Confirmed: Teachers are Over Paid
An excellent story confirms what STP has been saying for years; teachers are vastly overpaid for the skills they bring to the table and would be paid less if the free market actually controlled their wages. The story comes up with many reasons why across the board pay raises aren't warranted. The story deconstructs the union thug arguments one by one starting with the fact that all college degree fields have varying rates of pay, an accountant will earn less than an engineer, reflecting that it is more difficult to get an engineering degree and the free market values engineers more.
Grade inflation leads to higher teacher GPA scores despite the fact that teacher degree applicants always have the lowest GPA averages upon entering college. But once in college the easier courses and the lack of the need for good math skills and comprehension of difficult subject matters means the teachers skate by to graduation while the engineer, accounting, medical, and legal students have to struggle to meet the grade.
The article points out Bureau of Labor Statistics data that shows that teachers' skills are ranked lower than most college professionals and the teachers make around 26% more than their private industry counterparts when salary alone is considered. The article also points out that data shows that teachers that leave the profession generally take a pay cut of about 3%, so much for the threat of a mass exodus of teachers leaving the profession.
The massive retirement plans are another point brought up, the average worker receives 3% toward their pension, teachers earn about 23% toward their pensions.
The article suggests that we start on the problem by changing the retirement programs, putting teachers on standard 401 K plans like the rest of society generally receives and the pay can then be raised for deserving teachers. Raises need to be tied to test scores as well with poor performing teachers getting serious or getting out of the profession. Charter schools like Epic One on One already do this to great effect.
