On Education

The average teacher in America earns $46,000 a year in salary. The average American with a college degree earns $57,000 a year in salary. 75% of all Americans will complete high school on time, earning diplomas. According to the PISA International Education rankings, the United States ranks below average in Math and Literature scores. We're supposedly the most technologically, socially, and industrially advanced nations in the world. How long is that supposed to last?

I like starting my little editorials off like this, with statistics. It makes me sound more scholarly.

The first grievance I have is regarding pay scale. We live in a capitalist system where the goal is to earn the most money by the end of the game, apparently. But that's another issue. I'm not hatin' the players, I'm hatin' the game. We have scholarly professors teaching our college students, I understand this. But when 3/4ths of Americans will pass High School with even less actually going to college, is it even worth boasting? Where's the incentive to become a teacher? Why would anyone want to shape the young minds of our nation at such with such a deplorable salary? In all honesty, I applaud those who choose to go into the teaching profession. (Okay, that's a bit strong, not all teachers are good, and some definitely don't deserve applause)

With tuition of colleges nearing $20,000/year on average, it is fiscally irresponsible to go into teaching. The average starting pay for a teacher in America is $25,000 - $30,000. So unless you're already well off or you're lucky enough to find a school that will pay you more, you're going to be in debt fast.

In my opinion, our education system should be a monument to our advances. We're only as strong as our weakest link, and it's abhorrent to think that our weakest link could be our education system. We should have the best of the best of shapers of young minds teaching the next generation. And I don't mean have Bill Gates or Warren Buffett eaching Advanced Econ at Harvard. I mean Bill Gates and Warren Buffett teaching arithmetic or algebra at an inner city elementary school in New York City. I mean Bruce Springsteen teaching music. I mean Colin Powell teaching political science. We need to improve our education system from the ground up.

Furthermore, teachers should be paid more than the average American with a college degree. Much more. $50,000 starting salaries. $150,000 average salaries. We need college students to work their asses off so that they can get a good job working as a high school or middle school teacher. Well, ideally speaking...

I don't think that this is too much to ask for. We are a leading first world nation and our international rankings for education are barely on par with third world nations. And it's a self-perpetuating system. We get better teachers who have more financial incentive to teach, we get more qualified students. We get more people completing high school and going to college. We get more quality teachers, who teach higher quality students.