An Education Worthwhile: Teacher Minimum Wage

Today, again, Operation: Democracy will focus on education reform. If there is any issue more important then the economy right now, or health care, it is that very topic. The future of this nation is what most politicians should, and assumingly are, looking towards. Preparing the nation’s youth, in this economic climate and in the worldwide market, is of the utmost significance.

In order to increase the standard of our education in this country, one thing we must make sure to do is increase the amount of quality teachers at our disposal. Again, both ideologies have positions on how to get to this common goal. The conservative belief is that we should pay based on performance and, many believe, that the benefit of tenure should be taken out of the education system. Liberals believe that we must increase funding to schools to give necessities to teachers and that teachers should be paid better. So who is right?

I cannot give much testimony to the conservative side, but I can give the Progressive doctrine of what creates a better teacher. The funding for materials will be covered later on, so we will discuss teacher’s salaries at this moment.

The under-compensated profession of educating our youth is a national tragedy. The fact that a career, one that takes a large amount of personal sacrifice, hard work, and a lot of overtime, can be so absurdly underpaid is horrible. The pay for teachers needs to be raised, for the reason listed and for one we are about to speak of.

Simply put, the best way to make better teachers is to increase competition for the job itself. As we all know, raising a family off of a teacher’s salary is difficult enough, not to mention the added costs of a college education. A first year teacher can make as low as $30,000, in both urban and rural areas. With this reality, it should not be a thing of surprise that some of our nation’s educators are not up for the task of teaching hundreds of students every day! In order to assure a more widespread desire to become a teacher, we must first provide a reason for that desire to come about.

The government must come out with a national minimum wage for teachers across the nation, with a uniformed method of pay raises every x amount of years. Yes, it would cost more in terms of government expenditures towards education; yet, if you look at the budget of the United States, the amount of dollars going toward public education is ridiculously low. We must re-prioritize our national budget to fund these pay raises.

It should not be only those of us willing to work for $40,000 that can teach our youth. It should be those of us that claim the spot at the cream of the crop.