5 ms·

I can't understand why we don't just pay teachers more. Is it even controversial?

• GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
  > Is it even controversial? It absolutely is.
• mikeyouse 11y ago
  Paying for better performance only applies for CEOs and engineers. Teachers should live in squalor for the love of educating.
  • golergka 11y ago
    (1) Measuring teacher performance is hard (and because it's taxpayers miney, there's much less space for subjective opinions), (2) supply/demand ratio of teachers is quite different.
    • mikeyouse 11y ago
      Wouldn't paying them more across the board lead to more competition for positions which should lead to higher overall quality?
      • golergka 11y ago
        There's quite a lot of competition already. It's not a startup, you can't select this teacher over that one because of your gut feeling: it's public money, so you have to have clear and transparent selection process to ensure that you're not corrupt. Which means that this competition doesn't necessarily translate into higher quality of teachers, but instead into skills of navigating bureaucracy in western countries and navigating corrupt bureaucracy in others.
        • imh 11y ago
          Just because it's already competitive doesn't mean the best people are competing. If you're really good at math, you can end up with a full 10x difference on disposable income being a teacher versus other available careers. There's no way we're getting the best people or anywhere close to it into education, competition or not. (Your point about the difficulty of measuring performance is a very good one though)