[bhunter]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Here's an interesting counterpoint with regard to teachers' pay in which it argues that teachers are paid far too little.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/opinion/01eggers.html

Weren't teachers paid even less, say, fifty years ago? I think they did a better job then than they do today. We've been tossing money towards education for decades and yet have not seen a demonstrable increase in the end product, namely, student achievement. Is it lack of family? Lack of quality teachers? Or perhaps, just bad students? It seems, that despite all the obstacles that recent Southeast Asian immigrants endure, they quickly do well in school and move up the socio-economic scale.

The article, in advocating higher incomes for teacher in order to attract the more qualified, supports my previous assertion that government employs the less qualified.

I suspect a correlation between the changing cultural demographics and student achievement being more significant than teacher salaries and/or teaching abilities.