Why Teachers Deserve A Raise
One thing that I noticed in today’s society is that most people don’t go out and say I want to be a teacher when I get older. Most people go out a look for jobs that can help them have a secure future with a high pay such as being a doctor or a lawyer. This makes teaching a very undesirable job with in turn makes teaching harder for those who actually want to do it because they have to do more work since there isn’t enough people. (Washington Post) After looking at this picture you can see just how different the pay is between the two professions. There are a lot of things that lawyers and doctors don’t have to deal with that teachers do. Teachers also have to deal with a lot of after school time that they don’t
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One thing that it could lead to is more people wanting to be teachers. After looking at Cindy Long’s article titled “Public Supports Higher Pay For Teachers”, I noticed that seven out of ten people want their children to become teachers but most children and teens try and go for jobs that are higher paying. Raising the salaries for teachers would make it a more “desirable” job. This could also lead to more jobs being fulfilled in the teaching industry. If more jobs are fulfilled then we could provide more classrooms and afterschool help for students who need it.
There are still a lot of skeptics when it comes to raising teachers salaries. Another quote I found on Debate.org was from someone who did not support raising the pay for teachers. It stated
“They were obviously fully aware as to what their pay scale would be when they took the job to become a teacher and should have the decency to deal with the choice they made instead of whining about it. In addition to this, how is it fair that they get an increase in their wages when people who worked their butts off in college to actually get the higher paying jobs like medical laboratory technologist or a radiologist and they don 't get a pay increase as well . .
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After doing some research on this I have found that most teachers don’t really get the summer off. On the National Education Association 's home website you can see myths and facts about teaching jobs. One of them is teachers get to vacation in the summer. Most teachers have to find a second job to support their families in the summer because using the money they earn throughout the year does not cover the summer budget. On the “Washington Post” They described the things that teachers have to go through just to get the money they need. It
Imagine a world where you are working overtime, seven days a week, yet your kids are starving. You can’t get the education you need because you don’t have the time and money to afford it, and you can’t change jobs because this is the only one you can get. Unfortunately, this is the reality for millions of Americans living today. The federal minimum wage is too low to help families, and actually mathematically speaking, too low to survive on. The quality of life for minimum wage families is terribly low, and that is unacceptable. As humans, we should be looking after others and helping the poverty come out of their continuous cycle. Raising the minimum wage would not only help families be able to afford a better quality of life, but help them to afford healthy food, get an adequate education, and invest in the necessary health care they need.
Salary schedules for public school teachers are almost a common feature in public school districts. These schedules largely determine the salaries for the teachers. A single district schedule sets the pay for hundreds of thousands of teachers in thousands of schools (Besharov 1). The key factor that influences the pay for the teachers in the salary schedules include experience in terms of years and the total number of graduate course works that a teacher has completed. This paper will look at the cons and pros of the salary schedules in terms of an economic point of view.
Currently, in the United States, the federal minimum wage has been $7.25 for the past six years; however, in 1938 when it first became a law, it was only $0.25. In the United States the federal minimum wage has been raised 22 times since 1938 by a significant amount due to changes in the economy. Minimum wage was created to help America in poverty and consumer power purchasing, but studies have shown that minimum wage increases do not reduce poverty. By increasing the minimum wage, it “will lift some families out of poverty, while other low-skilled workers may lose their jobs, which reduces their income and drops their families into poverty” (Wilson 4). When increasing minimum wage low-skilled, workers living in poor families,
Although many would not want to admit it, money can be the deciding factor in some things. Public school teacher salaries can vary depending on the state that they teach in. According to Yakima Herald the average pay in 25 out of the 50 states for an elementary school teachers is less than $40,000. She also states that 13 states paid their teachers $45,000 or more (1). The amount of money that a teacher receives is very low. In North Carolina teachers are under payed as well. In most states teachers have a chance to increase their pay by going back to school and getting a Masters degree. In 2013 the governor of North Carolina decided to get rid of tenure for teachers and also to get rid of the pay increase for teacher with their masters degree (Banchero 1). To have a bachelors degree or even a masters degree and to be making under $50,000 is something that one should take into consideration when deciding on a career. Dental hygienist receive more money then an elementary school teacher. Nora Powell associate dean for the dental hygienist program at Broward College states, “You don’t have to have a bachelor's degree and you can make $50,000 to $60,000 annually, working four days a week..” (Pounds 1). Going to school for a less amount of time and making more money in the long run should be a deal
Taylor Mali, an American slam poet and teacher, wrote a poem titled, “What Teachers Make”. In this poem, he rhythmically tells about other professions criticizing teachers based on their choice of occupation. While teachers will never earn six figure incomes, they make a difference. Teachers dedicate their lives to leading, inspiring, and educating future generations, all while earning meager pay. Though teachers form foundation of education, their pay does not accurately represent their skills. Using merit pay systems will properly assess how much a teacher should be paid, based on their teaching ability.
It is very difficult to live in America if you are living off of minimum wage, and many Americans are living off of it today. Raising minimum wages has its benefits like gaining more money to live better, but people do not see the down side of the increases in wages. With the increase in minimum wage, it also causes the cost of living to increase. How can this help the economy or help people? Minimum wages in America should not be increased because it will cause cost of living to increase, reduce employment, and cause businesses to lose money and workers.
