The only valid comparison should be about comparing the average wages paid to teachers to the … wages paid to the community they serve.
As an example, in the middle of the despicable “Capitol takeover” in Wisconsin, data surfaced from both sides. One local foundation suggested that the average cost to the community in Milwaukee exceeded 100,000 per teacher. Despite challenges from the streetwalkers and organized factions, the data was correct as it was culled directly from the MIPS presentations. Simply stated, the average salary plus benefits exceeded $100,000 per year.
Guess what the average salary is in Milwaukee!
Further, the average or median salaries hardly tell the story. Lines like this do “The lowest 10 percent earned less than $36,930, and the top 10 percent earned more than $85,690” as they describe the difficulty for young teachers to embrace their vocation and stay in the system, and the difficulty for the better educated to even consider entering the profession. The result is evident: the profession attracts plenty graduates of middling schools who earned a degree in “lite” subjects such as pedagogy and little to no mastery in any “hard” subjects. People with better degrees and better qualifications tend to have better options as they start their careers.
And when people like the author mention Finland, chances are that they would not particularly like the selection process that takes places in Finland and the fact that only the brightest survive their education and that the profession is considered as hard as becoming a doctor, with the resulting respect following.
How many of our teachers who graduated from Waxahachie State with a degree in education could have become doctors? Or pass the NCLB tests without an answer key?