Paying for Better Math and Science Teachers

Coryoth writes "While California is suffering from critical shortage of mathematics and science teachers, Kentucky is considering two bills that would give explicit financial incentives to math and science students and teachers. The first bill would provide cash incentives to schools to run AP math and science classes, and cash scholarships to students who did well on AP math and science exams. The second bill provides salary bumps for any teachers with degrees in math or science, or who score well in teacher-certification tests in math, chemistry and physics. Is such differentiated pay the right way to attract science graduates who can make much more in industry, or is it simply going to breed discontent among teachers?"

Comments

Let's get this out of the way

[kid_wonder]

How about basing teacher pay on performance?

I mean, having a degree certainly doesn't mean you can teach anything.

Now that I've done the heavy lifting someone reply with the performance metrics.

Re:I work for Public Education

[Archangel Michael]

I never said that regular High School kids couldn't attend college. I said High School doesn't advertise the fact. The difference is that regular High School does very little to help people move on and out fast, and get ahead, and the whole focus is on where they can get extra funding.

When Schools are focused on $$$, they can't be as focused on $$$. And schools aren't underfunded, they are over regulated. With the amount of money available to schools, they could pay teachers very well, and actually have good equipment/books/supplies. However, the regulations and requirements of schools due to a variety of factors requires schools spend more money on making sure that they don't violate a regulation or requirement, and those funds never reach the kids.

Which is why charters, and private schools end up doing more with less. It is the overhead of the system that drags it down.

And I do have a "chip" on my shoulder, and everyone else should too. The reason we have these problems is not enough people have chips on their shoulders. Just because I have a chip, doesn't mean I'm not rational. We all tend to frame things that make our case, don't we?

I wonder if every high school started the semester telling the students that they could be attending college and getting HS credit, what the result would be. I dare say that they would lose ADA, and that is why they don't. THAT is MY opinion. And it has nothing to do with education of children, or else why isn't that being done???