TEACHER PAY DIFFERENTIALS NECESSARY

It is such an integral part of the educational process in this country. All teachers are paid the same based on their degree status and years of service - regardless of the importance of their subject and/or their effectiveness in the classroom.

Teachers' unions invariably take the position that all teachers need raises and that all subjects are important. True enough. The way this country treats teachers is just awful. They receive little or no community respect, are the subjects of parental scorn, and are resented because of their burden on the local tax rate. Where do all these good people come from? Why do they enter education? Do we deserve them? All interesting points for discussion in another blog.

Deserving as teachers are, they are not all equal. Good teachers should make far more than average or poor teachers. Math teachers should earn more than English teachers; science teachers should be paid more than history teachers; there are other arguments for other disciplines as well. How about world languages, special education?

Based upon societal needs, some areas are just more valuable than others. Plain and simple. Math and science seem to make the point well. Our country needs more and better educated teachers in these fields as the demand for knowledge in these fields seems to increase exponentially every few years. Without better student education in these fields, we will inevitably fall behind as world leaders.

Granted, all good teachers deserve pay raises, but those teaching in the more critical fields also need to have a differented pay scale to benefit their entering into the educational profession. Why would a $100,000 dollar a year private sector engineer leave such a job to teach for $40,000 in the public sector? Obviously, that doesn't happen, and the best prepared professionals by-pass education at the expense of all of us.

As was stated in the novel ANIMAL FARM, "All pigs are equal; but some pigs are more equal than others."

Differentiated pay scales are a necessity. Their time has come. Put aside the politics of the educational unions. Put the hard-earned tax monies where they will make the greatest impact on teaching and students' education.