Teacher pay disadvantage soars

[Pale Blue Dot]

In 2006, public school teachers earned 15.1% lower weekly earnings than other employees with comparable education credentials and experience earned. In 1996, this wage disadvantage was only 4.3% (see Chart). Although the wage disadvantage for both male and female teachers has grown substantially over the last 10 years, in 2006 the gap was far larger among males (25.5%) than females (10.5%).

What happened? The earnings gains that benefited college-educated (and other) workers during the late 1990s appear to have bypassed teachers. Moreover, in recent years, real wages have stagnated for the average college graduate, and teachers appeared to have fared even worse.

This erosion of teacher pay relative to those of other opportunities affects the trends in teacher quality that are so critical to improving education outcomes. If the goal is to improve the quality of the typical teacher, then raising teacher compensation is a critical component in any strategy to recruit and retain a higher-quality teacher workforce.

http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_20080305

[MaryCeleste]

1. An attmepts to fix it, like merit pay or skills differentials are fought by the NEA

until those kind of issues are solved, this does not surprise me.

The "equivalent" education is also a canard.
- What do education majors do outside of education?
- What do the vast majority of history and English majors do outside of education? Comparing them to Comp Sci majors is silly.
- Everyone else gets rated by their bosses and raises based on that rating. Teaches should too.

Marketability matters. If someone gets a degree with limited career options, why should that matter to the rest of us, it was their choice, and they should have to live with it. Also if the schools need teachers with high demand skills, whether its Special Ed or Computer Science, they need the ability to pay for it. If the baseline contract compensation is not enough, the schools districts need the freedom to increase it so they can get the qualified personnel.

[LWolf]

2. Merit pay doesn't fix anything.

It's a destructive right-wing policy, and I'm glad that the NEA opposes it.

[MaryCeleste]

3. Done right it would be part of a the overall solution.

NEA needs to get behind a merit pay solution that works. Without it, skill differentials and other compensation tools common to professionals, teachers will be treated like interchangeable assembly line workers. That is certainly what the impact of the current policies are.

[LWolf]

4. No, it would not.

There is no "right" way to use merit pay to "solve" the numerous problems suffered by public education. That's a right-wing panacea that doesn't fit.

It ignores the true sources of dysfunction in the system. It ignores the true causes of student failure. It promotes a right-wing mindset and agenda to the exclusion of truth and reality.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. How can merit pay be a part of the overall solution?

I certainly don't see it as an option. But please share your ideas as to how this could work.

[Reader Rabbit]

5. Your attitude is a perfect example of why...

...public education will never succeed in America. Americans hold teachers and teaching in low esteem. One cannot claim to value education while simultaneously denigrating those who do the educating. Unfortunately, in our materialistic society, too many people are blinded by the specious "profits before people" mindset, and so buy into the cavalier assumption that teachers teach simply because they weren't good enough to find a "better" job, or because they have no other options.

The corporatized system you envision would have the same effect. We're seeing it right now with NCLB: Kids know how to take a standardized test, but they can't think critically. Lord knows, that's what the right-wing wants. They don't give a damn if the kids are educated. They just want mindless drones who will ingest media and buy stuff. Corporatization of our public schools is the perfect means to ensure their goals.

I find it extremely depressing when liberals buy into this Social Darwinist crap; it's ultimate is to eliminate public education entirely. And without universal public education, one cannot have a free society.

But nobody listens to teachers. We're just a bunch of losers who couldn't get a better job, right?

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Merit pay is NOT a solution

I am a special ed teacher. My kids' progress will NEVER earn me a bonus. And what about the counselor? Or the nurse? No school can function well without them (or without me) and yet, they are consistently ignored in merit pay proposals. And the secretary - try to run a school without that person.

The NEA has done far more research into merit pay than you have. Their position is based on that research. Merit pay is NOT an answer. The current pay structure is fine and fair. We could earn more but I don't ever want to work in a school or enroll my kids in a school where the teachers are on a merit pay plan.

[Reader Rabbit]

8. What kind of merit pay should *these* folks get?

'Cause I'm bettin' that wasn't in any of their job descriptions.

(Just a little visual to help explain why the reaction of teachers to "educational improvements" suggested by non-teachers is most often hysterical laughter or a rude hand gesture.)

[maryf]

14. ROFL

and yes my middle finger seems to develop arthritis when "educational improvements" are suggested! Thanks Teach!

[ulysses]

10. question: how would you judge teacher merit?

[MichiganVote]

12. Because as we all surely know following the bail out of Bears Stearns

American business does soooooo well and corporations that hire the MBA's are clearly way ahead of the little old English major who published books and articles, ran committees to assured proper curriculum in the schools and yes have left teaching for sales or marketing positions.

Today, anyone with any college degree is fit for service in some sector of the economy. Not everyone can teach.

[Ellen Forradalom]

15. "Need the freedom to increase it.."

How? Through tax increases. Oh, that'll fly in suburbia. Not.

[CRK7376]

9. That's part of the reason

I left teaching after 13 years in the classroom. I could not afford to feed cloth, house my family for what NC paid me. I love teaching and will return to it when I retire from Uncle Sam. Merit Pay is a joke, No matter how well you teach unless you are isolated with AG kids daily, you willnot succeed in the public schools. Too many kids and their parents could care less about education and don't even try. Pity the Special Ed teachers trying to help many of their kids meet NCLB standards...

[Sabriel]

11. I'll back merit pay for educators when they test it out on legislators

In other words, let them be the guinea pigs: raise the standard of living or lower the poverty rate in your district, and you get a merit increase. Ta dahhh! Got tough social problems in your district and little to spend on them? Too bad! No merit pay for you, Mr./Ms. Legislator.

[maryf]

13. Huzzah!!

Great solution should they try to legislate merit pay; they are already pushing for way too much accountability in regards to test scores. When the teachers are given the same numbers of students across the board, divided into equal numbers with the same abilities, disabilities, similar demographics, and baggage, then merit pay may be able to be used fairly! Maybe in 20 years when the children of the students of NCLB come to school as the offspring of parents who know how to take tests (via NCLB mandates) but have no creative problem solving or critical thinking skills, and when all these parents have very similar jobs, then the kids may be homogenous enough to make classrooms static enough to compare teachers. Oh but by then there will be no public education...or no one crazy enough to be a teacher...like me.