend their own money on materials for their students), but also attract a substantially larger and better trained teacher class over time.
The writer does not seem to see how much a really good salary can change not only the quality of people coming into the teaching profession, but as well the power of the teachers within the educational structure. They are currently bullied by the administrator class, which is very change resistant, thwarting improved teaching methods for the sake of the status quo. It is the usual problem of middle management thwarting the development of good ideas by the people actually doing the productive work. More money will obtain a more assertive group of workers who will counter the general stupidity one so often encounters in the administrator class.
Trained in physics and mathematics, I taught math for a while, but ended up as a software development engineer where I was vastly better compensated. I LOVED teaching, but it just wasn't enough money (and consequently, prestige) for someone of my accomplishments.
Michael
1
It will "buy" them educators who are able to pay their bills in the first 10 years of employment. Maybe our goal should be a living wage for this significant sector of our workforce. Period.
4
Who says that teacher raises needs to buy something for the students? No doubt it will as a result of positive externalities, but how about just giving teacher raises because they deserve to have a decent wage in these times of runaway living costs, and not have to worry about how they're going to live year to year? They do incredibly important work and all of us - regardless of if we're parents or not - should recognize that.
6
Raising teacher pay may not be the complete solution to improving educational outcomes for children, but it is the solution to the problem of teachers barely make a living wage and deserve much more.
6
According to one website, here is what teachers make in the Pittsburgh area; "The average Public School Teacher salary in Pittsburgh, PA is $55,944 as of May 31, 2019, but the range typically falls between $48,842 and $64,586.
This is not an extravagant salary, but is it really that bad? I've been working in my chosen profession and have 30+ years of experience -- and make about 75k. I'm happy with that, and don't struggle to meet my mortgage payment or feed my family.
I come from a family of teachers, so I understand the issues, but I really don't think this is a money problem, but rather a cultural one. After all, who would want to deal with today's helicopter parents and their brat children? Schools used to be given the benefit of the doubt. If we got into trouble, it was assumed we were the malingerers, but today, parents seem to think that their kids can never be wrong. Teachers live in fear of the parents and the administrators. It's the classic no-win situation.
I sure as heck would rather do just about anything other than dealing with that every day!
Oh, and by the way. If we assume that most teachers only work 9-10 months a year, that salary differential needs to be factored into their pay. Thus, that 64,586 I mentioned now becomes around 77k. Not bad.
5
I love that 9-10 month canard - a.) not true, b.) are there places you can pay 9-10 months of rent or mortgage because you are a teacher?
4
If voters really support raising teacher salaries, as the author claims, then they do not have to wait for Trump, McConnell, and Pelosi to come to an agreement. Education funding is a local and state responsibility, and they can approve the funding at any time. I suspect they think higher salaries are a great idea if they do not have to pay any of the costs.
6
Good teaching is performance art. It is difficult to quantify, regulate or reproduce. That makes it an inherently difficult line of work to administer en masse. Sadly, trends over the past few decades, with increasing regimentation and standardized tests, probably do more to repel talent than sustain it.
Salary is not the prime motivator for teachers, but they need to make sufficient income to avoid financial anxiety or having to take a second job. Too many states refuse to provide this level of income, and our nation refuses to make up the gap.
As for scholastic outcomes, in my opinion the mediocre results are due more to our low-attention-span, anti intellectual society than to the mythic corps of crummy, lazy educators. The fault, in short, lies in ourselves and our family cultures. No amount of testing will fix this. Far more promise lies in students spending a few terms in classes taught by exciting and talented teacher-performers. That is what we need to focus on attracting and retaining.
3
My children go to an inner city school, and the faculty has a high turnover rate. Some of the best teachers bail after one or two years because they can find a much better-paying job elsewhere, and as much as they wanted to teach, they can't afford if it results in a significantly reduced income. Often they just get recruited by better-paying school districts, so they can have there cake and eat it, too. I know of one teacher who quit teaching to wait tables, because she makes a lot more money waiting tables.
No, paying teachers more doesn't necessarily make teachers better, but it does help to recruit and retain better teachers.
9
@JC
"Their," not "there." Dang it.
My near instant answer to the question of what will raises bring students was simple; teachers expanding their knowledge through graduate and ongoing courses to teach their students. That was easy. I'm not a teacher.
3
I live with a teacher. He was told in school that if he wanted to be a teacher he would always have a second job. So that extra money allow him to cut back on tutoring, teaching music, etc. after school and have more time to recharge his batteries.
Even the extra $13,500, while very welcome, is still not a teacher's real worth. Better pay means you will have a better pool of people considering teaching as a PROFESSION.
5
This will only work if it attracts a different crew to be teachers.
How about we raise teachers' pay because they deserve to be compensated properly for their work and have the opportunity to live with dignity, as all working people should in a fair and just society?
70
Many - actually, most - beginning teachers I know leave school at 3:30 to go their second jobs. The first few years of teaching are perhaps the hardest, in that they require teachers to develop curriculum and lesson plans from step one. New teachers also have to equip their classrooms. I remember starting off at a teaching job in Philadelphia. I'd lug my teaching supplies on the bus to work, and their were some days I'd literally have to count pennies to afford that bus fare. Then, I'd be ask to buy paper, crayons, science equipment and decorations for the classroom from my own pocket. I'm kind of amazed I stuck with it, but I loved the kids and the light that shone in their eyes when the world of books and numbers opened up for my first graders.
4
As a former teacher I can say that while most teachers are intrinsically motivated to help students succeed, the best teachers are those that have skills that could be demonstrated in many different types of jobs. With an increase in pay, you are far more likely to have a pool of candidates that are motivated, skilled, and intelligent from which to hire. Salaries define value. Nurses and Doctors get this same kind of drivel, we know they will come through so why pay them more? This is very short sighted.
19
"pay and prestige" In this society, they are inextricably linked. The article makes good points, but anything that raises the prestige of the teaching profession will bring benefits.
8
1. Improve teacher pay to a level that treats them like real professionals.
2. Pay out of general tax revenues, not property taxes.
3. Get rid of tenure. This should be the main tradeoff for more pay.
4. Get rid of raises based on seniority and credentials. Pay for merit - this would include making teachers sit for periodic exams that measure their knowledge of what they teach (eg, a high school math teacher ought to be able to score high on a math AP test).
5. Increase the standards for getting and Ed. degree. Now, it seems almost anyone can get a teaching degree.
9
Easy. My children's favorite teacher - a math teacher and lead in implementing the Ruler curriculum - left Seattle once he had kids because his family could no longer afford to live even near the city. This teacher made math accessible and exciting to many students; he enabled my shy middle son to express his feelings. This child cried himself to sleep when the teacher announced he was leaving. He was not the only one. Teachers feel a calling and because of this tolerate their miserable salaries. It is a failing of our society that we do not respect and honor those who educate our children.
32
@kostja I also left Seattle after teaching 5 years in public schools. I was recognized with state and national awards in teaching. I loved it all but could never justify raising my own family near poverty levels while slowly going bankrupt.
Cost of living varies greatly in the USA.
The author of this article assumes the profession has eroded. If that is true, when was "the golden age" for teachers?
6
@kostja I also left Seattle after teaching 5 years in public schools. I was recognized with state and national awards in teaching. I loved it all but could never justify raising my own family near poverty levels while slowly going bankrupt.
Cost of living varies greatly in the USA.
The author of this article assumes the profession has eroded. If that is true, when was "the golden age" for teachers?
It' as if the author is arguing for tying teacher salary to student performance. Along the same line, why don't we tie doctor salary to patient outcome, police salary to crime rate...etc?
All teachers are asking for is a living wage for god's sake.
