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Paying teachers more will bring talent. Oklahoma had this problem when Texas started paying more a few years ago and Oklahoma experienced a brain drain of good

Paying teachers more will bring talent. Oklahoma had this problem when Texas started paying more a few years ago and Oklahoma experienced a brain drain of good teachers[0]. Texas is discussed a lot in this article. Texas has a problem with lack of teachers that could easily be alleviated by offering higher teacher salaries. Texas can afford to pay more. Texas gets a flush of money that could easily go to paying teachers more through its recapture system that is supposed to go to education but instead due to corruption is used to balance the general fund[1]. The general fund is used, among other things, to fund oil and gas subsidies. 0:https://www.npr.org/2018/04/07/600322769/he-was-oklahomas-teacher-of-the-year-then-moved-to-texas-for-better-pay-now-what https://www.npr.org/2018/04/07/600322769/he-was-oklahomas-te... 1: https://web.archive.org/web/20220212004001/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kut.org%2Feducation%2F2022-02-11%2Faustin-isd-paid-hundreds-of-millions-more-than-other-districts-in-texas-recapture-program https://web.archive.org/web/20220212004001/https%3A%2F%2Fwww...

JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> Texas gets a flush of money that could easily go to paying teachers more through its recapture system that is supposed to go to education I'd be curious about how popular a straight-up pay raise for teachers is with voters. Not an education budget boost. Just raising pay on the argument that it will let the district/state attract the best candidates.
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- nvahalik 4y ago
  We went through a recent bond election on our town that is currently under investigation by the state for electioneering. Schools get a ton of money. Property rates go up. We have good schools. But let me tell you, every school kid got a stupid iPad. Every. Single. One. Apparently the "answer" to the pandemic wasn't printed worksheets... it was iPads. I'm sorry—but it's totally stupid. The schools are wasting crap-tons of money on tech that kids don't need. That money should be going to the teachers... but it isn't!
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  - csande17 4y ago
    The kind of base-model iPad that schools buy costs about $300 with education pricing and volume discounts. If you assume they last two years and there are 15 students for each teacher at the school, your school is spending about $2,250 per teacher per year on iPads. Teachers make about $60k a year, so your school could either give them a 4% raise, or they could buy a bunch of iPads. The iPads will probably have a bigger short-term impact, even if they're a bad long-term choice. At the very least, they'll look nicer to voters.
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    - _hcuq 4y ago
      Negative impact in my experience. My kids were given ipads at school. Big downtrend in education quality ensued. Chaos really. It’s all a hand wavey “tech is good” without doing any research, experimentation or preparation. https://remakelearning.org/blog/2011/11/30/a-silicon-valley-school-thats-tech-free-by-choice/ https://remakelearning.org/blog/2011/11/30/a-silicon-valley-...
- ryandrake 4y ago
  It probably depends on how high other salaries are in the community. My parents were both teachers and even though they made very little, teachers were perceived as having some of the highest salaries in the area. This shows you how impoverished the rest of the community was. Paying them more was not popular with voters. "They make so much and they even get summers off" went the myth. This was a solidly blue collar working class town where kids were expected to barely graduate high school and then go work at the mill in town or the factory two towns over. Not sure if things have changed since then but they're probably even worse with those mill and factory jobs now gone. Teachers' awful salaries are probably still higher than most there, which is pretty sad.
- Spooky23 4y ago
  Usually people are pretty chill about something like that. Vocal conservatives hate “government schools” in general, and usually are able to drive school board votes.
- UncleMeat 4y ago
  People whine about teachers being overpaid constantly. People call it part time work. People call teachers glorified babysitters. People complain about summer break. I’m not confident that the “other people are freeloaders” voters are going to be excited about pay raises.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

> Texas gets a flush of money that could easily go to paying teachers more through its recapture system that is supposed to go to education I'd be curious about how popular a straight-up pay raise for teachers is with voters. Not an education budget boost. Just raising pay on the argument that it will let the district/state attract the best candidates.

deleted 4y ago
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nvahalik 4y ago
We went through a recent bond election on our town that is currently under investigation by the state for electioneering. Schools get a ton of money. Property rates go up. We have good schools. But let me tell you, every school kid got a stupid iPad. Every. Single. One. Apparently the "answer" to the pandemic wasn't printed worksheets... it was iPads. I'm sorry—but it's totally stupid. The schools are wasting crap-tons of money on tech that kids don't need. That money should be going to the teachers... but it isn't!
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- csande17 4y ago
  The kind of base-model iPad that schools buy costs about $300 with education pricing and volume discounts. If you assume they last two years and there are 15 students for each teacher at the school, your school is spending about $2,250 per teacher per year on iPads. Teachers make about $60k a year, so your school could either give them a 4% raise, or they could buy a bunch of iPads. The iPads will probably have a bigger short-term impact, even if they're a bad long-term choice. At the very least, they'll look nicer to voters.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - _hcuq 4y ago
    Negative impact in my experience. My kids were given ipads at school. Big downtrend in education quality ensued. Chaos really. It’s all a hand wavey “tech is good” without doing any research, experimentation or preparation. https://remakelearning.org/blog/2011/11/30/a-silicon-valley-school-thats-tech-free-by-choice/ https://remakelearning.org/blog/2011/11/30/a-silicon-valley-...
ryandrake 4y ago
It probably depends on how high other salaries are in the community. My parents were both teachers and even though they made very little, teachers were perceived as having some of the highest salaries in the area. This shows you how impoverished the rest of the community was. Paying them more was not popular with voters. "They make so much and they even get summers off" went the myth. This was a solidly blue collar working class town where kids were expected to barely graduate high school and then go work at the mill in town or the factory two towns over. Not sure if things have changed since then but they're probably even worse with those mill and factory jobs now gone. Teachers' awful salaries are probably still higher than most there, which is pretty sad.
Spooky23 4y ago
Usually people are pretty chill about something like that. Vocal conservatives hate “government schools” in general, and usually are able to drive school board votes.
UncleMeat 4y ago
People whine about teachers being overpaid constantly. People call it part time work. People call teachers glorified babysitters. People complain about summer break. I’m not confident that the “other people are freeloaders” voters are going to be excited about pay raises.