>> For some very bizarre reason, we don't think teachers are worth it.
Teachers think they are worth more than they're paid, no doubt about that. So does everyone else.
You can't paint teachers with a broad brush; some are great, others are pathetic. But to put it bluntly, k12 teaching isn't where the brightest people are found. If they were, then perhaps I'd have a different attitude about paying them more -- although, they are vastly overpaid for what they do.
The problem is the unions protect them from independent evaluation. That is, after all, what unions are for. A great teacher may be worth 300K. But many, many teachers aren't worth 10K, and in fact, do more harm than good, yet they're protected by the union.
I've known highly intelligent k12 teachers, and I've known some who rolled out of school in a barrel. There need to be true performance standards developed and they need to be paid based on that. And I'm not referring to bogus MINIMUM standards.
Our education problems won't be solved until we get the unions and the federal government out of local education. They are the sources of the problems. Then, let's talk about teacher pay. |
