Royal Decree #3: Teacher Salaries

Ideally, most people (like myself currently) going through college to become a teacher or educator are doing so out of personal passion and interest towards the field of education or a desire to help achieve academic growth with their future students. None of us, I believe, would do the jobs we hope to achieve without being paid for our work, however, nor would anyone doing any other kind of labor. Thus, salaries for teachers is a crucial issue when looking to improve or work with any kind of developments in the educational world, as these yearly earnings are what help potentially retain and improve a teacher work force. In times where educating the country's youth continues to be an important political debate, and where post-covid labor shortages persist, being aware of the state of teaching salaries is of great importance.

Knox county's teacher pay rates (2013-14),
with new teachers with a four-year degree
only making $35,000 a year, and at most
making $51k after 20 years.

I myself wanted to go into teaching because I had a real passion for the subject of history throughout high school, and was subsequently inspired by my various teachers with how they made the profession appear so engaging and worthwhile. On the other hand, however, I do enjoy making a decent living for my work, especially after spending four to five years in post-secondary education in order to be able to do said work. Another thing about myself is that I like to stay nearby to where I have grown up in order to be somewhat close to family and loved ones, so when looking for future employment opportunities I tend to research in places close to home. That being said, most everywhere I have looked so far, with some exceptions, have paid their teachers at a subpar rate when compared to the national average. In my mind, increasing teacher salaries is not only doable (for instance, my home county allocates over 50% of its budget to education), but potentially beneficial, as doing so may draw more qualified and passionate people to the historically underpaid field. While such job openings and shortages mentioned earlier may help the goal to increase these salaries, only time will tell; until then, us educators will probably continue to make do with the jobs we love.

Royal Decree #2: Considering Charter Schools

Charter schools are a term and topic that have only recently come to my attention. The idea behind them is to offer an alternative to traditional public schools by having schools that are founded/staffed by passionate teachers, designed for specific age ranges, and more lucrative for parents wanting the best education for their children. Charter schools are named such because they rely on parents applying to send their children there instead of being assigned students in the nearby area, as traditionally public schools are; this application process has proven popular with parents, especially those of non-white households (as almost two-thirds of charter school students are minorities), as it allows these parents the power of choice for what they believe is best for their children. These schools are more autonomous than regular public schools, with extensive procedures to hire effective teachers and administrators, establish transportation, set standards and curriculum, etc. They are still accountable, however, both to the authorizing bodies (states, universities, organizations) and to the parents as well, to whom they rely on for continued enrollment.

 

Emerald Youth Academy, a
charter school in Knoxville, TN

When first hearing of the option of charter schools myself, I was amazed at the idea; being able to have increased choice for your child's education besides moving to another school district sounded phenomenal. While these schools are not widespread enough currently to be available to all Americans, as I never encountered or heard of one where I grew up, they still remain a valid option when around. Having once again learning about these schools from a State Politics class in my Junior year of college, I have begun to understand why such a concept is both powerful and potentially divisive; on one hand I can see the benefits of more specialized option for students and parents, but I can also see the arguments against them of these schools being easily corrupted and taking away resources from traditional schools. Personally, I am a man who enjoys choices; even if I did not agree with a particular charter school in my area, having the option away from traditional public and private schools and recognizing the impact these schools have had on less fortunate communities cannot be undervalued. 

Royal Decree #1: The Trouble with Tenure

Tenure, essentially, is the permanence of a Teacher or Professor's job security, or simply the near inability of an educator to lose their job. Tenure, of course, is not granted immediately upon receiving a job (in most cases), but is typically granted or earned after a few years within a school system. In Tennessee, for instance, every teacher hired post-2011 must do five years of teaching (no less than 45 months) and be evaluated and judged favorably during the last 1-2 of those years. While tenure is nice for teachers, in such that having job security can help them focus more on improving their instruction styles and results, it can (and has) led to cases of teachers lowering themselves to a sub-par standard of teaching without much worry of being fired; these reasons are why some teachers, as mentioned earlier, must go through observations and multiple years of experience before being granted tenure.

A teacher being actively involved
 with their students, as opposed to  
assigning a packet of work

Personally, as a college student, I have yet to have any experience with tenure outside of learning and researching it. My mother was a teacher and thus benefitted from tenure, as did many of the teachers I encountered throughout my primary and secondary education. I had always wondered why some of the more notorious and ineffective teachers were never fired, and it was not until I took a course in State Politics my Junior year of college did I learn of the complexities of tenure and teacher job security. I will not claim to be an expert, but after this exposure to the difficult process schools have when firing their teachers who are on tenure, the problems with modern American education have made me passionate about constantly improving myself as an educator, tenure or not.