On 3 Jul 96 at 9:10, Benjamin E. Wagner wrote:
> I basically agree but would like to expound on this thought. As it
> stands now in the U.S., teachers in private schools have lower
> salaries than the ones in public schools...... The elite schools would be
> populated with wealthy students and high-paid teachers and the rest
> would have low-paid teachers and probably receive a lesser
> education.
The issues here are very complex. I doubt whether privatization of schools
will result in higher salaries for teachers. The traditionallly low
salaries have to do with many things; history, gender bias, lack of
linkage between salary levels and results/competence, difficulty in
evaluating results. Taxpayer survey results I have seen indicate that
taxpayers are willing to pay higher salaries IF quality is improved, but
the catch is many do not believe that educational problems WILL improve by
throwing money at the problem (which is probably correct).
> However,
> I think it is imperative to raise teachers salaries so that
> education can draw from a large pool of applicants. I would not draw
> the conclusion that because of our parsimony, education attracts the
> less intelligent and not as competent.
Is parsimony the right word -grin-. We do know that historically those
entering education programs have had the lowest entrance qualifications of
any university faculties (that may have changed over the last decade or
so).
> There are many people who benefit from eroding confidence in public
> education. The media attracts viewers with dire stories; private
> businesses vie for educational monies; taxpayers hope for lower
> taxes. These short-term and individualistic benefits would have
> long-term and harmful societal effects.
One thing we need to remember about the criticisms. Schools have been
asked to shoulder a more complex role, as society has changed. In my view,
it is difficult for schools to address all of the things they are being
asked to do to remedy society's ills. So long as we have teachers acting
as police, morality teachers, administrators, etc, there will be less time
to do the job (teaching) whatever they are paid.
Robert Bacal, CEO, Institute For Cooperative Communication
dbt359@freenet.mb.ca, Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
(204 888-9290.
--"Robert Bacal" <dbt359@freenet.mb.ca>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>