by J.M. Schell

Created on: July 24, 2008

Why Should Teachers be Any Different From Other Professionals?

Those opposed to paying teachers in the same fashion most other professionals are paid can typically be counted upon to trot out the same hoary excuses for why this is a bad idea. While most teachers would be highly offended if you compared what they do to say, someone working on the production line of an auto factory, attaching wheels to cars, they'll nevertheless defend the union pay scale system under which they are paid. It makes no sense. Doctors are not paid in this way. Lawyers aren't. Even most nurses are no longer paid this way.

The first line of defense is the same one union teachers use to justify never judging their performance by the outcome. There are few jobs-and none in the professions-where you are not judged by your performance. Teachers somehow believe they should be exempt from this, that in fact there is simply no way to "test" how well they do their job. This is, of course, nonsense on stilts. Anyone paying attention over the past 40 years or so knows very well how poorly teachers, in the main, have done. This is why so many Americans graduate high school without being able to read or write, unable to make change and who can't tell you in which century the Civil War took place. In my state, voters instituted (over the strenuous objections of the classroom teachers and their unions-and despite the millions of dollars they poured into the state to defeat the issue) a system by which students are tested in 3rd, 5th, 8th and 11th grades as a means of determining whether a school and its teachers are doing their job. It worked fine for a decade, after ironing out some bugs. Of course, the very first thing that our newly-elected Democrat-majority legislature and Democrat governor began doing the moment they could, was to dismantle this system at the behest of the teachers who'd been moaning and groaning and undermining it since its inception.

Teachers next claim there are "too many factors" that go into whether a child learns or not. In my profession, I have to deal with thousands of factors under the baleful eye of both state and federal regulators in order to complete tasks I contract to do. How about lawyers? Teachers enjoy comparing themselves to lawyers as "professionals." Can you imagine the hundreds of thousands of details that a lawyer trying or defending a murder case must deal with? In fact, having myself taught, I'd say the teacher's job is far simpler. Teachers are provided

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>