If great teachers are worth $400,000 a year, as Eric A. Hanushek suggests in The Higher Economic Value of Higher Teacher Quality, then how much should we pay those who set our youngest students on a successful life path?
In August, David Leonhardt's front-page New York Times article, "The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers," knocked everyone out of their mid-summer stupor. "Fairly explosive" was how he described the recent -- then, unpublished -- findings, by Harvard economist, Raj Chetty, and colleagues, which may help to put another nail in the coffin of the fade-out argument for the benefits of early childhood education.
The bottom line of How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings released last month: If we look beyond test scores and consider a broader set of measures -- including future earnings -- the long-term outcomes for children justify considerably greater investment in the early childhood workforce.
Compensation, without a doubt, is an explosive issue in the early care and education field. Levels of qualifications and training for practitioners vary enormously across states, dramatic wage gaps exist between community- and school-based early childhood programs, and the desire to help children and families too often obscures the herculean challenges of a workforce for whom wages are chronically low and benefits are limited, if non-existent. The annual median salary for kindergarten teachers is $50,380. Their colleagues who work with younger children fare worse.
Out of the nearly 800 occupations annually surveyed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 18 report lower average wages than child care workers, who make less than bellhops, tree trimmers and animal trainers. In 2009, the median annual wages for child care workers and preschool teachers -- an unfortunate distinction that perpetuates inequities among practitioners whose roles and responsibilities are often identical -- were, respectively, $20,940 and $27,450. Turnover is, unsurprisingly, rampant in the field, with estimates ranging from 25 to 40 percent annually.
The quality of children's early development and education, which occurs in the context of consistent and nurturing relationships with well-trained adults, is compromised by this instability. Chetty and his colleagues, Danny Yagan, Nathaniel Hilger, Diane Schanzenbach, John Friedman, and Emmanuel Saez, are building on the work of an earlier generation of economists. Among them: Nobel Prize winner James Heckman, who has taken inspiration from earlier studies, including the Carolina Abecedarian Project and the High Scope Perry Preschool Project, and who persuasively makes the case for the short- and long-term economic benefits of investing in high-quality early childhood services. This line of research holds promise, as it continues to reframe the conversation about ECE, converting what have traditionally been conceived of as welfare expenditures into investments.
Support for the early care and education workforce, however, should extend beyond kindergarten -- to preschool and infant-toddler practitioners. A robust body of research confirms that cognitively stimulating, emotionally supportive, consistent early experiences -- from birth on up -- establish a strong foundation for healthy development, school readiness, academic success, more productive lives and, ultimately, a strong, vibrant society. Valuing, training and appropriately compensating those who provide these experiences must be a policy priority.
Bankers who securitized subprime mortgages -- paid for by law-abiding taxpayers -- are laughing all the way to the banks with their big bonuses. Isn't it time to start changing the calculus for early childhood teachers? They're the ones charged with producing the innovative, critical thinkers of the future -- including the bankers who nearly mortgaged it!
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Merit pay study: Teacher bonuses don't raise student test scores ...
Do Teacher Merit Pay Programs Work? - The Early Show - CBS News
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Economic Scene - Study Rethinks Importance of Kindergarten Teachers - NYTimes.com
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But you forgot to mention that they have those lovely Rangerettes and that makes everything better.
I'm all for improved pay and working conditions for our teachers, but folks need to realize that everyone doing a good job needs a fair paycheck. We have too much entrenched wealth in this country - vast sums of money that was not earned by working harder or even smarter .
show them the $$
That is it. We don't prioritize our schools, continue to cut their money and complain about how bad our school systems are.
If we used the money to upgrade the schools, it would, in turn, create jobs (albeit temporary ones, but that is the nature of constructiÂon anyways - but hey, they would be huge contracts all over united states... talk about stimulus!!Â!)
Pay the teachers MOAR!!! So simple, yet so so hard. If we made it actually desirable for qualified intellectuÂals to teach. I BET THEY WOULD. Instead the ones who should be teaching our future generationÂs are busy making better incomes elsewhere.
Its all about money, stupid.
If I could dictate how my tax dollars were spent, the money would go to my local roads public services and schools. The pentagon can suck it.â€
It doesn't matter how smart the teacher is if the student isn't interested and the parent(s) are not involved.
I consistently lost my best and brightest staff because they could not afford to do what they loved best and EAT! Only those with a second souce of income, a spouse or 2nd job, managed to stay on board.
I wish this country would recognize the extraordinary hard work and committment they bring to caring for OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN!
Their devotion and committment to providing high quality developmentally appropriate education to our youngest learners was never the issue--
This country ask for these vital teachers and educators to become well-trained and accredited and they work very hard to do so.
We then say, Your job is worth less per hour than the people sweeping floors in fast food restaurants!
We offer little in benefits or health care, usually there is no pension and little opportunity to grow professionally.
The politicans etc talk a good game but never, ever walk the walk! Every member of Congress should spend one week ( if they could last) woring in a preschool or child care center and then tell me how much teachers and staff should be paid!
But yes, I like the voucher idea! Parents would only want the best for their kids and would demand only the best teachers!
I have three credentials, two masters degrees and I'm National Board Certified. I have beyond the equivalent of a lawyer or doctor in education, training and experience.
Vouchers don't guarantee anything. I won't even dignify that by pointing out the many flaws.
Business will not offer six figure salaries for the best teachers. They will offer minimum wage to at will employees, deny them the right to organize and pay politicians to water down requirements so Teach for America graduates will be highly qualified.
BTW private schools don't have to have credentialed teachers nor are they required to do background checks. Teachers are finger-printed and background checks are done. If you are convicted of a crime you lose your credential. But if you do, you can still work in a private school. Which will take your voucher, but if your kid sticks one toe out of line, they'll be expelled but you won't get your money back. You can take your kid to the local, overcrowded public school that has no money because all of the vouchers have siphoned it off. Parents have no control over vouchers or private for profit schools.
it still blows my mind that people tout businesses as these awesome things that help people. They must have their heads in the sand while the businesses cut corners, refuse to pay wages, and fire senior workers to save a dime.
Yeah, children are our most important resource, but moving money around brings in the bucks.
There are quite a few more teachers than there are hedge fund managers, so it is a big deal how much they get paid.
How about promoting some competition in the education? That will increase the salaries of good teachers and put the bad ones out of business. There's competition amongst hedge funds. Maybe they're onto something.
Would the world end if we didn't have hedge funds anymore? Gee, what was it like before there were hedge funds or managers to manage them.
In fact, wasn't the economy in better shape before there were hedge funds?
Oh, yeah, competition is the answer. It's done so well for our economy so far. Look what it's done for real estate and mortgages.