Commentary; Posted: 6/8/05
Investing in teachers can be a productive move
By Don Heinzman
Chances are school districts in Minnesota will get from $600 to $800 million more in new money from the state to operate schools during the next two years.
Much of that new money will be used to pay higher salaries for staff, particularly teachers. Judging from the results of student achievement, spending more money to keep and attract quality teachers is a good investment.
Perhaps no one group of individuals has such a profound influence on developing youth than teachers. This is a challenging time to teach young people who come from all sorts of families.
The impact teachers have on young peopleís learning and personality is great. Parents are grateful when their youngsters have good teachers who know their subjects, and know how to teach them to their youngsters.
When budgeting, school boards focus on retaining teachers and keeping class sizes as low as possible. This is a teacher salary negotiating year and school boards will need more money to offer reasonable salary increases. The outcome of those negotiations usually determines the number of teachers affordable and size of classes.
Reasonable salary and benefit negotiations satisfy teachers and keep them from striking. This past year only one districtís teachers went on strike and only two contracts for this year are unsettled.
While some will argue that there should be a better way to reward teachers than the present system, which relies on experience and more education, few will argue that good teachers are worth more than they are paid.
Compared to national teacher salary averages, Minnesota is slipping and ranks 20th with an average salary of $45,401. The National Education Association reports Minnesota has slipped to $1300 below the national average.
Minnesotaís starting teacher salary of $29,515 ranks 30th and is nearly $1000 below the national average. Minnesota teachers with four years of education receive less in starting wages than other professions, about $8000 less.
Measuring teacher effectiveness is difficult, because the final report card comes when the student becomes a successful adult.
By most benchmarks, Minnesotaís educational system is better than most states. Minnesota has the fifth highest graduation rate in the nation. Minnesotaís ACT scores tied for first in the nation last year.
Minnesota students ranked third and sixth nationally on verbal and math SAT (college entrance) tests last year, and tied for second in the nation for math proficiency among fourth graders and first in math proficiency among 8th graders.
In science and math, only Singapore outscored Minnesota eighth graders on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science study. Minnesota and Singapore ranked first in the world in earth science.
With parents, however, the measure of a good education is how it affects their children. Polls show that most parents believe their local schools do a good job of educating their children.
While schools will receive a big chunk of dollars from the state, most of which will go to staff salaries, the results show that Minnesota teachers are worth the price.
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