The current Milwaukee Magazine has a point-counterpoint about teacher compensation (not available online). Refreshingly, they found a current teacher who argues that pay, especially considering benefits and vacations, is very fair and teachers should stop whining. (I wonder how things are going for him in the faculty lunchroom.)
A retired teacher argues that MPS has a retention problem. Interestingly, his argument is not that MPS teachers are poorly paid compared to suburban teachers, but that the working conditions in MPS are far more difficult than in the suburbs, leading to teachers leaving. This argument might suggest that the answer would lie in improving working conditions. Increasing pay might simply result in more unhappy teachers who felt they could not afford to leave.
One step might be to make sure that MPS teachers had the tools they need to succeed. Too often, texts and curricula are adopted with little testing of their effectiveness.
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2 comments:
How ironic that Mr. Thompson (who has no k-12 classroom experience) should leech onto this teacher's viewpoint.
I happen to work with this teacher (who has a grand total of two years of licensed teaching experience) and would suggest that he doesn't have a clue about what issues teachers and schools face.
Mr. Thompson suggests that MPS teachers should have the tools they need to succeed, yet some schools in his beloved Milwaukee voucher program are sending students back to MPS having taught them using third grade math books and second grade reading primers - fine if the students are in third and second grade, respectively, but not if they are in sixth and seventh grades (and had been reading at that level accordingly).
It would be refreshing to see an original argument over the voucher issue from sources that are not economists, conservative "union-bashers, and bogus educational policy wonks (see Charlie Sykes). It is difficult to stomach a point regarding teachers or education from a source that really doesn't seem to understand or 'get' teaching.
I think that if we want our children to grow up in a world where they are competent they need to learn. Unless everyone has the time and resources to teach home school, I suggest that we pay teachers more.
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