Schools’ Fiscal Crisis Unclear
EdNext editor-in-chief Paul Peterson and EdNext author Eric Hanushek (both senior fellows at the Hoover Institution and members of its Koret Task Force on K–12 Education) dissect the fiscal problems in US education. Short-run revenue problems are hard to solve just by wishful thinking, but the long-run problems caused by health care demands and unfunded retirement liabilities are real.
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To contend that teachers are underpaid is as much an oversimplification as contending teachers are paid well.
The truth is that it depends on where and for how long you’ve been teaching.
I am entering my fifth year and I will make $38k. I pay $120 per month for health care (it would be $400 per month to insure my wife, $1200 per month if I wanted to insure my wife and child). I am also obligated by law to pay $650 per year to the union of which I am not a member, and I pay into the pension system as well (note – I am in favor of pension reform).
On the other end of the spectrum, there are 5500 teachers in the Chicago area (near where I teach) who make $100k or more and pay little to nothing for their benefits.
Let’s not oversimplify the issue by claiming teachers are generally under- or overpaid. The discussion would be more valuable if we treated teachers compensation as the complex issue it is and focused on reforming how teachers are compensated across the board. Something like a flatter pay scale with a higher floor and lower ceiling as teachers progress through their careers seems like a good solution to me.