Teachers deserve to be well compensated, but…
what if they don’t perform. Unbelievable news today from a report by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research that Cleveland Municipal School District teachers are paid at a rate 36% higher than other locally based white collar workers.
No offense, I think that most teachers work hard, deserve to be paid well and should be paid well because the future of our society is in their hands. What concerns me though is that teachers are typically compensated based on a combination of factors like tenure, longevity and level of education - NOT PERFORMANCE. In fact, it’s this non-performance based compensation structure that encourages lousy teachers to remain in the profession. All they have to do is follow the rules (which if they don’t follow the rules, their union will stick up for them) and accumulate degrees (which are often paid for by the districts they work for) and for this they stand to be paid well - all for 9 months worth of work (not to mention the ability to travel and vacation on every holiday).
Most white collar workers would give their eye teeth for such an arrangement.
If teachers were compensated based on the ability of their students to perform, fewer bad ones would stay in the profession.
Thanks to Tom Moore at WTAM for passing on this information.
If teachers are paid so well relative to similar white collar workers and the perks are so great, then why on earth isn’t there a long line of highly qualified teachers fighting for these jobs. Indeed, why are you a teacher?
The truth is that “teaching” has become a difficult and thankless profession, and otherwise qualified people who would take such jobs (such as me) choose not to in part so they don’t have to listen to bonehead whiners like you dis the profession based on conjecture and politically motivated research studies.
Roger -
Please note that I said, “I think that most teachers work hard, deserve to be paid well and should be paid well because the future of our society is in their hands.”
The majority of teachers do an incredibly thankless job, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be required to do a good job and compensated thusly.
And one final thing, before you take me to task as one of the “bonehead whiners” who “like to dis the profession based on conjecture and politically motivated research studies,” you should be aware that I’ve spent sometime in the classroom as a volunteer tutor, lecturer and instructor who has seen both quality teachers and poor teachers at work.