55
I like it. Doctors and nurses if your patient doesn't get better, you need to be put on probation. Police, if you don't catch the right criminal, no pay raise for you. Merit pay for fire-fighters? Did the house or forest burn down? no raise for you. Merit pay for financial advisors? If your financial advisor fails to make you a lot of money, they should not make any commissions or management fees. Senators and house reps if you don't talk to every constituent and make each one happy regardless of party and pass a test about government, you don't deserve a pay raise. Judges and jury if you send the wrong person to death row, you should be put to death. Attorneys of law, if you don't win your case, you pay the client. Don't forget weather forecasters; they shouldn't be allowed to get a forecast wrong. Merit pay and testing every year for all in every profession.
8
National candidates proposing teacher raises is pandering. Period. Teacher salaries are determined locally, not nationally. I'm a liberal Democrat and I find focusing on this issue evidence of a candidates weakness, not strength. There are much bigger fish to fry here.
11
As a teacher with three college degrees, I would challenge anyone to put up with my salary, given my educational background. Yes, different communities pay more, but there are not nearly enough of them to prove all teachers a living wage.
2
@Cmary Hi Cmary. I don't disagree with you. My point is that national office holders have not power over teacher salaries, so while these "platforms" make them look good to people like you and me, they have no power to enact the platform espoused. I'd rather they focus on things they actually CAN accomplish
1
Money is not a motivator. Only lack of money is a motivator. Once the reward is achieved, an immediate sense of entitlement sets in and performance returns to pre-increase levels.
1
@Markus Yeah, let's start 'em out at minimum wage! That'll teach 'em to become teachers!
3
Here’s another possible scenario: once the income is achieved, more teachers would not need to find second and third jobs to make ends meet.
1
Are the most highly paid teachers of NY better educators then those in the rest of the country?
If so, then why are New York students achieving mediocre results at best when compared to the rest of the country?
NY PS teachers have unions, guaranteed raises, a health and pension plans that rival those in the private sector. Many are earning $100+ salaries plus nearly cost-free benefits.
Money is not the problem. NY spends twice more then many states and more then some other countries. The article references research, not opinion, that teaching is a profession that lacks competition, quality control, and rewards for excellence and achievement. In NY all PS teachers are paid the same whether they teach AP calculus or physical education ( aka gym). All teachers receive their annual raises whether their students met or exceeded expected achievement.
In NY young talented teachers are working twice as hard to undo the failures of earlier teachers. They burn out and quit. Dedicated teachers are working 10-12 hours a day to move their students up to par while in the next classroom the highly paid, older staff member works the contracted hours of 6-7 hrs and simply passes students onto the next year?
Teaching will be credible profession only if the unions and their members, the teachers, design professional standards and practices that promote rewards for the more dedicated, the more successful and the more talented just like lawyers, doctors, tradesmen, and journalists.
4
@BobC
South Carolina doesn't have a teacher's union. Instead, they have a teacher shortage. Teachers are leaving because of poor working conditions. My district tried what you described as TAP. It resulted in even worse working conditions for teachers. I agree that the shortage is about much more than the salary.
3
@Rosebud thanks for your comments. SC like many southern states does fail to fund teacher salaries appropriately. Hold all staff accountable is going to be a long term process and there will be failures, but without meaningful standards of accountability spending more money is just a gamble. In NY more money does not equate to better outcomes. Based on USNews, NY at $21K per student ranks 22 and SC at $10K ranks 41 for K-12 education outcomes.
1
Teacher pay is back-loaded. Starting salaries are very low. But they increase substantially with seniority and with (worthless) advanced degrees in education and in-service training. Pension benefits are generous, typically with retirement at nearly full salary after 30 years. The retired teacher in her 50's can go to another state or a private school and earn another salary while drawing a pension for 30-40 years or even longer.
But when teachers are in their 20's and 30's, with young families, and need to buy a house, the salaries are pitifully low.
This needs to be rebalanced: increase early-career salaries while reducing late-career salaries and pension benefits (40 years to full retirement, not 30). Unfortunately, pension plans are generally underfunded, so their true eventual cost is underestimated while the early-career salaries must be paid every year.
5
@Jonathan Katz Salaries are generally low for first jobs out of college; not just for teachers. It's called "life". It's hard sometimes.
Yes but teaching is different. As a teacher your first job is also your final job.
2
@Jonathan Katz: I live in a very modest part of the Rustbelt midwest.
Teachers here now START right out of school at $55,000 a year.
That is for a 6 hour day (union contract) and a 180 day year (minus 8 snow days and they take 'em ALL). Every holiday known to mankind and all summers off with pay -- 11 weeks straight.
Do you seriously call that "low starting pay"????
it is comparable to a computer systems analyst, optometrist, engineer right out of college! and those folks must work EIGHT hour days, 12 months of the year!
Teachers have benefits that would make the Swedes fall over in a jealous faint.
They have huge pensions worth over $3 million each and can retire at age 52 and live comfortable at 90% of their FINAL salary -- forever. Also free gold plated health care for life.
if you think $55K for a part time job, for a 22 year old kid right out of the weakest, least demanding college major ("takes any warm body") is "low pay"….I don't know what to say except "you are nuts".
I chose a career as an Air Force aviator over teaching. The salaries are more than double.
Higher salaries attract higher talent. I would have been terrific.
10
What benefits do we receive when CEOs get pay raises? What benefits do we receive when multi-national corporations pay no taxes? Why are teacher salaries always tied to computerized measures of "student success"?
33
@proffexpert In principle, in publicly held companies, executive pay is tied to stock performance.
1
Exactly!
Why isn't student success tied to parent parenting skills?
1
There's a saying that no good deed goes unpunished. The corollary is that no good idea goes uncriticized.
1
I dare say that often education is best where education is valued and teachers are respected. Salary is one marker of respect. Respect alone cannot, however, often make up for salary deficiencies in attracting people to the profession.
9
This nation has shoveled trillions of dollars worth of pay increases at teachers while the standards of education have fallen to the point where high-school graduates are incapable of finding their ways in the world without significant remedial assistance and education.
Why throw more money at something that isn't currently providing the return on our investment?
3
@The Owl
Please tell me where this money is? I've been teaching for 35 years and can barely make ends meet. Adjusting for raises in health care payments, stagnant salaries and expenses for classroom supplies, I'd say that these trillions of dollars have gone to administrators and repeated trainings in the latest fads in education.
12
@The Owl when and where have these salary increases happened? Certainly not in MA where I teach and you live,we have not had a major increase in school funding in over 20 years.
The single best education 'reform' we can pass is funding equity between school districts, which would require raising taxes on the wealthy and substantially offsetting the reliance on local property taxes.
7
@The Owl what you are claiming is simply false.
1
From Kamala Harris' page *linked to in this article*:
"Our plan will include a multi-billion dollar investment in programs that help elevate the teaching profession and support principals and other school leaders. This includes high-quality teacher and principal residencies, early-career induction programs that pair new teachers with mentors and master teachers, career ladder models that allow for advancement opportunities for teacher leaders, and “Grow Your Own” programs that help increase teacher diversity.
Half of this funding will be dedicated to high-quality programs at HBCUs and other Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). Teachers of color are significantly underrepresented in our education system. We need to change that. Nearly 40 percent of all Black teachers and 50 percent of all Hispanic teachers graduate from MSIs. We’ll help them bring the next generation of high-achieving college students of color into the profession."
While one can argue whether such plans would be effective, to represent the proposals of Harris and others as nothing more than raising teaching pay is clearly a misrepresentation--a straw man that falsely depicts such policies as simply throwing money at a problem (a cliche guaranteed to rile up readers and harvest clicks).
5
@Seth Knox throwing money at people donating plasma and working 20 hours a week at other jobs would in fact go a loooong way. Long way. Not a moot point
1
@Shannon I agree with you. From what I've heard, Harris et al are proposing raising teacher pay to address 1 issue: low teacher pay (and I'm in favor of that). I have not heard teacher pay proposals pitched as a magic bullet for solving all of the issues the author discusses (which is why I think his argument is against a straw man).
