by Patricia Thorton

Created on: September 10, 2008   Last Updated: September 22, 2008

YES! There are so many teachers that go unrewarded every year for their hard work and dedication. I know numerous teachers who work from six in the morning until six at night to on develop strategies to present information to students more effectively. These teachers often see great progress in their students over the school year. This kind of behavior should be rewarded.

If we want children to receive a better education, we need motivated teachers. It is amazing to see that our teachers today are so motivated despite their low pay. Can you imagine if they were given an incentive to produce better results? I believe we would see an energy in our teachers that would transfer over to our students, thus, skyrocketing the success of these students in the long run.
Education at a young age is so important in our society. It used to be enough to just get a high school degree. Now even a Bachelor Degree may not suffice for the career that you are looking for. Elementary, Middle, and High School provide the foundation that students need to excel and succeed in College. We need to invest more in their future by investing in their instructors.
By implementing a merit based pay, we can shape the way in which our children are being taught. Presently, most (emphasis on the word most) teachers have low to no standards on how their students perform. Considering this while considering the low pay of teachers in this country, it is understandable why education in the United States ranks 18th out of 24 countries (http://kapio.kcc.hawaii.edu/upload/fullnews.php?id= 52). The merit based system will identify those teachers that are going above and beyond for their students and reward them. This in turn, would motivate other teachers to mimic the actions of these rewarded teachers. This domino effect can boost the education level of the United States.
There are more advantages to a merit based pay than just boosting the level of education in this country. We could also boost the morale of the teaching workforce. It is hard for teachers living in big cities to keep up with the necessary expenses. Let's take the example of Miami. If a teacher wanted to live five minutes away from the school where they work, and that school is in Southwest Miami Dade. The absolute lowest rent they would be able to find is $1,200 dollars (this is an extremely exaggerated number, I have not seen less than $1,400). In one year this will add up to $14,400. This can be up to 50% of a teacher's income in Miami-Dade. This is not including electricity, water, food, telephone, TV, internet, car insurance, gas, and other monthly bills that are necessary to have n acceptable standard of living.
Dedicated teachers deserve to be able to live comfortably and maintain a steady savings account or investment portfolio. A merit based pay system would provide the supplementary income to do so.
Supporting teachers and supporting students is ultimately the same exact thing.

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