Education has been a hot topic in every political campaign, top news headline, and teacher’s first thought when they head to their classroom to teach America’s future. The education system is the most vulnerable aspect of a nation. It is the building block for creating successful individuals who dare to dream of changing the world and have the power of doing things people only dream of. A country is only as strong as the weakest link and for America it’s the uneducated. For as long as anyone can remember there has been one thing that the majority of the news headlines, workers strikes, and state questions have revolved around, education reform. Three highly educated authors provide three common overlapping issues that harshly impact the education system in the United States. In the article “Why the United States is destroying
Effective teachers are inadequately rewarded in the United States. School districts, such as those in California, are just starting to implement merit pay. According to a study conducted by the National Center of Performance Incentives (NCPI), only about 500 school districts out of the 14,000 districts in the US implement merit pay for teachers. These numbers do not include private schools. Unfortunately, teachers, parents, and students hurt because many schools, private and public, base teacher pay on seniority and degrees rather than achievement and performance. Under such a system, novice teachers, are laid off during budget shortages. Moreover, with the current “single salary schedule” system, teachers are inadequately paid, especially when compared to other professions. Because the single salary schedule creates many issues, a solution needs to be proposed. Merit pay, a system based on performance, solves such issues. With this system, teacher performance outweighs teacher seniority. As a result, quality teachers will be rewarded adequately in terms of money and recognition. Outstanding teachers will no longer face unreasonable layoffs and will finally be paid more than their ineffective peers.
Some locations in the United States are trying to improve their education by adding quality teachers. A major reason why there is an achievement gap in education is because there exist a gap in teachers as well. Research has shown that teacher quality counts. Some states are seeking ways to keep quality teachers and ways to attract them. In New York City, the schools will not hire teachers that are not certified. Also, New York and California are adding some sort of incentive in public schools, to attract quality teaching to minority schools. Sometimes school add annual bonus up to $10,000 for qualify teacher to work in public school, with low achieving schools. Also, many state provide some sort of tuition assistance for teacher, but of all of the states only seven target the candidates to commit to the lower achieving schools (Olsen, 2003).
Kohanim, Jordan and Ashley Ulrich. "Teachers: No Merit to Merit Pay Arguments." Atlanta Journal-Constitution Website. 28 February 2010. Web. .16 November 2010
I believe educators are one of the most important careers out there, without them where would we be today? Would you be reading this paper? Would you still be able to read, write, or have an educated conversation? Would you know how to pay for things at the grocery store, and know if you’re receiving the correct change back? Would you know how to tell time, so you can manage your day? When I look back to my young developing stages in life, I always ask myself where would I be today if it wasn’t for my teachers? Teachers are the ones who are building our future generations. Preparing children and teens for higher education. Also playing a huge part in shaping children’s lives, enlightening them, and educating them about society and the world around them; the types of things that a parent doesn’t have time for, or just lacks the knowledge of. I think teachers are what help make this world go round. We simply go to school to learn, and get educated, so that someday we can get a job, or start a business to supply for our families and our self. How would we acq...
The first benefit of raising the minimum wage is that it will raise family incomes. Raising the minimum wage will really help many families financially (Averback 1). With the family having more income they will have a better household. People don't go to college because they don't have money to pay for it. Raising the minimum wage will gradually help people pay for the college. When you go to college, you will be able to get a better job so that you can make money, that is why people want to go to college.Having extra money around family is always a plus, it will help them with whatever they will need or want. By increasing workers' take-home pay, families gain both financial security and an increased ability to purchase goods and services, thus creating jobs for other Americans.
The majority of teachers get paid a middle class salary, live a middle class life and harldy ever get looked at as major influences to kids; however, just because a sports player plays a game like no other they could be famous, a millionaire, and looked at as a hero to people across the country or even worldwide. Even when off the field that phenomenal sports player might never do a thing for their fans they are hardly ever looked at negatively for not paying attention to their fans. A teachers job is to pay attention to each and everyone of their students they deal with students day by day and year by year compared to the sports player of having a ten year at most length career. Is it fair that two people born with a gift, one has the gift to play a game like no one else and the other has a gift of teaching.
First of all, a teacher works for 10 months in a year, and has off when the kids have off. During the off time teachers have time to further their education or upgrade their new teaching license (Elementary School Teachers). The days off are not just the only benefit that a teacher has. The starting salary is about $53,950. Through extracurricular activities teachers can earn earn a bigger salary. According to Ferguson 's Career Guidance Center in an article titled Elementary School Teachers,“Teachers often supplement their earnings through teaching summer classes, coaching sports, sponsoring a club” (Elementary School Teachers). Having a high salary is a major benefit when going into a career field. If a person starts off with a high salary it is a positive thing because they start off with a good income and over the years raises will be even
Education has played an important role in people’s lives and receiving the best education is a right to all humans, but now in days we can see that our education system is in deep distress. This is made evident by the low rate of graduates; that’s why our education system needs to be improved. Many people think that our government is responsible for our bad education system, However, teachers are the real issue even though many teachers are saying they 're doing their best, they’re not. How do we improve our education system? For a start, we need to provide better teaching programs for teachers to improve their skills and make them earn their tenure instead of just giving it to them.