Framing a policy as "throwing money at a problem" has become an easy and lazy way to derail conversation about the policy.
1
How long has this “educational expert” actually taught at the K-12 level?
While he has some points (lack of promotional opportunities, for example), he doesn’t really touch the problems of overtesting, political interference, and middle management (principals).
Again, some decent points, but more than a little out of touch. Just like way too many education departments at way too many universities.
24
What happened to allowing local school boards to control their budgets ? Where is this money supposed to come from ? Higher property taxes ? Puh-leez.
5
I have been an educator for 15 years and will say that the lack of value for my profession has been a factor in doing a third degree to possibly leave the profession. We are expected to make up for the huge economic inequality in this country with magic in the classroom. We are expected to be substitute parents, social workers and teachers as well. I make less hourly ( let’s not talk summers off) that a plumber electrician etc. I am a Professional with a masters degree and nearly have a second masters degree. For most of my career I have worked nearly 50 hours per week to bring my students the experience they deserve. Buy my own supplies and am expected to be grateful for the opportunity to martyr myself. The inherent sexism in this whole discussion is obvious. We are undervalued because we are predominantly female. The best among us are leaving because of micro management the incessant data and the embarrassingly
Low salaries in most
Of the country. The best minds do not want to teach because they want to support their families and don’t want to be looked down on. They want basic respect. We provide the backbone of this country. No one would be anywhere without education. It should be as valued as it should be, not taken for granted. It is hard work, it takes a great amount of intellect, education and experience to do well. And 60k isn’t too much to ask. Period. Respect teachers or you will have shortages and the quality of our system (and country) will continue to drop.
30
Shannon,
I’ve been teaching middle school math for 16 years and I agree with you completely.
4
Teacher pay has always been a point of contention, from people who think teachers should be paid top dollar to people who think teachers should not be paid a year's salary for ten months of work per year. The problem of teacher pay makes it hard to attract and retain teachers. Hard to make anyone happy here, but we have to figure out a way to bring in to the teaching profession not only those are committed and compassionate, but those who are creative and intelligent as well. Today's student body is so diverse until there is no set way to approach education because the population is changing so rapidly, and young people know a lot more today than did the young people of a generation ago. This is a hard, complex problem to solve, but it has to be attacked and solved because our society suffers from a dysfunctional education system which can serve students with built in support and resources while underserving those whose needs are met with more difficulty. That is why the hiring hall for schools is a revolving door and a significant number of teachers don't last in the profession.
4
How about considering when you pay more you get better people and existing employees that will feel better, not work two jobs, and students will benefit.
27
I live in a high-tax region, and our teachers are paid well above median income, even in rural areas. Positions fill quickly - so why do we think pay is the issue everywhere?
First, the qualifications to teach K-12 need to be redefined and standardized across states - after all, the core skills to teach are the same. Create a standard like accountants: education, experience, examination, and maintaining licensure through continuing ed. After all, you have to have a license to cut hair - why not to teach? As for existing teachers, it could easily be phased in without an additional burden.
Second, for our town, the core education issue is cost-sharing special education. Our state pays half, but they pay 18 months later. 60% of our budget is education; services are a huge cost burden that affects our ability to pay teachers their value. We had a special needs child move in to town and rent for three years. The cost for transportation, aides, tutors, etc. was over $300,000 per year. It took approximately 60 new taxpaying families to cover that one child. Thankfully we found a way to cover the expense without debt, with little government support.
Federal cost-sharing of special education expenses, reimbursed regularly like Medicaid pays providers, would go a long way toward improving teacher pay, special needs, and overall primary & secondary education. Adding standardization, qualifications, and professionalism would ensure talent is rewarded.
7
@Julia Scott the local taxation system for education is very American. You have a very good point and it not only breeds inequality but doesn’t serve communities well. A larger more state level or federal system works elsewhere. It would be a huge shift but it is an important issue that merits discussion
6
@Julia Scott
New England has some of the highest rated public schools in the nation. They also pay their teachers well. I think there's a causation at play...
10
@Julia Scott
You are right. This is another article (like the candidates themselves) painting the picture with a wide brush and broad strokes. In many areas, teachers are well compensated, schools properly run, facilities are adequate, and programs are successful. Generally, this is in communities that have both the will and can afford it. The real question is how we deal with so much disparity (as with incomes) nationwide?
8
Speaking as an ex public high school math teacher, I used to say that if we wanted education to improve, we needed to do 3 things:
1) Find the best people we can to teach.
2) Pay them as though we appreciated they were the best people.
3) Get out of their way and let them teach.
I don't know a single teacher who is not in favor of merit pay (as suggested by the author), but none would ever publicly support it because:
1) 97% of administrators have never taught a day in their lives (this may have changed since I left the profession in 2005, but I doubt by much). Right now, these non-teachers already have the power to determine if you're a good teacher and what assignments you get. Not surprisingly, those on average with the best assessments and assignments are those who push paper the best and brown-nose professionally. If subjected to merit pay analyses, this system is only going to push even more good teachers out of the profession. It's essential that teachers are evaluated by neutral parties, not others within the same reporting hierarchy as as the teacher. Perhaps some form of peer review board? Because most teachers are already nervous about their jobs (which are effectively seasonal) and about annoying an already clueless administrator over performance, they stick to very narrow definitions of teaching and will not be able to help students achieve their highest productivity. It's essential that teachers be allowed to teach, not just manage students.
16
No one is bringing up the subject of the teacher's unions. Instead of fighting for seniority and tenure, they should emphasize working conditions and support services. Making a safe, caring, productive environment for all should be at the forefront for representing teachers interests. There should be measurable, common sense standards that can hold both administrators and teachers accountable. We all have a stake in improving the education system. The education of our children should be a top priority for every citizen.
11
@Joann
My local is emphasizing on working conditions and improving teacher retention. As a first year teacher, I cannot emphasize how critical their support was i acclimating me to a new profession in a new city. Seniority and tenure are not even on our website as priorities. We want to protect our healthcare, retain talent, and get more support for our high risk kids. Those are our top priorities.
4
Even in Florida, a right to slave state, our weak unions worked to improve conditions as well as salaries.
So called “tenure” has been long gone, as have many other minor perks.
My wife has worked as a high school science teacher and we have had two sons graduate from high school. Yes, higher salaries are just one element of bigger reform but that does not mean it shouldn't be done. And unlike some of the cultural issues related to the perceptions of teachers, increasing salaries can be done with the stroke of a pen. Would it cost, yep, but that does not mean that it wouldn't be a good investment. And if salaries are too expensive, how about making teachers salaries federal income tax free. Admittedly, this would fall flat among the current crop of oligarchs and hard right-wing wackos, but it would be kind fun watching their contortions as they argued against a tax cut.
9
The multi-billion dollar question, how do you fund it? Do you raise property taxes to the point that people can no longer live in their houses? Look to Long Island to see what happened when they gave teachers a living wage.
The taxes on a $400,000 house exceed $15,000 a year and most of that goes to schools. Ina number of places, people pay anywhere from $2500 to $15000 a year for schools, if they have children enrolled or not.
25% raise could raise property taxes 20% or more. This will hurt people who rent, people on fixed incomes, and working families. And, with the $10,000 local tax deduction limitation on income tax deductions, this will be very painful to absorb.
Before embarking on raising teacher pay carte blanche, a new funding mechanism must be considered, beyond real estate property taxes. If not, the Us will have a major homeless problem on their hands as people cannot afford to live anywhere, due to higher rents and taxes.
How bad? Well, in the Denver area a one bedroom now rents fro about $1700/month. Property taxes are about $2500 for a $400,000 home, in Longmont (just north of Denver). Imagine raising property taxes 20%, the average rent will go over $2000/month. Imagine doing the same thing on Long Island or in New York City.
