Parents realize you can pay now or pay later. My own daughter fell behind in sixth grade because she had no math teacher for half a year. North Carolina teacher salaries are now approaching the national average, but, to attract enough Chris Johnsons to the profession, salaries must go substantially higher, in North Carolina and across the nation. An Economist's View J ared Bernstein is a labor economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. The former deputy chief economist at the United States Department of Labor, he spoke recently with NEA Today .
Society undervalues what they do.
As our economy moves more toward free markets and away from the idea that government can play an important role, the one thing that defines value is productivity. Another factor is gender discrimination, since teaching has traditionally been a female profession. The primary consequence of these low salaries is an undersupply of skilled persons. The idea of leaving teaching to sympathetic-hearted people to supply the labor for schools has proven to be the wrong path, especially in an economy in which salaries are climbing sharply for other educated workers. A strong union is really important, because when you're trying to define the worth of what you're doing, in a climate where the market economy is idealized, you need articulate spokespersons.