Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wants to start teachers off at $60,000 a year and give them the possibility of making up to $150,000. Isn’t that nice? $60K is a nice starting salary, particularly in a tough economy and in an industry that is regarded as being generally underpaid. Granted, some public school teachers aren’t compensated as poorly as some people think, but that is a different issue altogether. If this is Arne’s plan, I do have three questions for him.
Do you think money motivates people?
There seems to be this ongoing assumption in society that money motivates people. One can see why this might be an assumption. After all, people do think about money on a regular basis since they need to afford homes, food, and basic necessities. However, the idea that money motivates is largely a myth. In a Yahoo! News article, it suggests “There is not a lot of research that shows the effect of higher pay on teacher performance, retention and satisfaction.” The reason that there is not a lot of research is that money has not been found to actually lead to drive. Instead, people are motivated by challenges, responsibility, promotions, and recognition. As the article further noted, even large cash bonuses did not necessarily lead to an increase in test scores.
What are you going to do with current teachers?
If you bring in all the unproven rookies at $60,000, what are you going to do with the veterans that have been working hard for lesser wages all these years? What happens if those first year teachers turn out to be very poor in the classroom? Will there be a mechanism in place to remove them, or will they instantly be protected by the union system? Is there going to be an adjustment to everyone’s salaries to compensate for years of experience? Given the stranglehold that many unions have on school districts, I doubt the experienced teachers are going to sit around and applaud while the first year teachers get paid a sizable salary.
How are you going to afford this?
This is certainly a nice thought, but the last time I checked, there were a lot of states struggling to make budget. Is adding more salary to already large education budgets going to solve problems? Again, this goes back to an assumption that paying more will somehow make teachers much happier. If anything, it will make the poor teachers less likely to seek other work. I am assuming that Duncan wants stability and satisfaction, but sometimes teachers stick around because they like tenure and their summers off, not because they love to teach. The bottom line is that he can talk all he wants about higher salaries and increased respect for educators, but somehow he has to find the money.
This is certainly an interesting concept, but I am not sure what Arne Duncan is trying to accomplish. Perhaps he doesn’t either.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/starting-salary-teacher-60-000-131728091.html
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