Rookie Teachers Woefully Unprepared, Report Says

[head of joaquin]

The only way a teacher becomes better qualified is through hard work and experience. It has nothing to do with capitalism but I agree that if the profession receives better pay then a highly competitive and competent workforce can be created.

And that was my point. Yet conservatives not only argue against better pay for teachers, they claim they are overpaid and whine about "throwing money at the problem" (as if money doesn't solve problems).

If you want better basketball players offer more money. If you want better chefs, offer more money. If you want better teachers offer more money. It's how the world works. If you offer more money, people train and prepare harder to get into that field.

 

[imagep]

My son, who is an education major in college, has pretty much decided against a career in teaching, although he is planning on completing his degree. I think the breaking point was when he realized that assistant managers at the convenience store that he works at make almost double what starting teachers make ($65k vs $33.5k).

Yea, it's pathetic when someone can make more money selling beer, junk food (paid for with ebt), and gas, than we pay the people who are supposed to educate our children.

 

[head of joaquin]

My son, who is an education major in college, has pretty much decided against a career in teaching, although he is planning on completing his degree. I think the breaking point was when he realized that assistant managers at the convenience store that he works at make almost double what starting teachers make ($65k vs $33.5k).

Yea, it's pathetic when someone can make more money selling beer, junk food (paid for with ebt), and gas, than we pay the people who are supposed to educate our children.

It shows the values we place as a society and how they are deteriorating under the onslaught of the rightwing media, which constantly vilifies teachers and education.

I long for a Democratic presidential candidate who says he's going to make America's public education system the best in the world -- and will be frank about paying for it. We need to raise teacher pay, build new schools, upgrade old ones, and have two teachers in each class if needed, one to deal with discipline, one to teach. And we need a separate well-funded system for disruptive children, who usually have some learning disability and who can destroy the learning experience for an entire class as teachers have to deal with discipline. We need special teacher and class rooms for that, and an efficient system to identify those kids and get them into that system.

All this cost a great deal. It's worth it. We should start with a federal excise tax on the top bracket (an "education tax), earmarked for upgrading our system along these line.

 

[Mach]

And that was my point. Yet conservatives not only argue against better pay for teachers, they claim they are overpaid and whine about "throwing money at the problem" (as if money doesn't solve problems). If you want better basketball players offer more money. If you want better chefs, offer more money. If you want better teachers offer more money. It's how the world works. If you offer more money, people train and prepare harder to get into that field.

No, most of the world works based on market rates for labor, not you dictating what the cost is, and dictating that we are forced to pay it....

If you want market rates, just say so. If you want a massive federal, state, and union controlled system that dictates education costs and service to the hundreds of millions of citizens, then you can proceed with the status quo, but it's certainly NOT how the rest of the market, domestic or globally, handles wages. Again, by all means we will pay what market rates dictate if you open up the doors to competition. So much for your bluff, that's anathema to you and your ilk, and we all know it.

 

[head of joaquin]

No, most of the world works based on market rates for labor, not you dictating what the cost is, and dictating that we are forced to pay it....

If you want market rates, just say so. If you want a massive federal, state, and union controlled system that dictates education costs and service to the hundreds of millions of citizens, then you can proceed with the status quo, but it's certainly NOT how the rest of the market, domestic or globally, handles wages. Again, by all means we will pay what market rates dictate if you open up the doors to competition. So much for your bluff, that's anathema to you and your ilk, and we all know it.

Your assumption that when the public hires somebody this is outside market rates suggest a grave confusion most conservatives suffer from: the delusion that markets only include the nonpublic sector.

If you want the best teachers in the world, you have to pay for them. Doesn't matter if the government hires them. That's the market.

But thank you for the little trip into market evangelism. It's always bracing.