There was a recent article in the New York Times by Dave Eggers and Ninive Clements Calegari titled “The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries.” The premise of the article was that teachers should not be blamed for poor tests scores, District leadership should be blamed and teachers should be better supported. Using the analogy of the military, Eggers and Calegari state:
“When we don’t get the results we want in our military endeavors
we don’t blame the soliders…if the results aren’t there, we blame
the planners. We blame the generals, the secretary of defense, the
Joints Chiefs of Staff. When we don’t like the way our students score
The use of the military analogy to support their argument is very weak and inappropriate. Their attempt to argue that teachers should not be solely held to blame for poor student performance has some merit. Eggers and Calegari further argue what teachers need is more support, resources and training. They argue the first place to start is to raise the salaries of teachers.
Eggers and Calegari argue the average pay of teachers is similar to a toll taker or bartenders. They claim that teacher salaries have declined over the past 30 years with the average starting salary being $39,00 and the average ending salary (after 25 years in the profession) is $67,000[ii]. The low salaries they argue prevent the profession from attracting the most talented people.
Citing a poll by the McKinsey Consulting firm, the poll found that 68% of college students in 900 top-tier colleges stated they would consider teaching if salaries started at $65,000 and rose to a minimum of $150,000[iii]. With a projected high number of retirements occurring within the next 10 years combined with 20 percent of first year teachers leaving the profession, Eggers and Calegari argue it is time to restructure the teaching profession recruit and retain talented graduates.
Higher salaries will not solve the myriad of complex problems plaguing public education. Increasing teacher salaries is important however one of the things teachers need is training. Teachers need more training on how to provide instruction with students who have difficulty understanding the material. Teachers need more training on using multiple techniques in classroom management. Teachers need more training on diversity and sensitivity to diversity, teachers need a refresher in pedagogy, differentiated instruction for students with disabilities, and finally teachers need more training in their subject. This can only occur if teachers receive training during the summer. Teachers should be given vacation from the end of school in June to the end of July. August to the start of the school year should be used for professional development training and school preparation.
In addition to training, teachers need more support in the classroom. Districts need to hire more reading and math specialists, psychologists, behavioral health specialist, and other support staff to assists teachers with students who need academic and behavioral help. The addition of staff will allow the teacher to focus on instruction while students who are struggling can receive individual or group help.
Teachers are the foundation of our educational system. The success of our economy, national security, and technical innovation depends on the products (students) of our educational system having a world class education. There needs to be more investment in training teachers to become the effective instructors and world class professional that our educational system needs.
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