Finally, while we are talking about raising teacher salaries, what about those struggling with health care costs or trying to raise a family?
I agree teachers need a raise, but property taxes along is unsustainable.
7
@Nick Metrowsky
I'm a teacher who supports raises and someone who agrees that property taxes are too high. Having the federal government fund education directly as it does in every other industrialized country is the ticket out of this unequal system where homeowners like you are taxed to death to get 'good schools' while inner city and rural residents are stuck sending their kids to substandard facilities. The way out of this is to make education a public good again.
7
State contributions to schoolshave been falling at least in Florida for many years, and now funding is being further diluted by voucher and private charter programs. That means local taxes go up.
Twice recently, our county has bravely raised property taxes just to fund basic programs in our schools which had been cut.
1
@James
In Colorado, in addition to property taxes, taxes paid by the casino industry, the cannabis industry, sales taxes, the lottery, and businesses taxes, fund the schools. parents, in some cases, pay a fee fro pre school, or to move their child to another district. Also, most of the school districts opted out of The Tax Payer Bill of Rights to keep extra revenue. Even with all these sources, teachers are underpaid, and rural facilities have issues.
Again, property tax and state taxes are not enough to deal with the issue. But, we life in a country where much of that funding that could go to education goes to the military industrial complex. Imagine what our education would be like if the money this country spend over the past 18 years in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan went to schools and health care?
3
OMG, where do I start? First, teachers with greater financial stability will be able to bring more energy to the class, instead of worrying about their next mortgage payment or medical bill. Second, higher pay will draw more, and perhaps more talented, people to the profession (I'm one of those parents who steered my kids away from teaching). Third, if we extend your logic that more pay won't be an incentive for better teaching, that teachers are intrinsically motivated, then great, let's implement much higher, graduated taxes on the wealthy, because they don't need another million bucks to be incentivized to work hard, they do it intrinsically. And then we can use the tax revenues to pay teachers more!
32
"Raising teacher pay can benefit students as well as teachers, if we do it in a strategic, well-calculated way. Providing teachers with meaningful promotions and sizable pay raises that are earned — not automatic — is a way to elevate both the teaching profession and our students success."
Some teachers have to work two jobs to earn a livable wage. Your proposal is insane.
8
Raising student outcomes and raising living standards for educators are orthogonal to each other. We need to look at them as separate issues ..Any correlation between the two does not imply causation.
But let's agree that teachers need to paid more.
7
How about as a society we pay teachers what their worth and the total RESPECT they deserve. We hail firemen and policemen as heroes BUT what about our teachers? Do you ever here about teachers being heroes? As our teachers spend more time with your child then you do as a parent, its time to not only give them a raise, but the RESPECT they earned and deserve.
8
@Mickey
Imagine if we paid firefighters and police officers buy their own supplies. Imagine if we made the Pentagon hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.
3
How to improve our school systems:
1. Elimination of NRA funded politicians, tighter gun control and punishments.
1. Pay teachers what they're worth - which is a lot more than most of our work is.
2. Reduce classroom size.
3. Quit basing teacher's salaries on test grades for heavens sake!
20
The author obviously hasn't visited any schools recently. The teachers today are expected to play parent, counselor, and according to some, armed guard. They deal with uninterested and uninvolved parents who don't know how to set limits on their children and blame the teacher for their own lack of discipline and parenting.
As a society, the things we are willing to spend money on are a direct reflection of our priorities. Sports, entertainment, and the military seem to take the top tiers but decent pay for the people who actually make a difference take the bottom rungs.
After the last school shooting here in Highlands Ranch, CO, the administration suddenly found $13M that would be appropriated for security and mental health. Try asking that for teacher pay increases in one of the richest counties in the country and there's nothing but static.
We say we value education, but our actions belie our true beliefs.
Note, my wife works for the school district, so we know full well the pay stagnation and decline here.
14
"Still, while higher teaching salaries will relieve financial stress, they will not necessarily make teachers better. Most educators are intrinsically motivated to work hard because of the joy they experience when students succeed."
Echoes of "Governor Moonbeam" in California. "Relieving financial stress" in this case is more or less "relieving teachers of the need to work second (and third) jobs to make ends meet." It doesn't matter how much joy you experience when your students succeed if you are out driving produce trucks, delivering pizzas, serving up lattes, etc. In fact, you may be too busy surviving to notice.
How about we start with compensating teachers at per-head levels equivalent to that of babysitters and nannies, and work up from there to where they truly belong?
23
I am a teacher who could be making a lot more in another profession with my talents. Higher salaries would make a difference. I went to an elite college and an Ivy league graduate school. I had classmates who considered teaching but didn't go into it due to the low pay. Higher salaries would attract top talent.
18
Amen. My experience and background is similar. I taught for 38 years, but virtually everyone I graduated with ended up better off financially than I did. My college friends commend me for my sacrifice.
5
@Dave Hartley
Ditto. I might add these same 'ed policy experts' love to harp on STEM training, computer science, and engineering in the classroom. Then they wonder why no well paid coder, engineer, or computer scientist wants to take a $100k pay cut to teach 90 different kids with all sorts of diverse needs for 180 days.
They always want smaller class sizes and then refuse to build the bigger buildings and hire the larger staffs to make that necessity a reality.
1
Another obtuse anti-teacher opinion piece.
I got my teaching credential twenty years ago. There were many intelligent creative individuals in my credentialing class at LAUSD. Most of them left the profession quickly after discovering the pay did not match the obstacles to the job, most principally the anti-teacher climate fostered by the administrative top. In other words, smart people don't last in this field. Surprise: If we want smart teachers, we have to make it worth their time to continue doing the job. That won't happen, though, because we do not take public education seriously in this country. All of which is a long-winded way of saying you get what you pay for.
20
Not to say that all teachers are equally talented and successful but...
How do we fairly judge successful teacher performance in a way that does not penalize the teachers who are working in the most challenging situations and schools, arguably where good teachers are needed most?
24
Who says the point of raising teacher salaries is to improve "student outcomes"? The point is to ensure that teachers can live decently, with the dignity befitting their noble profession. The student experience, their test scores, etc. can be prioritized elsewhere, but it is intellectually dishonest and a little gross to stoke fears that low-performing teachers might get a raise along with their more successful colleagues at a time when teachers are sleeping in their cars, taking second and third jobs, etc. Nobody deserves working poverty, whether they're good at their jobs or not, regardless of student test scores.
50
This article rather sounds like it could be translated into English as "I know that teachers are underpaid, but that's ok. Let's not give them raises by saying that it won't help students." As if it were impossible to pay teachers more or less adequately while also doing other things more directly aimed at students and non-teacher resources. But spending on both things might mean...raising taxes on the wealthy! No, no! Mustn't ever do that! Or, at least that thinking appears as if it's implied here.
6
Teacher pay is likely to benefit students in a longer term. It improves the education indirectly, by gaining and keeping the best teachers.
Our local school district is noted for high quality. I was a beneficiary of that, and was careful to move here so my kids would benefit.
One of the big advantages here is higher pay for teachers, and consequent choice of the best teachers available. Many want to work here. Every opening gets a lot of applications from some remarkable teachers, and our school board has some hard choices to make among outstanding applicants.
There are jobs that teachers really don't want, in other districts. The quality of education there shows that very directly.
8
@Mark Thomason My guess based on research, your district is more likely primed for better educational outcomes because it has low crime rates, higher average household incomes and better educated parents. Teacher quality along with pay help but so does quality parental involvement and quality administrators.
3
@BobC -- While that is all true, our district's schools are filled to capacity by the Michigan school choice program, with kids from bad neighborhoods coming in large numbers. They do better too, much better. School quality matters a lot.
Teachers do a job. They should be paid a living wage.
Improving student performance is a separate subject. There are many ways of achieving this goal but it should not be a determinant of teacher pay.
