[Vision2020] Paper on the Teachers' Salary Grid

[Dale Courtney]

> Ahh, Wenders. A person who actually who actually said in
> class something about 'rape being simply a matter of marketing'..
> 
> Debbie Gray

Debbie,

I'll ask Jack about this statement. 

However, you just committed the classical logical fallacy of *argumentum ad
hominem* by attacking the person instead of the argument presented. It's a
good distraction, but it doesn't deal with the substance of his argument:
that government school salaries are based on the number of college credits
and the number years having taught. There isn't a more dysfunctional salary
system in the world. 

Economists don't agree on everything, but one thing that they do universally
agree on: shortages are caused by the supply price being set below the
market demand value. This means that you cannot have someone who majors in
history/PE being paid the same amount as someone who majors in physics.
History/PE majors are a dime-a-dozen; math/physics instructors are not. The
very fact that there is a shortage of math/science teachers in schools shows
that the market is underpriced. Similarly, the fact that there is a glut of
history/PE teachers shows that the market is overpriced in that area. 

How does this work itself out in reality? Annual inflation-adjusted
expenditures per pupil tripled between 1960 and 1991, surpassing $5,500 in
1991. Yet the average combined (verbal and mathematics) score on the
Scholastic Aptitude Test was seventy-five points higher in 1963 than it was
in 1990. A high school senior ranked at the 50th percentile on the SAT in
1990 would have ranked around the 33rd percentile in 1963. American students
trail most of their international counterparts in mathematics and science
achievement. 

I'll give you a heads-up: if liberals hope to make the government school
systems survive, they will have to address the salary area first. The system
will not survive under the current NEA rules. However, there is no place
less likely to see reform than in the government school teacher salary grid.


Best,
Dale