Save a teacher's salary... repeal 'No Child Left Behind'
By John A. TuresAssociate Professor of Political Science
LaGrange College
March 21, 2011 —
The Wisconsin battle over unions has opened up a national debate about whether or not teacher salaries are breaking budgets. Are teachers being paid too much? If not, how can we keep from cutting their salaries or laying them off in these tight budget times?
Nicholas D. Kristof wrote a column for the New York Times in which he claims that “a basic educational challenge is not that teachers are raking it in, but that they are underpaid. If we want to compete with other countries, and chip away at poverty across America, then we need to pay teachers more so as to attract better people into the profession.” South Korea and Singapore reward teachers, with good student results, he finds.
For additional evidence, he cites the McKinsey & Co. report “Closing the Talent Gap” which concludes, “In 1970, in New York City, a newly minted teacher at a public school earned about $2,000 less in salary than a starting lawyer at a prominent law firm. These days the lawyer takes home, including bonus, $115,000 more than the teacher, the McKinsey study found.”
I decided to see for myself whether teachers receive better pay, on average. So I examined research that compares the average teacher salary in a state to that state’s median household income. Only in DC do teachers earn $10,000 more than the median household income. Only 15 states have teachers earn more than the median household income.
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