We're spending 9,000 to 11,000 dollars per pupil. Countries with much higher
teacher-pupil ratio are doing a better job.
Yes ok les, agreed, and this is the excuse everyone uses. But heres the problem - where I am, here, I can tell you that teachers are underpaid, so much so that you cannot expect a quality individual to choose teaching as a career. Do we pay teachers higher salaries than say, Japan? In relative money, quite possibly. And Ill be the Japanese teachers are better than ours for a number of reasons, most of which cannot be emulated in the US (ex. the culture is more disciplined in general, easier to teach, women still have few career opportunities etc). There is nothing we can do to make our teachers more like Japanese teachers. We need to pay them more. All the comparisons to other countries are irrelevant. I agree there are other problems in schools, bad administration etc but why cant we just fix the teacher pay thing? Its like saying Im not going to change the oil in my car because my air conditioner doesnt work - oh well Ill just drive the thing anyway. |
