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Higher Pay for Math and Science Teachers

Posted by samzenpus on from the thank-the-union dept.

Coryoth writes "Following up a previous story, it seems that the Kentucky effort to provide increased pay to teachers with qualifications in mathematics, physics, and chemistry has been gutted. Teachers objected to differential pay, and that portion of the bill was removed. At the same time California has just put forward a similar measure, with differential pay for teachers qualified in mathematics and science. Shockingly 40% of mathematics teachers in California are not fully qualified in the subject — a higher percentage of unqualified teachers than any other subject. Is the Californian effort any more likely to succeed, or is it destined to be similarly gutted? Is there a solution to the woeful lack of qualified mathematics teachers that the Teachers' Union will find acceptable?"

3 of 471 comments (clear)

  1. hm. by Wakko+Warner · · Score: 3, Informative

    Perhaps not surprisingly, California ranks almost dead last in education.

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    "Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
  2. Re:How Bout Higher Pay for Teacher's Not in Unions by niloroth · · Score: 3, Informative

    Seeing as it was the teachers unions that helped to create mazes like this when trying to remove a bad teacher, i think you might have a really good idea.

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  3. Re:Well, maybe it SHOULD be gutted. by Dun+Malg · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm sorry, it just sounds like a bad idea to me for math or science teachers to be paid more.

    It's just asking for personnel issues, and it's creating a teacher economic hierarchy where none currently exists, and none needs to exist.

    But It does need to exist. The problem is that the teachers union sees them all as the same thing: teachers. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it's a hell of a lot easier to teach 3rd graders to spell than it is to teach 11th graders calculus. What kind of idiot marxist do you have to be to insist that Nancy Twinkletoes with her Ba in Child Development be paid the same as Jane Poindexter with a PhD in Mathematics? They both teach children? So the fuck what! The similarity ends there. It makes as much sense as demanding equal wages for NASCAR drivers and bus drivers because they're both just drivers.
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    If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.