The underlying issue is not teacher pay, but rather the number of teachers available to support pupils at a ratio that allows pupils to learn and engage with material they need to know.
Now the answer to how to get more teachers and smaller classrooms, paying teachers more to encourage more people working as teachers is reasonable. But hardly the one thing that will fix everything with magic.
Students need more engagement time with their teachers and a class of 30-40 would never allow that during a lesson
My wife recently stopped being a teacher, and it was because her school lost more and more teachers due to low pay, which caused them to put more and more students into her classroom at a time. That, combined with the low pay, caused her to leave, which then made things harder for the remaining teachers who didn’t leave.
It’s a downward spiral that could just as easily become an upward spiral if we just gave them more money; more money gives current teachers an incentive to stay, and gives new teachers an incentive to come in, allowing for smaller class sizes and further removing stressors. Sure, there’s probably more we could do, but if we haven’t even been able to take step 1, talking about steps 2+ seems hasty.
Also, we need “some children left behind”. Some real problematic children destroying the learning opertunties of others. Wife is an elementary teacher and would have one, maybe two, tier 3 students (most difficult behaviors) and now will have three to five in a class.
Well, with more teachers they could afford to give individual students the help they need, rather than shoving them all into a class despite being at different levels.
The underlying issue is not teacher pay, but rather the number of teachers available to support pupils at a ratio that allows pupils to learn and engage with material they need to know.
Now the answer to how to get more teachers and smaller classrooms, paying teachers more to encourage more people working as teachers is reasonable. But hardly the one thing that will fix everything with magic.
Students need more engagement time with their teachers and a class of 30-40 would never allow that during a lesson
My wife recently stopped being a teacher, and it was because her school lost more and more teachers due to low pay, which caused them to put more and more students into her classroom at a time. That, combined with the low pay, caused her to leave, which then made things harder for the remaining teachers who didn’t leave.
It’s a downward spiral that could just as easily become an upward spiral if we just gave them more money; more money gives current teachers an incentive to stay, and gives new teachers an incentive to come in, allowing for smaller class sizes and further removing stressors. Sure, there’s probably more we could do, but if we haven’t even been able to take step 1, talking about steps 2+ seems hasty.
Also, we need “some children left behind”. Some real problematic children destroying the learning opertunties of others. Wife is an elementary teacher and would have one, maybe two, tier 3 students (most difficult behaviors) and now will have three to five in a class.
Well, with more teachers they could afford to give individual students the help they need, rather than shoving them all into a class despite being at different levels.