John Whitehead's Commentary
The Future of America Rests with Our Teachers
"There is an old saying that the course of civilization is a race between catastrophe and education. In a democracy such as ours, we must make sure that education wins the race."--John F. Kennedy
According to reports from the National Center for Education Statistics, American eighth-grade students are performing at lower levels in math and science than students in China, Japan, Korea or Russia.
The solution, however, is not as simple as just making kids study harder. Better schools, smarter students and higher grades have to start somewhere. Some critics, insisting that inadequate schooling is a product of ineffective and ill-trained teachers, are pushing for stricter certification requirements and greater accountability for teachers.
But the nation's largest teachers' union offers some alternate theories in its annual report on state spending on education. According to the National Education Association, salaries for the nation's teachers barely kept pace with living costs in the 1990s. In 25 states, average salaries for teachers were less than $40,000.
Add to that the rising cost of college tuition and pitifully low starting salaries for teachers, and it's little wonder that we're experiencing a general teacher shortage. According to an Education Week analysis, in 1998 teachers aged 22 to 28 earned on average $7,894 less than other college graduates of the same age. For teachers ages 44 to 50, the salary gap was even greater: $38,889 vs. $62,544 for non-teachers.
If we are serious about reforming our public schools and helping our young people succeed academically, our government and corporate leaders must make education a priority and an investment in the future of this nation--much the same way that we prioritize defense and technology. In other words, our priorities need to change.
Consider the areas where qualified teachers are needed most: the nation's urban centers and inner city schools, where dropout rates and poor academic performance are the highest. Yet these are the very places with the least appeal for teachers--novice or veteran.
In his No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law in January 2002, President Bush requires states to have a "qualified" teacher in every classroom by the end of the 2005-2006 school year. Meeting those requirements, however, can seem like a Herculean task to cash- and resource-poor inner city schools and communities--and a bureaucratic nightmare to school districts struggling to meet the needs of students while balancing the demands of parents, politicians and teachers' unions.
Faced with a shortage of qualified teachers, many state officials are attempting to think outside the box and apply some creative reasoning to what is becoming a critical problem. Several promising options for teacher recruitment have been proposed and implemented, but they all revolve around monetary inducements. For example, when the state superintendent of Maryland's schools needed to find 11,000 teachers, she sweetened the pot by offering signing bonuses to bright college graduates, stipends for teachers willing to work in low-performing schools and extra pay for veteran educators who demonstrate their expertise. Other states attempting to recruit better-qualified teaching candidates include cash bonuses for housing assistance, moving expenses and free graduate courses.
Yet as Education Week points out, "incentives fail to address some of the deeper problems that dissuade people from entering teaching: low base salaries, poor working conditions, and an unwillingness to pay better teachers more than their less accomplished colleagues."
It's about time that we restructure our educational system and rethink the way we educate our young people. The bottom line remains valuing our young people enough to make financial investments in training and recruiting better teachers. And it wouldn't hurt to value teachers for the significant role they play in shaping the future of our nation--and teach our children to respect and value those who dedicate their lives to educating them.
My life is a case in point. A poor student, I was on my way to becoming an educational casualty by the time I entered high school. However, a teacher encouraged me and took the time to help when it seemed that no one cared, which gave me the confidence to improve myself. My teacher's efforts paid off, as I not only finished high school but went on to college and law school.
We would all be better off if our teachers reflected the attitude of Ivan Welton Fitzwater in "How to Improve Student Achievement":
The future of the world is in my classroom today, a future with the potential for good or bad.... Several future presidents are learning from me today; so are the great writers of the next decades, and so are all the so-called ordinary people who will make the decisions in a democracy. I must never forget these same young people could be the thieves and murderers of the future. Only a teacher? Thank God I have a calling to the greatest profession of all! I must be vigilant every day, lest I lose one fragile opportunity to improve tomorrow.
According to reports from the National Center for Education Statistics, American eighth-grade students are performing at lower levels in math and science than students in China, Japan, Korea or Russia.
The solution, however, is not as simple as just making kids study harder. Better schools, smarter students and higher grades have to start somewhere. Some critics, insisting that inadequate schooling is a product of ineffective and ill-trained teachers, are pushing for stricter certification requirements and greater accountability for teachers.
But the nation's largest teachers' union offers some alternate theories in its annual report on state spending on education. According to the National Education Association, salaries for the nation's teachers barely kept pace with living costs in the 1990s. In 25 states, average salaries for teachers were less than $40,000.
Add to that the rising cost of college tuition and pitifully low starting salaries for teachers, and it's little wonder that we're experiencing a general teacher shortage. According to an Education Week analysis, in 1998 teachers aged 22 to 28 earned on average $7,894 less than other college graduates of the same age. For teachers ages 44 to 50, the salary gap was even greater: $38,889 vs. $62,544 for non-teachers.
If we are serious about reforming our public schools and helping our young people succeed academically, our government and corporate leaders must make education a priority and an investment in the future of this nation--much the same way that we prioritize defense and technology. In other words, our priorities need to change.
Consider the areas where qualified teachers are needed most: the nation's urban centers and inner city schools, where dropout rates and poor academic performance are the highest. Yet these are the very places with the least appeal for teachers--novice or veteran.
In his No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law in January 2002, President Bush requires states to have a "qualified" teacher in every classroom by the end of the 2005-2006 school year. Meeting those requirements, however, can seem like a Herculean task to cash- and resource-poor inner city schools and communities--and a bureaucratic nightmare to school districts struggling to meet the needs of students while balancing the demands of parents, politicians and teachers' unions.
Faced with a shortage of qualified teachers, many state officials are attempting to think outside the box and apply some creative reasoning to what is becoming a critical problem. Several promising options for teacher recruitment have been proposed and implemented, but they all revolve around monetary inducements. For example, when the state superintendent of Maryland's schools needed to find 11,000 teachers, she sweetened the pot by offering signing bonuses to bright college graduates, stipends for teachers willing to work in low-performing schools and extra pay for veteran educators who demonstrate their expertise. Other states attempting to recruit better-qualified teaching candidates include cash bonuses for housing assistance, moving expenses and free graduate courses.
Yet as Education Week points out, "incentives fail to address some of the deeper problems that dissuade people from entering teaching: low base salaries, poor working conditions, and an unwillingness to pay better teachers more than their less accomplished colleagues."
It's about time that we restructure our educational system and rethink the way we educate our young people. The bottom line remains valuing our young people enough to make financial investments in training and recruiting better teachers. And it wouldn't hurt to value teachers for the significant role they play in shaping the future of our nation--and teach our children to respect and value those who dedicate their lives to educating them.
My life is a case in point. A poor student, I was on my way to becoming an educational casualty by the time I entered high school. However, a teacher encouraged me and took the time to help when it seemed that no one cared, which gave me the confidence to improve myself. My teacher's efforts paid off, as I not only finished high school but went on to college and law school.
We would all be better off if our teachers reflected the attitude of Ivan Welton Fitzwater in "How to Improve Student Achievement":
The future of the world is in my classroom today, a future with the potential for good or bad.... Several future presidents are learning from me today; so are the great writers of the next decades, and so are all the so-called ordinary people who will make the decisions in a democracy. I must never forget these same young people could be the thieves and murderers of the future. Only a teacher? Thank God I have a calling to the greatest profession of all! I must be vigilant every day, lest I lose one fragile opportunity to improve tomorrow.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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