Do you not pay the doctor if the patient dies? Do you not pay an oil rig worker if they don't get oil? Do you not may a military worker if the war isn't going well?
People get paid when they do their jobs. If we want better results we may need to pay more teachers, get better equipment or have smaller class sizes.
41
I would have been swayed by this argument 10 years ago. Then I had kids. I have been amazed by the talent, dedication, effort, hours, etc that the teachers are our local elementary school put into their work. And in Florida, they veteran teachers in their 40s seem to make salaries in the $30s and $40s. Shocking. So now I support raising their salaries just because it's the right thing to do. No ulterior motive. No expectation that it increase test scores. They just deserve more money.
76
@Heather 30-40K is shockingly low. Florida prides itself on attracting retirees and those looking for low taxes. It is also a state of low wages all around. So how are you going to persuade Florida voters to raise taxes or reduce spending elsewhere to double that salary? And don't forget about health and pension costs. How many retirees and low wage households are going to agree to pay for those increases?
2
@BobC
Then Florida needs to tell those retirees (most of whom didn't mind sending their kids to successful schools) that Florida kids matter too.
7
@Charles. It is a popular, unsupported assumption that retirees routinely vote against efforts to raise more money for K-12 education. It is "assumed" because they have no children in school. This logic is flawed. Many have grandchildren as well as grand-nieces and nephews in school. By extension, your logic concludes they care nothing about their education.
1
Why is raising teacher's pay a progressive idea/hope? Doesn't it just make sense to anyone? Higher pay attracts more quality and talent, helps retention of teachers of quality, and makes life more possible for teachers, so that they can give more in the classroom. If you don't have the teachers, then NONE of the rest of education is going to work.
And as to other factors, of course our society needs to put resources into education in a focused manner. The author makes many good points. But the most profound changes need to come from within society itself. From birth our children need to have better health care and safety. And our adults need to value education and support schools and teachers, instead of dumping the burden of raising young people to schools. Some of this arises because overstressed families can no longer deliver their children properly fed, healthy, and with a positive mindset to schools. Our ever-widening gap between the wealthy few and the many impoverished is making that darn near impossible for many families. The problems are societal, and schools have a limited capacity to fix them.
9
@Malcolm Agreed, children are best served when parents, communities and society value them with their time and efforts and design systems to achieve that end.
Your argument for more teacher pay though holds less merit. Education in general is not about how much money, but about quality and accountability. Simply increasing teacher salaries is fruitless because there are so many factors as you describe that affect student outcomes.
Pay people what they are worth. If you want the best and brightest to teach you have to make it a more attractive option than other fields. It's an embarrassment to rely on teachers' good will alone to give the next generation what it needs. And no, I am not a teacher.
17
@Jmf how much is a teacher worth? A gym teacher in the elementary grades at $100K or a special education teacher at $100K? A 25 year veteran teacher at $100K+ using the same plans and exams year after year with the same mediocre results or the 2nd year teacher at $60K researching and designing plans that get all students to the next level?
Yes, pay them what they are worth ( achievement, accomplishments and outcomes), but in most NY school districts all staff are paid the same based on showing up the next year and maybe if they have a few more seat time credits. Is that how you measure an employee's worth?
Teachers face a wide variety of challenges beyond their often meager paychecks. For one, students and parents in the Age of Trump have become markedly more aggressive and demanding. Similarly, they often demand more in terms of better grades while offering to do less in terms of work. So, let’s give teachers a pay raise. They’re on the front lines of teaching and dealing with the “entitled” who know no age or class boundaries in the Age of Trump.
12
@Cmary
One thing that never gets mentioned - without teachers there would be no nation state. In the U.S. we have a myth about the military being the do-all-create-all basis of the nation, but the reality is that unless you have teachers to educate and help create the country and its knowledge base in the first place, there would be no country to 'defend'.
5
@Cmary It's not Trump - it's this generation. In 15 years of teaching, I've never seen such entitlement and absurd expectations. I don't check my email at 10p Sunday night, sometimes there are topics covered in class that aren't on the exam, and the deadlines I give at the start of the term are firm.
Across the board pay raises is not the solution. Some areas pay teachers well; others raid their education budget. We know the states and regions that tend to do both. Instead, let's help with more targeted Federal financial support.
Fed contribution is not significant now.
My mother has been an elementary school teacher for 27 years. I have watched her buy students coats, shoes, pencils, paper, books and everything in between out of her own pocket. She has two master's degrees and cares more about the students than some of their own parents. Raising teacher pay shows that we value there invaluable contribution to a healthy society and a well functioning democracy.
Teachers shouldn't have to march in the streets to be given a living wage commensurate with what they contribute to all of us
33
@Brandon
That happens even in wealthier school district. We used to get a $200 deduction on federal taxes (even though the average teacher pours $1500+ into their classroom, and elementary teachers typically provide even more), but that's gone now with the 'tax cut'. In impoverished and inner-city schools, teachers are often the only adults interested in a child's life. During my first teaching year, my mentor reminded me that teachers "have all the responsibilities of a parent and none of the authority," and she was right. It's easy to try to diminish the teacher's sacrifices by saying "It's all the parents' fault" as though that fixed things. Some parents aren't involved because they're negligent. Others aren't involved because they're trying to hold down a household and have no time for parenting. And - yes - some should never have had children in the first place. (and here's a clue for some - how a parent behaves isn't determined by their income, or immigrant status, or intelligence, or previous education, religion, politics, ethnicity, etc.) Each case is independent, but it is always the teacher at the center of it, trying to make all ends meet in the middle, or the student fails - period.
8
The title alone told me this would be a ham-handed article.
The short answer to the question is if teacher salaries doubled, smarter people would go into the profession, and our country would stop thinking of teachers as not very smart people.
Of course the author bashes unions. How unoriginal. I wonder if some conservative think tank has helped pay for 'research' at his school of education? They have been attacking public schools for decades, pretending they want to help them but really just wanting to replace them with less "socialist" schools, like charter schools where no one can be in a union. ('Hey, here's an idea, let's make teaching less secure and less well-paid!")
All that said, if the unions are not weakened, I would support higher salaries for teaching subjects with a lot of preparation and a lot of grading...science and humanities over art and gym, high school over elementary school.
Most important of all, money should be directed to reduce the immoral racist and class structure our countries has allowed.
Right now teachers get paid more to teach in mostly white middle-class suburbs than in mostly poor inner-city schools.
The first ten billion dollars in increased education funding should go to make all teachers in the inner cities paid BETTER than the teachers with the easier jobs in the suburbs. Harder work deserves higher pay.
9
@priceofcivilization Where we live, teacher pay in urban areas is higher than that in rural areas, and that's common in a lot of (blue) regions. Look at CA, MD, NJ, NY, CT, MA, IL, CO.... the author should have done his due diligence and looked at average experienced teacher salary compared to that state's (or even county/city) median salary. Teachers are paid well in high tax states. Teachers are paid ridiculously poorly in low tax states. I pay my share - why should my federal $$ go toward low-tax states like SC, GA, FL, OH, and PA?
1
@priceofcivilization
To be honest, charter schools are a scam. A system for siphoning off public money for private profit, and sadly don't on average produce better students. There are exceptions, but far too often those students produced are not even as capable as those produced by public schools.
5
Much ignorance about which teaching jobs are difficult.
1
As parents we trust the education of our children, our most precious possessions, to elementary and high school teachers. Shouldn't we pay these teachers accordingly? Would it not be in everyones best interest for teacher salaries to reflect the great responsibility that we put upon classroom teachers every day? Perhaps if salaries reflected the responsibilities of the job, interest in teaching as a career might increase nationwide.
14
@Shereen Sure - but why not start with your own state. Average teacher salary is $54,000. Median HOUSEHOLD income is $52,000.
Lobby your state legislature or your town/county school board if you want higher teacher pay. Average teacher salary in my region is one of the highest in the country. Arizona's average teacher salary is $47,000 with a wider range than NC or New England. The NEA has good data on this but you can find more specific information on your region from salary surveys.
