Why Should Teachers Get Paid More? Or Why Should They Not Get A Raise?

[_miss_cris_]

I am doing an argumentative essay supporting higher pay salaries for K-12th grade teachers but I need more reasons on why they should or should not get a raise, I'd like to know your opinion. Thank You

[Buenchico]

You've posted on a UK-based website, so there will be very few people here who are familiar with the pay rates for teachers in the USA, where I assume that you're based. (We don't have 'kindergarten' or 'grades' here; we have 'pre-school' up until age 5 and then Years 1 to 13 between the ages of 5 and 18).

Perhaps more importantly, people here won't know how US teachers' pay compares with that of other professionals in the USA. So it's hard for us to know whether they're well paid, under-paid (or even over-paid!)

You might get more meaningful answers on a US-based website, such as this one:
https://answers.yahoo.com/

[DJHawkes]

They are salaried and so work out how much they get paid for when they are actually in work and its probably a fair hourly rate.

[jno]

teachers tend to work a lot of free time, don't they, Dot? Marking essays, running netball matches and so forth. It would be interesting to see an actual real-world timesheet.

[DJHawkes]

Same for any Jo with management responsibility jno. If you break it down.

[jno]

managers don't get parents coming in in their pyjamas and lamping them if they don't like the job they're doing

[Buenchico]

That's an incredibly simplistic argument from Dot.

Firstly, calculating an hourly pay rate for teachers is no easy task. Teachers typically spend about 25 hours per week with direct pupil contact but the minimum time actually worked by nearly all teachers is over 50 hours per week (with those in the primary sector often working 60 or 70 hours per week). They also nominally work for 39 weeks of the year but preparation time in the school holidays (plus giving up holidays unpaid to supervise school trips) can add several weeks to that figure.

Even when an hourly rate has been calculated (if that's actually possible anyway) a decision then has to be made (for the purposes of the questioner's essay and, indeed, for society as a whole) as to whether such a rate is 'fair'. Such a decision is likely to be best made based upon a comparison with other professionals but there's no obvious way to make such a comparison. For example, should the headteacher of a 2000-pupil secondary school be on the same pay as a GP? Or should his/her pay be higher or lower? Should a newly-qualified Year 1 teacher be paid the same as a newly-qualified nurse or more or less? etc, etc.

In the UK (and quite possibly in the USA) the main argument for higher pay for teachers is that they earn far less than most other graduate professionals and (based upon such an 'equality' argument) they should therefore get a pay rise of the order of 40%.

The main argument against higher pay for teachers is simply one of available finance for education. Unless the amount allocated (by both central and local government) for education is increased, higher pay can only be achieved through employing fewer teachers, resulting in higher class sizes (probably to the detriment of the standard of education which can be provided).