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by vostok 1529 days ago
> We send some of our worst thinkers to educate children.

I wonder if this is the sort of thing that could be fixed by paying teachers more. Why would a smart person become a teacher if a professional industry job will pay $300-500k and a teaching job will pay $100k? Is paying teachers so much even palatable to the general public?
4 comments
mellavora 1529 days ago
You'd be lucky to find a teaching job paying 100K. According to this: https://study.com/academy/popular/teacher-salary-by-state.ht...

salaries top out around 70K. That's ending salary, not starting salary.

And yes, this could be fixed by paying teachers more. And treating the profession with some respect.

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nostrebored 1529 days ago
The difference is starker than that. Principals make close to the amount that you’re estimating for teachers, and by structure most teachers will never be principals.

I wanted to go into teaching but stopped after I realized what that would mean for my long term earnings. Even with time taken off as a stay at home parent and time spent working in the developing world, I’m getting close to the lifetime earnings for teachers who progress in their careers. In less than a decade of working.

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BeFlatXIII 1529 days ago
It's not just pay. Teachers will willingly take pay cuts to teach at private schools. Why?

1. Students with chronic behavior problems are easier to throw out

2. Parents are less likely to go on idiotic crusades about the content of the curriculum

3. The school board (or, more likely, the state legislature) isn't going to make irrelevant changes to appease voters

Private schools are more likely to treat their teachers as independent professionals rather than glorified babysitters or McEducation employees.

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pjbeam 1529 days ago
I don't think pay would necessarily solve the problem though either (edit: I do support paying teachers quite a bit more just don't think that is a magical solution). I'm not a teacher, don't pretend to understand the nuances but there seems to be a nasty conflagration of political barriers to holding some combination of children/teachers accountable for outcomes. Probably something related to withholding finding or other perverse incentives. I'm sure I'm not the only person on HN who has left a very high paying job for a different one because of bad culture factors.
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