1
@Shereen
I would argue that administrator salaries need to come down too. Nationwide, the median income of teachers is only $45k/year, nearly $5k less than the median salary for all industries. For principals, it's $150k. For superintendents, it's $250k. For chancellors (high level administrators in very large organizations that include multiple districts e.g. NYC or DC), is $500k. Even at median salary, the salary of a typical principal would pay for 3 teachers; a typical superintendent would pay for 5 teachers.
Not only should teacher pay go up, but we need more of them. Presently, classroom sizes are in excess of 20-25 students. When we learn our profession, we're taught methods that work with 10-15 students, but don't scale well. At the lower levels in curriculum (e.g. 1st year Algebra), it's not uncommon to have 30 students in a classroom. You're pretty much inventing educational methods as you go, thus retaining teachers become paramount, as newly minted teachers when faced with such large numbers (as they typically are as 1st years) are unprepared as the methods they learned don't work for the larger class sizes. This can cause a scramble as one is trying to learn one's job (because nothing learned before works now) while one is trying to do one's job. That's a fairly steep hill, and one reason we can't retain better teachers, as the necessary plasticity required would allow the teacher to go elsewhere and be much more successful with the same tools.
1
From myself, a professor emerita at a public university to this professor of "education and economics" at prestigious Brown: I wonder, Professor Kraft, what YOUR students considering a career in public education are saying to you about their willingness to make sub-par wages because of their "love" of teaching. My students express such love but have doubts that they can have a decent future if they become teachers in public schools. Here in CA it is impossible to teach and afford life's basics. As an economist, surely, you know that higher salaries in other professions also encourage the best and brightest to enter those professions. It's not a complex equation. So why do you present these specious arguments against better pay for all teachers? Oh, I know: you live in a world of illusory meritocracy. Or think that everyone else should.
28
@SG Basic economics of supply and demand. If salary is too low, positions won't be filled. Are you seeing a glut of open teacher positions where you live? In my town, there's a waitlist to teach in our schools. But then again, I pay a lot in taxes both local and state to support our schools in urban, suburban, and rural areas.
CA's issue is cost of living, not salary. Perhaps something like we do for other public servants like fire and police who live in high cost areas like NYC would work. Offer subsidies to live in the area you serve. Does every region in CA have an issue with sub-par teacher salaries? At $68,000, I doubt it. Sure, southern CA and the San Francisco region are crazy expensive, but that's true for all employees, given the median state income is $52,000.
@Julia Scott Well, now that you're opening this particular can of worms, I certainly think that everyone demands a living wage, a wage enabling them to survive in their own community. Supply-side economics is surely misapplied when we speak of quality of life, not to mention professional compensation. Not only do all teachers need the protections of unions; all workers do.
4
I would also note that Professor Kraft once did teach here in Oakland and Berkeley. Wasn't his "love" of public school teaching enough to keep him here, earning a salary that would make it impossible to live here in the style to which Brown has accustomed him in Providence, RI?
5
My daughter, spouse (retired) and a number of friends are active or retired public school teachers. Simply granting blanket salary increases sounds good but will certainly not solve the many problems facing public education. The district where my daughter teaches enjoys a substantial tax base and hence salaries and resources are very good. In districts that do not have such a tax base or are not wealthy and depend on residential taxes face a much different and more complex situation. Like most issues candidates must provide sound bite solutions to complex problems because we have an electorate unable or unwilling to consider complex solutions to complex problems.
4
As a public school educator, i’ll tell you what it will buy - A quality education. If I didn’t have to spend thousands of dollars out of my own pocket purchasing curriculum and materials I wouldn’t be forced to work two additional jobs to make ends meet. It’s embarassing to me when students, even in elementary school say to my face, “well you don’t make that much money”. America does not value its educators and we all suffer for it.
52
@Nicholas
My favorite insult from them was "If you're so smart, why don't you get a REAL job?" Even worse was when I waited tables and occasionally faced some of my snottier high school students who thought they were being oh-so-clever by not giving me a tip. Honestly, what we're seeing now is the result of decades of demonizing teachers and knowledge in general. I once knew a scientist who lamented that it was a sad day when more people "believed in psychics than in physicists." Today we have people who verbally spread lies and fabricated 'facts' with a smirk and an scowling frown (as a substitute for being serious) and are taken more seriously than scientists and others who've spent their lives focused on a subject. We have a nation where how much one makes or how much a public splash one makes is a determiner of one's received respect from others. As you stated, the narrative needs to change where those who create the foundations on which the nation can be great receive more veneration than those who exploit it.
5
@Nicholas, you are so right. How about teachers not having to buy the essentials for the classroom. From raising my last child, I remember teachers desperately publishing "Wishlists" in the hope parents would contribute some of the most basic items to the classroom.
2
Students will benefit by having teachers with experience. Teachers who don't have to be replaced every 8-1/2 years when they burn out from low pay and large classes.
14
Mr. Kraft conflates teacher pay with student performance. Teachers do not go into the profession to become wealthy, but they also should not need three jobs to sustain themselves. Student achievement is based on a myriad of factors, from home life to community to teacher competence to internal goals and objectives. The author does recognize the problem of teacher turnover which does have a deleterious effect on students. However, turnover is also a result of newbies looking to add a bullet point in their resumes and then moving on (TFA,) as well as more experienced teachers leaving due to unsupportive administrators and legislators. Increasing pay is essential on a basic human level, commensurate with the education and skills necessary to become accomplished. There are career paths for teachers. I was a teacher for 20 years and then became a department supervisor. I was able to support and train many teachers who, then went on to become teacher trainers and administrators themselves. Before we get into all of the causes and issues involving student achievement, let's get back to basics- better pay for those on the front lines with our children.
17
Administrative jobs are not really career paths. They take teachers out of the classroom. What we need in education is a way to keep them there, not to get more money for getting further away from students.
2
I'm a public high school teacher in Oregon. I don't need a higher salary. I need more money invested in schools so that I have lower class sizes.
Instead of paying teachers more money, we need more teachers hired. Teachers in my building carry around 180-200 students in their teaching load. There's no way you can effectively instruct 200 students in writing or math.
I'm ten years in and all the way to the right of the salary schedule. If I had a manageable number of students in my classes, my salary would be perfect. The issue is that the number of students I have requires that I work nights and weekends to keep my head barely above water. And I'm not nearly as effective as I could be if I had fewer students.
Take the money slated for teacher raises and hire two more teachers for each department in each school across the country. I guarantee you will get results if you bring our numbers down from 200 per year to 120.
18
@Beth . I agree, we need more teachers and smaller classroom populations, but I think pay raises are in order, too. Higher pay may increase an interest in teaching.
Maybe Stanford grads will consider a career in educating 5th graders!
Teachers and students deserve the best.
Higher salaries
Smaller classroom population
Foreign language from K-12
Real world studies in math and history
Rigorous learning
Beautiful, super-clean campuses and rooms
Teacher appreciation
Community inclusion through on-campus family activities such as math night or art night
Washer, dryer on campus for underprivileged students
Unlimited supplies
Additional office staff
Additional nurse and counselors
I'm dreaming
15
@Beth Presumably it's both - I'd agree there need to be more teachers hired, but it'll be increasingly harder to find people to hire if salaries remain low and stagnant (or even declining in terms of real purchasing power)
8
@Beth We need both higher salaries and lower class sizes. It's not either/or. To do the best by the students and to ensure they get a good education, we need both.
8
This was an insightful article, but I do not think keeping teachers' pay stagnant has a chance of improving anything. I do not know what the most valuable outcome may be, but maybe we should find out. Given the geographical spread of teachers' incomes, I doubt median income levels provide enough understanding of the problems.
