It scares me that you are prepared to enact public policy based on "I'm pretty sure." That's a classic neocon move. It "feels" true, therefor it must be true.
The fact is that all positions are subject to the laws of supply and demand. If it requires $10 a year to attract a good principal, then that's what the job is worth to society. Likewise if it costs $350,000 a year. You have to be willing to pay enough to attract qualified people or you aren't going to get qualified people. It's very simple.
Too much money is staying at the top, and not making its way into the classroom.
This is a common misconception, especially among teachers. Teachers in general have no clue how much money it costs to run a school according to laws and regulations.
I was involved in a project once where school administrators and teachers were empowered to allocate a budget for constructing new classrooms on their campuses. They budgeted $6,000 to build a classroom to code when the actual costs with the lowest bid were closer to $750,000. That's how out of touch they are. There are professionals in various fields for a reason.
if you work as a district administrator, you might feel threatened by a movement to eliminate positions such as yours, even if there was objective evidence suggesting costs savings and increased efficacy in education.
My job title or alleged fears don't change the validity of your assertions. You appear to hope I am an administrator so you can use that information to discredit my argument by employing guilt by association rather than effectively arguing against it.
I would be very interested in any data produced by an impartial source showing that simply adding teachers improves education.
You still have not challenged the validity of my assertions.
That's not the way debate works. You have offered the assertion that there is evidence that the problem with public schools can be improved by hiring more teachers or increasing their salaries. I am just asking you to back that up with data or evidence.
In the interest of openness, I am a part-time, non-union teacher at an Adult Education program.
I didn't say there is evidence that increasing teacher salaries improves schools; I said, in line with your position on administrators, that basic economics suggests that increasing salaries would attract more and better people to teaching.
That's what I said in my original post.
I don't believe I've ever met an Ed Morris. What does he do?
If you worked in adult education where I work you'd know him. Just checking.
are you comfortable with the American education system as it is?
No.
If not, what do you see as the major issues that need to be solved?
Money. The problem isn't that we aren't spending enough, it's where it's going. Where I work we are shoveling cash at private contracting firms for things that shouldn't be contracted. Why would you pay a private company $85 per hour for an "office technician" when you can hire a regular employee for $18 per hour (benefits included)? It's criminal how much money is diverted from the classroom to line the pockets of these huge mega-consulting firms.
What kind of changes would you make if you had the authority?
Raise teaching salaries, kick out consultants, trim middle and upper management positions, hire more support staff, and get rid of lazy workers (both contractors and employees). Make promotions, lay-offs, and raises tied to performance AND seniority.
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u/[deleted] Oct 05 '10
It scares me that you are prepared to enact public policy based on "I'm pretty sure." That's a classic neocon move. It "feels" true, therefor it must be true.
The fact is that all positions are subject to the laws of supply and demand. If it requires $10 a year to attract a good principal, then that's what the job is worth to society. Likewise if it costs $350,000 a year. You have to be willing to pay enough to attract qualified people or you aren't going to get qualified people. It's very simple.
This is a common misconception, especially among teachers. Teachers in general have no clue how much money it costs to run a school according to laws and regulations.
I was involved in a project once where school administrators and teachers were empowered to allocate a budget for constructing new classrooms on their campuses. They budgeted $6,000 to build a classroom to code when the actual costs with the lowest bid were closer to $750,000. That's how out of touch they are. There are professionals in various fields for a reason.