One of the primary factors in educational outcomes is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. Most policies to improve teacher quality are focused on education and monitoring. While these policies have their places, there’s a more direct method of attracting people who will be strong teachers while also incentivizing those who are currently teaching to improve: pay them more.
Teacher salaries should be higher, along with the hiring standards and quality expectations. By improving the quality of teachers in our public education system and incentivizing them to improve their craft, educational outcomes will improve.
Problems to be Solved
- checkTeacher salaries in this country are too low to incentivize potential teachers with great skill but other options.
- checkTeachers don’t have a strong monetary incentive to continually improve their craft.
- It’s been demonstrated that teacher quality is the key factor in student success, and paying teachers more is an effective way to get more talented people into the classroom. My friend, Zeke Vanderhoek, started a charter school that manages to pay teachers $125,000 a year on the budget of a normal school. Not surprisingly, his school has great teachers and outstanding outcomes. We should reduce layers of administration in schools and apply the money to pay teachers at higher levels, particularly those who have proven track records and results.
Goals
- checkImprove the quality of teachers in the country
- checkReward teachers for improving their skills
As President I will...
- Work with states to fund their educational systems to improve teacher salaries and reduce layers of administration, leading to better educational outcomes.