Teacher Salaries

The dis-oriented author comes from a family of teachers. My grandmother was a teacher, my mother was a teacher and my sister is a teacher. But at this moment teachers are beginning to annoy me. It must be the season. The state legislature is in session and once again we hear teachers and their unions complaining about their salaries. A survey found that teacher salaries in my state are forty-first in the nation. A letter to the editor in my local paper complained that most teachers are paid less than the accountants that prepare their taxes.

I think a better comparison would be to realize that most teachers are paid more than the city employees who collect their trash.

In the debate over teacher salaries, teachers ask that we compare their salaries to those of professionals like engineers. The problem is that teachers have chosen for themselves a salary model better suited to carpenters, waiters and sanitation workers. Teachers have chosen to be unionized.

When teachers compare themselves to other professionals they almost always choose professions that are not unionized. Accountants, engineers, computer programmers; these professions all have similar education requirements yet all receive higher compensation than teachers.

There are benefits to the unionized compensation model. Teachers have a high degree of job security that increases with seniority. In my professional position I have not had a raise since 9/11, yet Iowa teachers continue to receive raises during difficult economic times. A significant amount of my compensation consists of a bonus based on company earnings, during lean times I receive no bonus which amounts to a pay cut.

The difference is that in all these professions, salary is based on merit. As a professional I command a salary based on my abilities. In return I run the risk that if my performance decreases I could be let go. Most professionals in Iowa are either self-employed or ‘at-will’ employees who could be terminated even with out cause.

Teachers have chosen the same compensation model as sanitation workers and hotel bellmen. If teachers want to be treated and paid like professionals, let them adopt a professional compensation model. The problem is that teachers and their unions oppose merit pay. The argument is that there would be no fair way to rate teacher performance; reviews they say would be subjective. Ask any engineer, accountant or computer programmer; our reviews are also subjective.

The problem with measuring teacher performance is not that it is impossible — rather that no one has the courage to do so. Ask any teacher, they know the good ones and bad ones in their building. Ask any parent, they know which of their children’s teachers are good and bad. You can even ask any student — they know too. So if the only thing preventing merit pay is evaluating teachers I have a solution — I’ll volunteer for the job.