Measuring merit is tricky business and by itself will not be reliable enough. One thing that is clear--there has been no shortage of piling on of paperwork for our public school teachers.
5
I have watched 4 different so called “merit” plans crash and burn in Florida.
Or, y'know, we could just raise teachers' salaries because it's the right thing to do. Because the people who shape the minds of the next generation shouldn't have to work two jobs and struggle. Because it's just moral for people who perform an important function to society to live a decent, secure life.
Just saying. All of these arguments are the rote, centrist response to any progressive policy pitch. "But how will we pay for it?" "But what if it doesn't affect X issue (even if X issue isn't the one the policy is trying to solve)?" Nowhere does Mr. Kraft address whether it's simply the just and moral thing to raise teachers' salaries so they don't face hardship.
The answer to that question is yes.
59
@Max Moran
And younger teachers who are having children are often at the bottom of the pay scale (union longevity pay) exactly when they most need a decent salary. The whole wage structure needs to be rethought! Whether you are 60 or 30 it's more or less the same job.
When prices go up annually it's called inflation -- now some people do think that's a really good thing. I for one do not.
That’s because he’s doing quite well at Brown.
Congratulations and thanks for taking on a challenging subject. Somebody should have asked a similar question before Mark Zuckerberg gave Newark $100M
2
@My Aim Is True
OI, $100 Million? As though that were something huge and Mr. Zuckerberg was now to be accorded massive and unending adulation? That's about 1 year's budget for Newark.
An initial reduction in stress is expected, but over time, net incomes will equilibrate with quality of life tendencies. For example, one might use their new windfall to move into a more expensive property, buy a new car, or go on a vacation. As the author points out, unconditional raises are ALWAYS welcome, but rarely effective at changing anyone's underlying behavior. A merit based system would follow a bell curve and reward only the teachers who go above and beyond their peers. Minimum wage would ensure everyone is no worse off than they are now (of course they might be more envious of their peers, but that's by design).
2
@Johnny. Merit based pay for teachers would be hard to evaluate because there are too many factors which need to be considered. Any teacher will produce great results when given a small class of attentive and motivated kids who have supportive parents. Put that same teacher in a class of students whose parents are both in jail, kids who work at McDonald's to 2 am, who have a history of trauma or have been sexuallu abused, and the same teacher will not have great results, even though they are still doing a great job.
9
Reading this article makes me sad. By one logic in it ("most educators are motivated by joy") - why don't we extend to, say, the executives of the health industry? Why wouldn't they be just motivated by joy of healing people?
I'm lucky that my kid wen to school(s) with high quality teachers. Ultimately, I would want most kids to have a pedagogue and role model. And one who is motivated to continue learning, as the world progresses. And lastly, not a "reject" who would dumb down the kids.
And what about the motivation to go to university for that degree?
Sure: rich folks can send their kids to exclusive academies, where pay may be better. What does it teach: that public means second class?
22
I hear quotes like this one constantly
"Still, while higher teaching salaries will relieve financial stress, they will not necessarily make teachers better. Most educators are intrinsically motivated to work hard because of the joy they experience when students succeed. "
Why is it that we believe that good salaries attract better financial traders, CEOs, doctors, and athletic coaches, but not teachers? If teachers are experiencing so much joy, maybe they should just work for free?
I have been reading about the growing trend of districts moving to 4 day weeks. Evidently, this trend is highest among rural districts that have trouble attracting teachers because of low salaries. They find they have more success attracting teachers with a 4 day a week schedule. The problem is, once one rural district does it, all the neighboring districts feel they have to as well in order to stay competitive in teacher recruitment. This is one good example of the way in which low teacher salaries end up hurting kids, by forcing them into 4 day school weeks.
35
@csgirl
All very nice... but many educators really know rather little esp. in the STEM subjects. Quickly, if you divide a fraction by a fraction will your answer be smaller or larger than the dividend? (Name the parts of a division problem.) If car A begins at X, etc. (Get my point.)
I had a low performing student in art history -- could not define symmetry -- her excuse, "all I want to be is a teacher!" Then there was the student with Michelangelo's Last Supper -- "I knew it was one of those guys" -- the Ninja turtles.
And frankly, lots of what children are supposed to learn - fact wise is difficult... and should be posted on the WEB -- National standards for knowledge at age/grade level so that we can all be on more or less the same page... but then there is the Texas standard with Creationism -- and at that point how much should a "teacher" be paid.
There is education and then there is "brain washing."
1
I am a retired teacher, whose interest in education includes the future of the teaching profession. I think increasing starting teacher salaries would encourage more to be able to stay in the profession for more than a few years. Almost half of all teachers quit within five years.
Raising the starting salary will allow more teachers who want to teach to stay in the profession, because they won't be racing to their second job after school. The last question a teacher asks should not be, "Would you like fries with that?"
Changing the teacher profession structure is a great goal. Beginning teachers should have smaller classes, teachers should have larger classes and Master teachers who could have a greater role in guiding new teachers, developing department policies and school administration. I also think that administrators should be back in the classroom at least once every five years to see how things have changed.
I also think money for school nurses, counselors, elementary arts and field trips should be a priority. All these other things should not be an excuse not to raise teacher salaries, they deserve more pay for the job they are doing today.
33
There needs to be substantial raises at higher experience levels. Starting salaries with no advancement do not keep people in the profession.
Talk to more teachers, read fewer EdD studies, Mr. Kraft.
"Still, while higher teaching salaries will relieve financial stress," . . . YES! "they will not necessarily make teachers better.". . . NO!. Since when doesn't relieving financial stress not improve job performance?!?
And then this old and lightly examined canard:
"Most educators are intrinsically motivated to work hard because of the joy they experience when students succeed." YES and BUT. BUT student success cannot take place when the "good," working on becoming the "great," teachers leave the profession for higher paying jobs. Or, even more importantly, potentially good, great, and even steady but O.K. teachers choose not to enter the profession because the salaries, administrative heavy-hands, and spirit killing test regimes kill creativity and enthusiasm.
18
As a retired NYC teacher I bless the memory of Albert Shanker et al who enabled NYC teachers to live and retire with dignity. There is no easy solution to the supposed education crisis that really is part of a universal quandary regarding how to educate poor and disadvantaged children. So much is political, for instance that in NYC one poor minority group is succeeding in selective schools while others can’t pass the admissions test.
3
It has always baffled me that teacher salaries are not based on results. However, I do understand that this requires fair and valid metrics for teacher performance. Like most jobs, it's not passion that makes a good teacher (although it may help greatly). Instead, it's about effectiveness and unfortunately, in our time, gumption.
1
@Dave The problem of using "results" to measure teacher quality is that we are not producing widgets in a factory. We are educating children, an endeavor that takes years and the influence of many teachers. And what "results" are we measuring? Standardized tests do a poor job of measuring critical thinking, problem-solving, internal motivation, passion for continued learning, and so many other intangible qualities that combine to make a fully educated and engaged adult. I'm getting ready to begin my 44th year as a public school teacher. I've contributed the education of thousands of young people. But it would be difficult to measure my individual contribution. Teaching is an art as much as it is a science. My education, continued training, pedagogical expertise, work ethic, sense of humor. . . and yes, passion, all mix together to shape my effectiveness.
13
@SherryTeach: Widget makers get to select their inputs. Raw materials and components that don't pass QA can be rejected and never enter the manufacturing process.
By analogy, if teachers were to be judged on results they would get to pick their students. Obviously, we don't let them do that. Likewise, unlike an employer or a coach, teachers do not get to fire underperformers or cut them from the team.
3
That doesn’t contradict my point. I recognize that teacher evaluations are tricky. But without a metric, how do you hold teachers and other professions like it accountable?
It's a bit early to get into the weeds on any campaign proposal. Congress writes the legislation, Congress negotiates the fine points. The president proposes, Congress debates and decides.
