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Friday, July 25, 2008

Unequal Pay

It seems that many school districts are having a hard time attracting qualified math teachers. Gee, I wonder why that is? Could it be that those potential educators are having a hard time turning down the six figure salaries that Google or AT&T are offering them? I seriously doubt there's nearly that kind of disparity between professional historians and social studies teachers.

I can't even count the number of times I have advocated raising teachers salaries. All teachers need to be paid more for what they do, but we ought to bear in mind the realities of the situation. Marquee players bring in a larger chunk of revenue and so they get paid a larger salary. Well in the world of education, STEM grads are the marquee players. I'm not saying this is fair; I'm saying "fair" is irrelevant. If the goal is to better educate young people, then those kids deserve to get the best teacher money can buy.

In the case of math teachers, that price may just have to be a bit higher.