MA: The Teaching Salary Act (Debating)

[Badger]

While I'm all for increasing teacher salaries to ensure quality candidates, isn't this a rather top down structure to determine teacher salaries throughout a wide and varied region? As long as we're ensuring adequate minimum salaries for teachers in impoverished areas with small tax bases, shouldn't salaries be left to individual districts?

At least that's what I think a conservative would say.

[Badger]

I'm a little worried that teachers would have no incentive to teach underperforming students. On this scale, a teacher would make less if their students' test scores are lower, but there is only so much he/she can control. It's really difficult to objectively grade teacher performance, and it opens up the system to unnecessary controversy or bureaucracy, depending on the path we choose to take.

Agreed. Schools are target driven enough as it is, but many students have low test scores for a variety of reasons. (and not through lack of interest or effort) I must also say as someone born into a teaching family and aware of many of the pressures that they face, that often the root cause of poor discipline, low motivation and other factors begin at home over which a teacher cannot have any control. Local school districts are better placed to manage this; for example some urban areas may have a higher % of kids who essentially act as primary carers which would effect their attendance and concentration.

Also agreed for the above mentioned points. Standardized testing has its uses, but we need to be encouraging more qualified teachers to work in underperforming districts, not the opposite.

[Badger]

I agree with shua and Inks in that it is in the local government's jurisdiction to determine the quality of the teachers.

On another note, I am in favor of instituting a region-wide system implementing "combat pay," where teachers in high-risk, historically low-result neighborhoods are paid more in an attempt to correct the system.

Great idea

Mega-great! Maybe it ould involve paying off regional student loans the teachers accumulated while getting their own education (assuming the Mideast issues such loans).

[Badger]

I agree with shua and Inks in that it is in the local government's jurisdiction to determine the quality of the teachers.

On another note, I am in favor of instituting a region-wide system implementing "combat pay," where teachers in high-risk, historically low-result neighborhoods are paid more in an attempt to correct the system.

Great idea

Mega-great! Maybe it ould involve paying off regional student loans the teachers accumulated while getting their own education (assuming the Mideast issues such loans).

Even better, encouraing the younger energetic teachers to push themselves in the urban schools

You are assumiong they don't push themselves already?

[Badger]

I agree with shua and Inks in that it is in the local government's jurisdiction to determine the quality of the teachers.

On another note, I am in favor of instituting a region-wide system implementing "combat pay," where teachers in high-risk, historically low-result neighborhoods are paid more in an attempt to correct the system.

Great idea

Mega-great! Maybe it ould involve paying off regional student loans the teachers accumulated while getting their own education (assuming the Mideast issues such loans).

Even better, encouraing the younger energetic teachers to push themselves in the urban schools

You are assumiong they don't push themselves already?

Yes, for instance, NYC. They have one of the crappiest system ever. No, not all are bad. But there's a whole lot of them that are terrible and the city is unable to fire, including teachers who are deemed "unfit" to teach and are just sent to a room and sit there for years due to tenure laws. Do you think are urban teachers really are the cream of the crop as a whole?

Someone's been reading their latedt issue of National Review it seems.

Where, I ask with trepadation, do you get such "information"?