March 9, 2008
an experiment in higher teacher salaries
Okay, this is what I’m fucking talking about. Instead of speculating about whether paying teachers more will result in better education, why not run an experiment where you pay teachers more and see if that results in better eduction.
The school, which will run from fifth to eighth grades, is promising to pay teachers $125,000, plus a potential bonus based on schoolwide performance. That is nearly twice as much as the average New York City public school teacher earns, roughly two and a half times the national average teacher salary and higher than the base salary of all but the most senior teachers in the most generous districts nationwide.
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Hmm. Measured against what we’re shelling out each day for the what-have-you in Iraq (to say nothing of the nebulous sum expended on the nebulous war on nebulous terrorism), we might think about giving it a try.
yeah, it’s mind boggling to think about what we could have done with the financial tonnage this fiscally responsible, small government administration has squandered on their little jaunt through history.
Indeed. When I get to thinking about it for more than three seconds, it seems to me that it’s pretty well ruined what remains of my life.
Sheila, I think they — the administration — consider that a feature not a bug.
Exactly.
Well: Paying bad teachers a lot of money won’t improve teaching, just like paying good teachers little money doesn’t result in bad teaching. How will this school select its teachers? There’s no link to the piece referred to in the Marginal Revolution post, so maybe there’s something there about the hiring process. But it would seem to me that the goal shouldn’t be so much to pay teachers well but to attract competent people to the profession in the first place. Higher salaries will in part do that, but there are all sorts of workplace issues (not all of them having to do with kids) that money alone won’t fix but that also drive off good people.
Good point(s), John. After all, mind-reeling compensation and perks don’t guarantee even competent corporate leadership.
very true, John. having grown up the son of a teacher and having worked for a bit in a school system myself I can recite the range of impediments to success. money, though, is certainly at the top of the list for a lot of people and one assumes that really competitive wages would induce a lot of people who wouldn’t otherwise consider it to give it a shot. like I say, it’s not about whether it will or won’t work, actually, it’s about finding out whether it will or won’t work. that shit gets me psyched!