Andrew Dahl
Dr. Meoghan Cronin
EN 105
29 November 2016
In Order To Increase Interest In Teaching, Schools Must Increase Salary
School systems throughout the United States have been faced with a dilemma that is continuously increasing. The issue the schools are plagued with is the lack of prospective teachers in regards to their qualifications. The schools are struggling to retain qualified teachers. There are several different factors that have influenced the shortage of teachers in the United States. The shortage may be partially responsible for the decreasing academic performance in recent years. In order to attract more teachers, some schools have put into effect a variety of different programs or incentives. Every state is in charge of its own public school system, which leads to differing supply of teachers, varying salaries, and different incentives. The best solution to retain and attract quality teacher is to implement higher salaries. The higher the teacher salary the more likely a college graduate is to consider a career in the education field. Imposing higher salaries for teachers might yield better results in some states in comparison to other states depending on the location and budget of the state. Throughout the United States, depending on location, school districts have had trouble filling all the teaching positions with good teachers, but increasing the salary would generate greater interest in teaching.
A teacher’s job in the classroom is to teach and inspire students (CITATION). Their job is so important because of the impression and influence teachers leave on their students. A quality teacher can leave a mark on a student that lasts a long time. The certain teachers can influence the student’s behavior and attentiveness in class. The impact of the teacher can shape an individual into one who ends up being successful.
School systems in the United States have been struggling to maintain enough teachers for the number of students. Multiple school districts across the country have reported numerous teaching job vacancies. For example, the school district of Philadelphia had reported 190 teaching vacancies (Yaffe 11). Under the No Child Left Behind act set forth by George HW Bush, in order to be a highly qualified teacher one must have bachelor’s degree, have received full state certification, and must demonstrate that they are competent in the subject they will be teaching (Highly Qualified Teacher Requirements 1). When schools need to fill their teacher positions, they often time lower their standards, which lead to hiring under qualified teachers. Northeastern University did a study in Massachusetts that showed that over a quarter of the school teachers hired lacked the proper qualifications. The study done by Northeastern showed demonstrated that instead of leaving open jobs, schools hire unqualified teachers (Freeland 14). The shortage of quality teachers is heavily impacted by the lack of interest of high school and college students. A study performed by ACT and the Department of Education showed that the number of people enrolled in a teacher preparation program had decreased by almost three hundred thousand since the 2008-2009 school year (Aragon 2). Some students who express interest in becoming a teacher have scored below average in three out of the four subjects on the ACT’s (The Condition of Future Educators 2014 3). The decreasing interest in the teaching profession could be directly related low salaries. Many students come out of college and need to pay off their student debts; making such a low income would not be enough to pay off debts, taxes and support oneself. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers teacher’s average entering salary is $30,377, which is considerably lower than other entry-level jobs. Not only is it lower when entering the work force, but the more time teachers invest in their job the larger the wage gap becomes. Not only is their pay already low, it has also decreased in comparison to other professions in the past years (Myths and Facts About Educator Pay). Because teaching is a low-income profession, schools often times offer incentives for the teachers. In order to recruit teachers, school districts depending on the location may offer signing bonuses, student loan forgiveness, and relocation allowances (Coates 7).
The location of the school district also has an impact on the number of teacher’s job vacancies. Low-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods of color are often times have the schools with the worst teachers. These schools often times don’t even get the same amount of funding as more reputable counterparts. Having such low funding is unfair because these students receive fewer resources (Low-Income Schools). Teachers in these schools deserve the utmost respect. Working in these schools requires special skills. There are also areas in the United States where there aren’t enough qualified individuals to teach in the schools. States such as Arizona, Indiana, Hawaii, Nevada, and Oklahoma are all states that have reported teaching vacancies. Each state used its own incentive programs to attract teachers to their school. A few of these states reported over 1000 job vacancies (Will 10).
After school districts are able to hire teachers, there is no guarantee that the teachers will stay. The teacher turnover rate is the number of teachers that leave the school every year. The rate had increased form 9.8% to 13.1% within 20 years. 13.1% equates to about one half million teachers leaving each year, but only 1/6 of the teachers are retiring (Fuller 3). The teacher turnover rate in low-income schools is much higher than that of the other schools (Low-Income Schools). The attrition of teachers prior to retirement age is a very common occurrence in the profession. New teachers dropping out of work within a short time period has become very common. There seems to be a recurring pattern in the new teachers who are leaving prior to retirement; they are the best young teachers. (Duarte). Teachers gave their reasons for dissatisfaction. The top dissatisfaction amongst the teachers asked was the poor salary. The third most common dissatisfaction reported was student behavioral issues (Freeland 27). The teacher turnover is not only affecting the academic performance, but it is also taking up a large amount of money. The schools spend money on the training of the new employees and incentives in order to sign the new teachers. In order to provide students with good teachers the schools have to spend a lot of money. Once again the amount of money it costs to switch teachers varies depending on the state. Areas such as Chicago have an average cost of $17,872 per, where as Jemez Valley, New Mexico had an average cost of $4,366 (Barnes 4). This process takes away from the money that could be otherwise used to fund programs and increase salaries in the teachers who have proven to be essential to their school.
