Show I Low Teacher Salaries Deterring the the the r i 7 Best And Brightest I I Teachers' Teachers Willingness to Enter Teaching Again 76 1 t E p IZ Certainly ul 1 or probably babl y would Chances about even Probably or certainly would not iiii 49 r 5 I i 1111 1 I 19 91 91 m m m m m II i iii i i 1966 1986 Sow Source National tonal Association C II According to a recent survey by bythe bythe bythe the American Federation of ofT T Teachers eachers the average American attorney chemist accountant and auditor earns between 40 and 70 percent more than the average teacher This is despite the fact that all of these professions require comparable education and training Although beginning teachers' teachers salaries rose 71 percent last year to toa toa toa a national mean of and current teachers' teachers salaries rose to adjustment for inflation sets the purchasing power of the average teacher at the same level as asin asin asin in 1973 The recent gain in average teacher salaries reports AFT can be directly attributed to the layoffs of young paid low-paid teachers in the late and the minimal hiring of beginning teachers over the past decade In fact teachers are more experienced than at any at-any any time during the last three decades averaging 17 years in the profession What we ar are seeing said Jewell Gould director of research at AFT is that simple dollars and cents figures dont don't tell the whole story when it comes to describing teacher earnings in the United States Like all other professions teaching has to compete for talent from a limited pool Unless we can equal the working and salary conditions conditions conditions condi condi- in other fields there will not be enough quality teachers to fill the nations nation's classrooms Beginning job offers in business are considerably higher than offers for teachers starting liberal arts graduates earn 19 percent more in inthe inthe inthe the business sector and engineers 61 percent more than starting teachers This low pay is deterring those who want to enter the profession ion AFT president Albert Shanker is worried about the years to come As older teachers leave will new ones take their place Only by providing teachers with the pay and the autonomy afforded other valued professionals in our society says Shanker can public schools compete for the talent necessary to educate our next generation |