And Michigan recently decided to stop using the property tax to finance its schools, and instead to use a combination of income and sales taxes. Since poor school districts receive most of their revenue from the state, another disadvantage of state and local funding is that economic conditions may cause the state to change its support level at the very moment poor school districts need the funds the most. Although the level and distribution of education resources is very important, it is equally important that the resources be used effectively. Teacher salaries are a major portion of the elementary and secondary budget, and good teachers are central to a high quality education system. Most of what we consider formal childhood education takes place in classrooms through interactions between teachers and students.
Teachers are one conduit through which education and societal values are passed.
The pupil-teacher ratio has declined steadily since the mid 1950s. As most elementary and secondary teachers are women and the labor market opportunities of women have improved over the last two decades, larger increases in salaries may have been necessary for teachers, relative to those in other occupations, to keep teachers in teaching and to induce college students to choose teaching as a career. Nevertheless, using a variety of measures it appears that teacher earnings are relatively low compared to those of many other professions that college students could pursue. Evidence of this is mixed. In NALS, the prose literacy scores of teachers are similar to the scores of many of their colleagues in other professions, including private sector executives and managers, engineers, physicians, writers and artists, social workers, sales representatives, education administrators, and registered nurses.