Tuesday, December 02, 2008

An Enlightening Survey

From the Education Intelligence Agency
Contrary-to-Fact Conditional Sentence.

Today's Washington Post has a sidebar about a
teacher turnover survey in Prince George's County, Maryland. Almost two-thirds of teachers surveyed disagreed with the statement, "I am satisfied with my teaching salary." And two-thirds of teachers surveyed agreed with the statement, "If I could get a higher-paying job, I'd leave teaching as soon as possible."

We can assume there was signficant overlap on those answers, which leads us to the inevitable conclusion that a lot of Prince George's teachers believe they are underpaid, but can't find anyone who will pay them more. No wonder both teachers and taxpayers are frustrated.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm.... isn't that what we call "Capitalism."

The survey explains why they need the union to do their bidding/taxing to drive salaries that are frankly, out of line w/ the free market.

Anonymous said...

they surely could find higher paying jobs in the private sector if they looked. but they don't look because they know they can't get a better deal than teaching. compromise drives this choice: "do i stay and make a 'okay' living without much effort; or do i find a higher paying job in which i have to produce?". they stay because that 'okay' living is guaranteed to become a good living over time, with guaranteed yearly increases, great benefits retirement. they don't leave teaching because the private sector is more demanding and there is no guarantee of employment-for-life.

imagine if we in the private sector could attain "tenure" in our professions. In the case of teachers it's after just one year on the job.