Name: Annie Kessler
Title: Teaching Salary: A Sad Truth
Organizational Pattern: Topical
General Purpose: To inform
Specific Purpose: To inform my audience teachers salary
Central Idea: I will inform you about why the teachers’ salary is an issue, why it would be beneficial if we raised their salary, and what other people are doing/what you can do to raise the salary for teachers.
Introduction:
William Ellery Channing said, “It is a greater work to educate a child, in the true and larger sense of the world, than to rule a state”. (Education Quotes) Teaching can be ranked as one of the most important occupations. We are in school for roughly 18 years of our lives. We would be nowhere without influential teachers to guide and teach us, which will one day lead us to our occupations. Just like doctors, engineers, and psychologist are crucial throughout our lives, teachers play a major role in the timeline of our success as well. However, teachers get paid way less than the other essential occupations. According to Brian Hughes in his article The Six-Figure Kindergarten Teacher, “Teachers are making an average national salary of around $31,000 per year. Other college graduates who enter fields that require similar training and responsibilities start somewhat higher” (Hughes). This article later states that a study done at Harvard concluded that one talented kindergarten teacher could be worth as much as $320,000. This causes the teaching career to look less desirable for many people, including myself who wants to become a teacher one day. Today I will inform you about why the teachers’ salary is an issue, why it would be beneficial if we raised their salary, and what we can do to raise the salary for teachers.
Body:
I. Why is teachers’ pay is an issue?
A. The investment made to teach vs. the pay
1. Most states require a teacher to get his or her bachelor’s degree and even sometimes a master’s degree. College is expensive!!!
2. According to the article, “How Bad is Teacher Pay” by Moriah Balingit, “Teachers in the United States earn on average just 60 percent of what other professionals with similar education levels make.”
3. Every teacher must get a state-approved teaching certificate, which requires student teaching which teacher not only don’t get paid for, but they have to pay for!
4. Think of a teacher who influenced your life? The extra hours in which that individual put into changing your life is uncanny and deserves to be rewarded.
B. Teacher’s pay can make it hard for them to provide for their families.
1. According to Katey Troutman in her article, How Much Money Does the Middle Class Really Need to Get by, “A family of four would need at least $58,000 per year to ‘get by’ in their communities” (Troutman). That limits each teacher to require another income for their family and allows room for only two children.
2. Teaching requires not only the 8-hour work day at the school, but also working overtime by grading assignments and creating lesson plans at home. This takes a huge amount of time away from their families.
3. A teacher who has children might also have to pay for a daycare or babysitter while they are busy at work.
Transition: Now that you know why a teacher’s salary is an issue, I am going to now share with you why it would be beneficial to raise their salaries.
II. What are benefits to raising a teacher’s salary?
A. It would benefit the teacher’s lifestyle as a whole.
1. Teachers would be more likely to afford bigger families than just 2 kids without working another job if their salary was raised.
2. According to Steven Greenhouse, in an article he wrote called “The West Virginia Teacher Strike”, a teacher he interviewed named Rebecca Diamond told him that she had to work as a cashier at a local store on the weekends to help support her family. This is a great example of something that would be changed if the teaching salary went up.
B. More people would want to become teachers if their salary was higher.
1. In Steven Greenhouse’s article he mentions that West Virginia has over 700 unfilled teaching positions because of the terrible pay.
2. No matter what state you teach in, the low salary of the teaching profession can make it difficult to stay committed, even for teachers who are dedicated and in love with the profession.
3. If you want to become a teacher you really need to have a love for the job, nobody ever makes that decision based off of the low pay. Many people don’t even consider the career path because of how low the salary is.
4. We could be missing out on some amazing teachers because they just can’t afford the horrible pay.
Transition: Now that you know the benefits of raising teachers’ salary, I will now talk about ways to help this happen
III. What can we do to make this change happen?
A. Go on strike
1. Teachers have been going on strike for higher pay around the country.
2. Going back to the article found in the New York Times, written by Steven Greenhouse, he mentions that the teachers went on a statewide strike for 9 days in West Virginia.
3. The strike ended when the governor signed a bill that allowed a 5% increase in pay for teachers.
4. Kentucky, Arizona, and Oklahoma are considering and planning on doing the same as West Virgina.
B. As non-teachers we can:
1. Write a letter to the governor of Nebraska, Pete Ricketts, to mention raising the wages for teaching in Nebraska. If enough people do this we might just actually make a difference.
2. Most importantly, be informed and appreciative of the teachers that you know to make their job a bit easier.
In conclusion, teaching is one of the most important occupations today, yet it has one of the lowest salaries. It is so important to appreciate our teachers and the sacrifices that they make in order to do what they love. Now you know why teachers’ salary is an issue, why it would be beneficial if we raised their salary, and what we can do to raise the salary for teachers.
Bibliography:
Balingit, Moriah. “How Bad Is Teacher Pay? .” The Washington Post, WP Company, 20 June 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/06/20/how-bad-is-teacher-pay-nearly-1- in-5-teachers-works-a-second-job-report-says/?noredirect=on.
“Education Quotes.” Crewton Ramone's House of Math, Crewton Ramone's House of Math, 2008, www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/education-quotes.html.
Greenhouse, Steven. “The West Virginia Teacher Strike Was Just the Start.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Mar. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/opinion/teachers-west-virginia-strike.html.
Hughes, Brian. “The Six-Figure Kindergarten Teacher.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 16 Dec. 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-hughes/the-sixfigure-kindergarte_b_13675200.html.
Troutman, Katey. “How Much Money Does the Middle Class Really Need to Get By?” The Cheat Sheet, 28 Jan. 2018, www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/how-much-money-does-middle-class- need.html/?a=viewall.