Raising teacher's pay nationally makes little sense. In New York there is a public school district every 20 miles or so that depends on local property taxes and state aid to keep running. Raising salaries would cause local tax increases, unbearable and unsustainable, especially when the state and the federal government have little extra money.
1
@Zeke27 The Federal government has PLENTY of money. It just spends it on wars.
5
The feds provide only a small amount over all to education. Mostly the money is food programs, special ed, etc.
Short term - it means teachers will not have to have second and third jobs just to pay their bills so they can be better teachers by focusing time and energy on teaching.
Long term higher teacher pay makes it a competitive filed that more qualified people will want to be in. Right now we have a massive shortage of teachers because young people rightly see it as a career dead end and a struggle to survive on the miserable pay in most places. My kids would not even consider teaching because they will make more at first year entry level in their chosen lines of work than they would as a fully tenured, top of the pay scale skilled and experienced classroom teacher
That is what higher teacher pay "buys" students, and our nation.
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Teaching is one of the few professions in which the employees (teachers) are expected to be more altruistic than any other employees in the US economy. Teachers want raises because they need the money to pay for their expenses just like other workers.
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Raising teacher salaries will enable a teacher to live in the community where he/she works. In many locations, the cost of housing is so high teachers cannot afford to live there and must commute long distances. What happens when the teacher leaves home at 4:30 AM to get to work and then battles traffic to get home at the end of the day? The teacher's own children suffer. Longer daycare hours, lack of interaction at his/her children's school events, less time for family. The community suffers with more traffic jams and less involvement. There are many teachers who have 2nd jobs in restaurants to help pay the mortgage or rent. Tired teachers do not benefit students.
Teachers will be more likely to stay on the job if they are rewarded.
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Hmmm.... So Dr. Kraft thinks, at the core, it's the unions' fault.
I agree that raising pay alone will not "fix" public education. We need investments across the board in everything from educational infrastructure, to teacher training programs and life-long professional development opportunities, to "public education" on the important role teachers play in our children's lives and our nation's future.
But we also desperately need to raise teachers' salaries across the board, not only to recruit talented individuals into the profession, but to keep them there. When talented STEM teachers, for example, can make two or three or four times as much working in the STEM workforce, how can anyone expect them to stick to the classroom? And yet what more important role than teaching can they play in their communities and our nation's future?
Yes, teaching is a calling for many, but it's also a challenging profession for all. Teachers need to be treated -- and paid -- accordingly.
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Raises for teachers will allow them to focus more attention on their students instead of having to constantly worry about how to pay their rent. It's simple.
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@Mary A Although it may help in certain instance. I don't see it addressing teachers who have the "I still get my paycheck attitude" in many low-achieving (often urban) schools.
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@Dave. Any place of employment has employees who are simply placeholders marking time. There are some of those in public education but based on the many teaches I know personally there are very few of those on public education. Contrary to what you hear from those who blame all public education ills on teacher unions.
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@Dave That's for their school board to fix.
To be a teacher requires at least four years of education (ideally six), getting certified, and taking continuing education courses. It's not a 9-5 job. It requires leadership skills and exceptional organization. Teachers ideally should be making as much as tenured college professors. Possibly more. The current modal pay is insulting and should be raised on that merit alone.
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@T. Warren Are there any white collar jobs around today that can assume a consistent 9-5 workday? And lets not forget teachers have an entire summer off (coaching is not a full time gig in the summer...) as well as all major holidays to spend with those they care about, etc. There are plenty of perks to being a teacher, and yet I agree they do also deserve to make at least the median income. But let's not pretend they are either as credentialed or merit worthy as a tenured university professor (may of whom also don't make a ton of money - and they likely had to suffer years on the adjunct circuit before ever getting the chance at such a position, making less than many teachers throughout that process). Getting a masters degree in education may continue to increase in prevalence, but this is due only to the rampant degree inflation we see across the spectrum of professional careers in modern America.
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@Physicist
Plenty of standard administrative assistant type jobs are 9-5, or close to it. I work one, and make about as much as the median salary for a teacher in this city. And I don't work nearly as hard as them.
Teachers do NOT have the summer off. My dad, a teacher, had go to continuing education and professional development courses. You get a few "slow days", but the idea that teachers spend three months not working is a myth.
Tenured professors at UCs make six figures. That's the type of pay I have in mind. And professors ideally shouldn't have suffer the torments of Hades before they get tenure. Adjuncts currently deserve much higher pay.
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@Physicist . The notion that teachers have an entire summer off is just wrong. My son, a high school German teacher, is spending over 6 weeks organizing and chaperoning a group of 24 students so that they can study in Germany and Austria. Before you think he gets a vacation in Europe, keep in mind he's a chaperone, responsible for 24 high school students, 24 x 7. He has virtually no free time to himself and he no opportunity to travel outside the city where he's based. He does not get compensated for any of this. His annual pay is $32,000/year. He lives essentially at the poverty level. He would do far better to teach English in a foreign country where teachers are valued and respected.
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Democratic candidates are throwing money at every group they need to win the election. They cannot really care all that much about education. If they did, they wouldn't be fighting school choice and trying to impede the freedom of parents to pick the best school for their children.
No one truly interested in education would force parents to send their children to inferior schools. No "greater good" argument can ever justify that highly unjust action.
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@AACNY School "choice" means taking funds from the poorest to support the more privileged. That's what got us in this mess in the first place.
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@AACNY
This is very silly, and exposes you for one whose experiences in schools ended at the student desk.
This has nothing to do with the greater good and everything to do with classroom dynamics. You wouldn't suggest that we have a competing police force, competing fire depts, yes? That's because offering competition in an arena in which the state has an overriding interest merely waters down that interest. It rips high performing students out of community schools and classroom, allowing some schools to flourish and others to fail, the only difference between students being those born with the good fortune of having parents that care and those that don't.
Public schools educate all children. "Choice" would create a system in which schools pick their students, and those left on the outside stay there.
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@AACNY - right on the spot. It's all about scale and the power it brings to the status quo (and by extension the teachers unions). Choice dilutes that power by bringing in competition.
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Professor Kraft argues that raises are politically unpalatable. I’ll say. I’m a high school teacher in LA unified, and despite the overwhelming consensus that teachers don’t make enough, measure EE just failed, an attempt to raise corporate and parcel taxes to provide a boost in education. In other words, people want an educated citizenry…they just don’t want to pay for it.
Meanwhile, this year Trump and DeVos Inc. cut the Federal education budget by $8 billion, or 12%, to $60 billion. The military budget was approximately $700 billion. It’s abundantly clear where America’s priorities lie.
But everyone gains when teacher salaries go up across the board. Retention, job satisfaction, and attracting new talent are just the starters. If society wants educated professionals, pay teachers like professionals, and we’ll produce professionals.
And if you think education is expensive, try ignorance. We need look no further than 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
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I want people like you teaching my child. And I am willing to pay taxes for the resources to make that possible. And I vote for candidates accordingly. ‘Cause that’s what it takes.
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@R Mandl
"Everyone" gains? The teachers and their unions gain, the taxpayers lose, and the students? There's not much correlation between teacher pay and national education performance. If we're going to spend more on education, and treat teachers like professionals, I'd like to see teaching become more professional. Every other professional faces dismissal if their performance is poor, as judged by their supervisor. The best teachers need to be paid more, and have greater responsibilities. The worst need to be paid less, and be given more child tending duties. And above all, better does not mean older and with more seniority. It should be much easier for capable educated people to enter teaching with non-traditional backgrounds, i.e. not having gone through teacher's college.
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Money should only flow if it accompanies reform of the profession. Otherwise it will be seen for what it is: a corrupt pay-off from the Democratic party to the teachers' unions who support it financially and logistically.
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@R Mandl It's shocking that this opinion piece comes from a professor of "Education" (oh, yes, and Economics). He has "his" . . . let's not allow others to have "theirs."
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