An extra $30,000 to teachers
A bipartisan proposal
I know fiscal people are choking on the title, but hear me out.
The yearly budget for the federal Department of Education is approximately $268 billion dollars (we are currently $34 trillion in debt).
There are approximately 4 million teachers. If you divide the budget by the number of teachers, you get $67,000.
Only 14% of the federal budget goes to pay teacher salary. What is all the other waste?
Education on a national scale has been a failure, despite spending tons of money on the problem.
My proposal to Linda McMahon, Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education, is to distribute an extra $30,000 in salary to each teacher. Save the taxpayers the remaining billions, and dismantle the department.
This will certainly please teachers. But it will also accomplish several other important goals.
Increasing teacher pay this dramatically will help win over teachers with policy matters.
Dismantling the department will cut their paperwork in half. The paperwork does not improve education, it hinders education.
Increase competition for the job, and improve the quality of teachers.
Increase professionalism in the profession. Teachers should dress and look the part. This sends a message to the parents and public that we are serious about education. Also tell parents they are not allowed to bust into the school in their pajamas, and scream at staff.
An increase in professionalism and expectations from the staff and public decreases discipline problems, and will improve the education experience. This is the way it used to be. My teachers were very professional, and we mostly respected (and feared) them. Most parents supported the discipline at the school.
Increasing salary will decrease union influence. The NEA does not always represent the student’s best interests.
Make teaching just like any other job. The best qualified people get and keep the job. Allow people to be fired, just like any other profession.
The states and teachers don’t need guidance from the federal government. I was stunned to learn that the department started in 1979. I entered Kindergarten in 1976. I can assure you education was excellent before the federal influence slowly ruined it over the years.
My experience
I worked in the schools for 13 years, partially as a contractor, aide and teacher. The wet blanket of bureaucratic nonsense if suffocating for both students and teachers. And it certainly doesn’t improve education.
There are thousands of “grants” (your tax dollars) in education, sometimes awarded to people who have never been a teacher. It is not uncommon for the “new” reading program to involve forcing 5 year olds to sit and pay attention to a reader for hours at a time.
Not unsurprisingly this is a complete failure. You’re just teaching kids to hate reading.
The kids with the best reading proficiency were read to by their mothers when they were toddlers. It’s that simple.
As a retired teacher, I say WOW, what a concept, it's a shame the educational "industry " got so off track.