I don't think it makes sense to pay teachers more on average.
But, you have to factor in the whole picture. If someone just has a bachelor's degree, they get the summer off and a large amount of vacation time, pretty normal and decent hours, they get good benefits and tenure, that all factors in. So, it's really a range. For a teacher in South Dakota fresh out of school, $40k might be perfectly reasonable. For an experienced teacher in New Jersey who has a masters in chemistry, is on a professional development committee and coaches football, $100k might be reasonable. But, this idea that we should increase all teacher salaries by 50%, that's bonkers.
Okay, I'm sorry, but this is balderdash.
The hardest-working person I know– bar
none, and this includes plenty of professional types whose "hours spent in the office" are high– is a high school physics teacher. She has to get up at 5 in the morning, and most days stays after school for awhile, so it's longer than 8-hour days. There's plenty to do at home– grading, lesson plans– and plenty to do even in the summer (conferences etc.). Like most teachers, she has a master's (which she got going to class at night BTW); and like many teachers these days she started out in one of those inner-city fellowship programs, and eventually left that to go to a Catholic school that paid less because it was
just too insanely hard and draining.
Her life puts mine to utter
shame.
Of course teachers deserve to get paid more; much more. We can talk about other reforms to go along with such a boost in pay and prestige– I'm skeptical about some, positive about others, personally– but that boost in pay and prestige really needs to come first.
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