It rarely takes too long for the subject of teacher pay to come up when there is a room full of teachers meeting. Sometimes only one teacher is needed. A couple weeks ago I went out with a friend of mine from Knoxville named Brittany. She had a friend that she introduced me to and the first thing he said after meeting me and finding out I was a teacher was something along the lines of "Man, I love you public servants. I am one of the biggest supporters of teachers getting more pay for what they do. Your job is way too important to make so little."
I then told him I make roughly $25/ hour and he looked surprised. But its true. I work roughly 190 days only each year. I understand there is preparation that teachers have to put into their jobs but the same is true of many other professions that work all year. I have so much vacation time during the summer, a week in the spring, a week in the fall, a few weeks during Christmas, and all weekends and other holidays in between. As a first year teacher with only a B.S. I make roughly $25 dollars per hour. This does not include coaching pay (which is far far less)
His last line was that teachers should get more pay because their job is so important. It might be true that developing the minds of the future citizens of our society is more important than some occupations. But pay is not and should not be based on what I or any one other person believes is of great importance. In a free society, pay is based on a market that involves both supply and demand. This is because a "price-coordinated" economy, like ours is when government isn't involved, prices allocate scarce resources which have alternative uses. Put differently prices is what transfers goods to where they are most desired and needed and in some cases in low supply.
As a teacher I have chosen a worthy occupation and career that hundreds of thousands or millions of others have also chosen. Millions cannot choose to become surgeons because most people in America do not have the capability much less the determination and commitment to become a surgeon when more than ten years of training and extensive and high level education is required for such an occupation. Teaching is a somewhat easy degree to earn as it is a Social Science with far easier course work and far fewer years of training required.
We do have a shortage of qualified math and science teachers because within the teaching profession it is a tougher subject to teach and earn a degree in. Thus as an economist I believe those teachers should be paid more than I or a PE teacher where we have a surplus of qualified teachers to work in these areas. If this was ever allowed to happen, we would never have a problem finding math and science teachers. More would choose to earn their degree in those areas where they can earn more pay. That is how the market works. I know most teachers get into the profession for reasons aside from pay. But some teachers choose subject material that is easier than math and science because they know they will be paid the same despite it being easier. So no one can tell me that pay has nothing to do with our motivations. And there is nothing immoral or wrong with this either. That is why American prosperity and other Capitalistic price-coordinated economies have prospered so much. Prices coordinate resources to where they are most needed not where we believe the occupation is morally more important or valuable.
I love my job and my pay is sufficient. Not because I don't value what we teachers do. But because I value our economic system and the prosperity of our nation as a whole. And this prosperity has come about because scarce resources which have alternative uses are allocated more efficiently when goods go where they are in least supply and highest demand, instead of where good intentions might lead those resources.
