Archive: News

There are few issues that frustrate me more than seeing a report showing US students lagging behind in math or science, while those in developing countries, who do not have anywhere near the level of resources, are scoring higher.

The reasons behind this are many. Some say it is a lack of parental involvement. Some blame technology-the internet, cell phones and ipods. I believe the reason can be found in the value we place on the position of teachers.

Doctors, lawyers, professional athletes, even investment bankers and hedge fund managers, the ones responsible for the Great Recession, all make six and seven figure salaries, but where do teachers rank? If you consider that most teachers need a Masters Degree to compete for jobs and are required to complete continuing education throughout their career, it would seem logical that their salary would reflect their education requirements.

But this is not the case. States are facing record budget shortfalls. Many of them are cutting teaching positions by the hundreds if not thousands. In addition, states still plan huge cuts to education. So the jobs bill, recently passed by Congress, proposed a $23 billion infusion to public schools to save between 100,000 and 300,000 teacher jobs.

Detractors of this legislation have dubbed it the "teacher bailout," noting that 300,000 jobs lost would be "only" a 4.8 percent cut to the teacher labor force. On the other hand, the $23 billion is just 0.6% of the 2010 budget. An unfortunate bailout, perhaps, but hardly catastrophic, especially when you consider that 300,000 lost jobs has a tangible cost on its own to the economy, to student achievement, and to federal coffers when more people become eligible for benefits like unemployment insurance.

Education is one of our greatest job engines, but it's also something of a black hole where money enters, disappears and makes an ambiguous impact on student test scores. Smart education reform includes clear incentives for administrators to control costs and teachers to demonstrate achievement against a reasonable baseline. We do not need schools across the country firing teachers at will in the fog of deep budget cuts. These actions could prove more devastating to our country in the decades to come as China, India, and other areas of the world widen the gap in education excellence.

Our country bailed out the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. We bailed out banks. We bailed out the auto industry. It appears that we bailed out everyone who failed to do their homework or operated a business without a lick of common sense. Our return on these investments might yield profit, but no one can predict when that will happen.

We are now faced with one of the greatest challenges to our future, and we cannot stand by and watch thousands of teachers, through no fault of their own, enter into the ranks of the unemployed. If we had funding to rescue the culprits, then we ought to find some additional funds to save the innocent. And that is to the point.

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