re: Give teachers a raise....Nah.

It depends on what teachers we’re talking about.

A lot of teachers suck. We need to get rid of tenure or at least loosen up the administrative restrictions that exist in supervising and evaluating veteran teachers. A bad teacher should be able to be fired. I teach at a really great school and we still have teachers that will show a movie every other week because they’re tired.

On the other hand, with tenure, it’s really easy to make a great salary with a little investment.

Once I finish my doctorate, I’ll make a base salary of $76k at 40 years old. If I knock out my national boards, then I’ll make $81k/year forever. Not bad for 7:30am-3:00pm with a pension (plus social security), great health insurance, and the best PTO.

It does suck that good teachers who don’t choose/desire or have the means to invest in furthering their education get paid peanuts. What other white collar profession has to settle for $50k with no opportunities for a raise no matter how good they are at their job?