Teacher Pay
Will pay raises for math and science teachers lead to school disunity? That’s an objection raised by people quoted in this Post-Dispatch article:
Lobbyists for two of the state’s leading teachers’ groups — the Missouri National Education Association and Missouri State Teachers Association — both said Thursday that there could be dissension within schools if teachers of certain subjects get more money than others.
No school pays the same amount of money to everyone who works there. Even if all teachers earn the same pay, custodial staff generally earn less, and principals earn more.
Teachers understand that principals should be paid more than them. If a school could offer principals no more than it offered teachers, prospective principals would easily find more lucrative jobs somewhere else, and the school would be left without a principal. It’s the same for math and science teachers. People with advanced training in math and science have excellent employment options outside of the teaching profession, so schools have to offer comparable salaries to hold on to them.
