The document discusses issues with education funding cuts and low teacher pay in the US. It argues that education is the foundation of society and politicians should not cut funding. It provides statistics showing teachers are underpaid compared to similar jobs, citing some teachers making only $20,000 in their first year. Some solutions proposed include paying teachers based on performance and merit rather than just experience, offering early retirement for experienced teachers, and making teacher certification more rigorous to improve teacher quality.

1. Samantha BurdickBurdick, 1<br />DiSarro<br />English 103<br />3 November 2010<br />Education: The Foundation of America<br />I believe that education is the foundation of any society. In order to create and uphold a fair and just government we need learned people to run it. Why, then, do we cut funding from education? It seems preposterous to me that politicians can even think to cut education funding. Everyone deserves a good, well rounded education. But politicians do it time and time again. Politicians should find a different way to save money in education than just cutting funding and paying teacher such poor wages. Although politicians are concerned with the quality of our teachers and paying them properly I have found a possible solution for this problem in a scholarly journal where teachers are paid based on merit. I believe that teachers should be valued more and paid more too.<br />“The average salary a teacher makes is $35,000 to $40,000 a year and a first year teacher only makes about $20,000 a year. The highest amount a teacher can end up making in their career is $60,000 to $80,000 a year” This is a seriously low amount considering all that a teacher <br />Burdick, 2<br />does. Not only do they have to come to school and teach children who do not want to learn necessarily, but they also have to create lesson plans for every school day, grade, and think of new and better ways to communicate the information. This is no easy task. My father is a teacher and I have seen him stay awake long into the night just grading tests. To me it is not fair that they do so much just to make ends meet. Lots of families, including my family, have had to live paycheck to paycheck because of such low of salaries being paid to our teachers. <br /> “Teachers have also been called ‘glorified babysitters’” (Burdick). If this is true, than think about this. After conducting a survey of the average prices charged at ten daycares around Muncie, Indiana I have found that even the cheapest daycare, at $100 a week, looking after an average of 25 children for 8 hours a day for 180 days would make $450,000. Also if a babysitter charging a flat rate of $5 an hour per child at an average of 25 children and working for 8 hours a day for 180 days this babysitter would make $180,000. This does not even include the extra hours a teacher has to put into their day. So, why do we not pay our teachers more? If a babysitter can be paid 180,000 then why cannot a teacher get paid that much? <br />Not only do teachers get paid so poorly, but also teachers who have their master’s degree are less likely to get the position. This has happened numerous times to my father. Instead a young, ambitious person is chosen for the job. Not that being young and ambitious is bad. Actually that is very good because they can find better ways to teach, they are more creative than <br />Burdick, 3<br />the older teachers who are set in their ways. These people are usually fresh out of college and can be paid half of what an experienced teacher, with a master’s degree, should be paid. Because of the education funding cuts there is less money school districts can pay which, in turn, leads to less teachers and also younger, less experienced teachers. Also many of these young teachers come into their jobs thinking the best. “The first year is always hard for a new teacher” (Burdick). According to Chris Burdick, my father, new teachers think the first year is going to be great and old teachers know that it is hard and children, often times, do not want to learn. This causes new teachers to lose faith in teaching and either they quit or they hate their jobs (Burdick). Both outcomes come with consequences. <br />There are a few solutions to the lack of money in education. Denver Public Schools instituted a money saving program to help save what little money that they have to spend on education. “Rather than paying teachers on the basis of years of experience and college credits, Denver would now pay teachers for added knowledge and skills, teaching in hard-to-staff schools and subjects, good performance reviews, and improved student scores on Colorado’s annual achievement tests” (Koppish:3). Another solution is an early retirement. Chris Burdick says that if a teacher teaches from the time that they are 24 to the time they are 45 that they should be asked to retire with a living wage (Burdick). This solution also makes it so that, if the retired teacher wanted to, they could get a different job. “We find that more teachers will retire <br />Burdick, 4<br />between 2010 and 2020 than in any other decade since the end of World War II. But because of relatively slower projected growth in the school-age population, the total number of new teachers needed for all reasons (including retirements) is within historical norms” (Aaronson and Meckel: 4). <br />There are many counter arguments to my suggestions. One big counter argument is, if we started paying all of our teachers more than even the bad, inexperienced teachers would get paid more. This is true and there will always be those many teachers that do not enjoy what they do. There are a few ways that these types of teachers can be stopped. One: make becoming a teacher harder. If getting your teaching certificate took more than just 18 weeks then there might be less people who want to become teachers. By making it a major people will have to do more to become a teacher and they will have more experience. “Teacher Unions help to protect those kinds of teachers,” says Chris Burdick (Burdick).<br />As you can see education is a big part of America. It is the foundation of a well rounded, just society. The politicians should think the next time they plan on cutting funding for education because without education where will America be in the future? But the truth is that politicians will continue to cut education funds. Hopefully these few solutions I have explained can help save money and create better, well rounded teachers to teach the youth of America. <br />