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Martin Office / AFP / Getty Images
Martin Office / AFP / Getty Images
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Democratic presidential candidates are watching the historic wave of teacher strikes and demonstrations sweeping the country – and wish to give an increase to teachers.
Kamala Harris wants to spend $ 315 billion over ten years to increase the annual salary of an average teacher by $ 13,500. Joe Biden wants to triple the expenses of a federal program for low-income schools and use a large portion of these funds to obtain "competitive wages". And Bernie Sanders wants to work with the states to set a minimum starting salary of $ 60,000 for teachers in the country.
But there is something missing in these proposals, and this reveals a radical change in the way the Democratic Party wants to repair education.
A minimum of $ 60,000 in the context
By world standards, American teachers are well paid. According to data from the OECD, the starting salary of a typical American teacher in 2017 was about 40,000 USD. It is the ninth of the 36 countries on the list. A minimum of $ 60,000 would have pushed the United States second, behind Luxembourg, which is much better with a starting salary of more than $ 70,000.
How does the teacher pay at home? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, K-12 teachers earn on average more than $ 62,000, $ 10,000 more per year than the average of all occupations ($ 51,960). The benefits are usually better than the average too.
But maybe these comparisons are not good. When we ask "How much should a teacher pay?", We actually ask, "How can the best teachers choose to be a teacher and not, for example, a lawyer ($ 144,230) or an engineer ($ 99,230)? $) or something else? "Teaching usually requires a university degree, sometimes more. It comes with debt. And there is a growing wage gap between teachers and other professionals with similar training. Last year, this gap reached a record.
Teachers make a lot of money … for other people
Everyone can appreciate the value of an excellent teacher. But economists being economists, they tried to quantify exactly their value. Eric Hanushek of the Stanford Hoover Institution, Barbara Biasi of the Yale School of Business, Jonah Rockoff of the Columbia Business School and John Friedman of Brown University led researchers on this front and we spoke to them all.
"I think teachers are way Hanushek said. I think we should have many more six-figure salaries for the best teachers. "
Many of the benefits created by teachers are intangible: a love of literature for life or a mentorship that guides the child on the path to a better life. Yet some of the benefits are tangible. Hanushek went so far as to estimate an amount in dollars. He finds that an effective teacher, able to significantly improve student test scores, can increase $ 400,000 lifetime earnings of a class of 20 people compared to those of An average teacher. In the meantime, he notes, an inefficient teacher does the opposite and reduces the earning potential of students by a similar amount. Friedman and Rockoff, as well as Harvard's Raj Chetty, have done some studies with similar results. They find that teachers, above average, generate significant income gains in their classrooms, as well as a host of other social benefits, such as more pregnancy rates low teenage girls.
Although being a good teacher leads to enormous economic benefits for the people to whom they teach and for society in general, teachers can not fully enjoy all the benefits that they create. On the economic front, it's a positive externality and a major reason why we should pay them more.
"If you look at the future earnings of students who have the best teachers, you see that there is a big bump that warrants very high salaries from the best teachers," Hanushek said.
The economists with whom we spoke generally thought that we should link teacher compensation to classroom performance and not just implement widespread wage increases, such as a $ 60,000 minimum wage. This is the consensus position of economists. Ten or so years ago, Democrats and Republicans agreed on a consensus. Not anymore. The proposals presented by the Democrats during the election campaign do not mention performance pay.
The struggle of the school yard to pay teachers
Ten years ago, it was increasingly recognized that one of the ways to improve our education system was to link teacher compensation to their performance and to facilitate the dismissal of bad teachers. Uncompromising reformist and union antagonist Michelle Rhee, then Chancellor of the BC Public Schools, was covering Time magazine. The documentary "Waiting For & # 39; Superman" was making waves The Obama administration has challenged teacher unions to abandon their opposition to the merit principle and to use its Race To The Top program to encourage states to adopt innovative policies that are cherished and championed by economists, not now.
"There has definitely been a reversal against a whole set of educational ideas that we advocate as effective," said economist John Friedman.
Linking teacher compensation to student achievement is a problem: it is difficult to measure. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, has spent a lot of money and energy fighting this movement over the past two decades. The American Statistical Association and others have also questioned the reliability of the models used to measure the impact of teachers on student performance. Economists like Friedman, Rockoff and Chetty have pulled back. They say that test results should not be the only measure of the effectiveness of a teacher, but they can say a lot about their classroom performance.
Weingarten, who has worked closely with Senator Sanders, likes the idea of a $ 60,000 minimum wage for teachers. "Making a middle-class salary is important," she says. "This leads people to think," I can teach and pay my student loans. I can teach and raise a family. "
A recent discussion paper reveals that during recessions, when private sector jobs disappear, more and more talented candidates enter the teaching profession and significantly improve student outcomes. While this may not be the most targeted way to improve education, raising the minimum wage for teachers could do the same in good weather.
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