The biggest issues that stems from the shortage of teachers is the class size. The class size can have an impact on the academic performance of the students. Having fewer teachers in the classrooms leads to larger class sizes, which has proven to have a negative impact. The smaller class size provides many benefits to the students. A study done in California schools showed that when the class sizes are smaller, standardized test scores improved slightly (Lord). Having smaller class sizes is contradictory in the sense that smaller classes require more teachers. Additional benefits to smaller classes are less frequent dropouts, the students feel more inclined to take challenging courses, and the students tend to be more likely to go to college as opposed to students in bigger classes (Viadero).
College students are often placed in a moral dilemma when choosing their future career. They are required to choose between the importance and compensation of the profession. For people who do chose to become a teacher, the rewards they derive from contributing to society outweigh the costs associated with low salaries. The people who do chose to become teachers value the importance of educating job over the money they would make, but often times the students chose the higher compensating salary especially in today’s society. To become a qualified teacher, one must invest a considerable amount of money into his or her education. Going into a profession where the income is substantially lower, such as teaching, happens to deter prospective teachers. In order to retain quality teacher’s schools often times have to use financial incentives, but the incentives used by schools end up being very costly which takes money out of the already low budget. In order to keep effective teachers, schools should offer competitive pay. Teaching is such an important career, but because of the low salary teaching’s popularity has declined.
When society undervalues the teaching profession, it provides future generations with a negative connotation of the profession. Because the teaching profession pays so low, teachers may struggle to support all their financial needs. Teachers are paid enough to live above the poverty line, but they may not live comfortably especially if the teacher is a single parent. The teachers may end up needing to get a side job in order to make more money. Leaving teachers with very little time to themselves. Teachers should not be put in the situation where they may be struggling financially to the point where they feel the need to get a second job. Having a second job takes away from the teacher’s time to focus on their class. Teachers often times are left to correct homework and design lesson plans outside the classroom which negatively affects their performance in the classroom (Strauss).
The way the salary is designed is based on the experience and qualifications. Teachers who have been there for the same number years and who possess the same degree earn the same amount of money, no matter how good they are as a teacher. The current salary system is very ineffective because it is unable to reward the teachers who demonstrate their value in the classroom (Drury 112). Before salaries are raised, there needs to be reformation especially when addressing quality teacher retention. If the salary were to increase under the current system the raise would ultimately reward both the good and the bad teachers. Rewarding the bad teachers would help retain teachers, but the quality of the student’s education could potentially be below other students.
Increasing the salary for elementary and middle schoolteachers would ultimately fix all but one issue. Increasing the salary may also improve the teacher’s quality. Increasing the salary would be very beneficial because it would attract more qualified individuals to teach. It would also attract more college students and graduates to consider working as a teacher. Of the many young teachers that the schools are able to hire, many of the teachers report that they leave their jobs before retirement because of the low salaries (Freeland 27). Teachers that earn more money also will be less likely to have to get a second job, which gives them more time to focus on school. Earning more money could increase the happiness of the teacher; overall increase the teacher’s performance in the classroom. It is essential to have well performing schools in the United States, and increasing the salary would do just that.
The benefits of increasing the salary would allow for the schools to attract and retain better teachers, but raising the salary is much easier said than done. It is difficult to raise the teacher’s salary because the budget is often times very low, depending on the location of the school of course. State budget is composed of taxes collected from citizens along with federal financial aid. Every state has a different budget, and each state allocates their money how they see fit. New Hampshire, for example, was expected to spend $5 billion in 2015, and almost 22% of will be spent on the public school systems, whereas states such as Vermont spend nearly 32% of their budget on schools (New Hampshire State Budget and Finances). That budget seems to be a large sum of money, but it is divided up between different programs, grades (K-12), along with the costs to operate the schools and buses. Attracting new teachers to fill the empty positions also requires a great deal of time, money and attention (Scherer 7). If the salaries were to increase the states would have to find other programs where funding could be cut. In the United States some schools already have such low budgets to the point where they have cut art and music programs. Raising the salary would diminish all issues related to the shortage of teachers, but unfortunately it is not as easy as it seems. States could spend more of their money in order to increase the budget, but it would further their debt.
The United States has been plagued by a shortage of teachers. Baby boomers have played a huge role in the teaching industry, and are beginning to reach their age of retirement. The stereotype that is believed to be true throughout the country is that teachers are underpaid which happens to be true. The teacher’s job is so important to the future of this country. A great deal of teachers are not in it for the money, they are in it for the students. The problem being, not enough people are in it for the students. In today’s society has become very dependent on money especially the younger generations. If there were raises in the teacher’s salary the United States would be able to retain quality teachers, and improve their test scores in comparison to other countries.
In schools around the country, schools have been scrambling to fill the classrooms as the teaching profession becomes less and less appealing. Due to the rising costs of living in America, the low wages provided by public education systems are not longer practical for young people burdened by student loans and filled with intense ambition. If America wants to be able to keep students learning and teachers teaching, government officials need to increase budgets for schools so that teachers can earn wages practical to live in society. There also has to be a reconsideration of the system used to pay teachers so that they are paid based off of talent, not tenure and degree. And progress needs to be achieved soon. Currently, a large percentage of teachers are of the baby boomer generation. As they reach retirement age, the demand for teachers will only increase in order to replace them. If young people cannot earn a reasonable wage while working in education, the American public education system will be in jeopardy of failing.
Works Cited
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