The Unequal United States - Which State is Best to Teach in?
by Momma Brown's Blog
Originally posted at: https://medium.com/march-for-public-education/the-unequal-united-states-which-state-is-the-best-to-teach-in-abf003a31e0c
Divide and Conquer.
In one of the Facebook groups that I follow, a member posed this question: “Just out of curiosity: what’s the best state to teach in, and why?” A flurry of comments came in — 347 comments were generated from that one question! I found the responses to be both enlightening and disturbing.
Some of the comments were humorous:
“A state of bliss.”
“A state of denial.”
“A state of sobriety.”
“A state of intoxication.”
Some comments looked outside of the United States:
“Finland” (This country was written many times.)
“International schools.”
“On-line.”
While a few teachers commented:
“No state.”
“None, get out of teaching.”
“Don’t go into any state of teaching.”
Most respondents answered very strongly concerning the state they taught in. The “best” states characteristics tended to be geographically north-eastern, union-supported, secure in teacher tenure rights, and included average to above-average teacher pay, including pensions.
The top state responses: Massachusetts, New York (but not always NYC), New Jersey (but there was much discussion over Governor Christie), Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, and northern Virginia (not southern), Minnesota, and California.
The meh states included Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The characteristics of states to avoid included: hostile governors, anti-union sentiment, right-to-work laws, lacked teacher tenure rights, lacked pension benefits, and paid teachers unlivable wages. These “bad” states were listed as: Florida, Illinois, Badass Teachers Association: The Unequal United States - Which State is Best to Teach in? by Momma Brown's Blog: