The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1921-05-26
THE TEACHER PROBLEM

At the meeting Of the school board
convention in Heppner in February
last, Prof f. H. Anderson. principal
Of the Irrigon school, delivered an ad-
dress on THE Teacher Problem" OF
which the following is a presentation
OF the principal facts as brought out
at that time. Prof. Anderson has also
added, in this article, some later mater
ial. and we are sure that 1t will all
prove Of interest at this time when the
subject Of what salaries should be paid
to our teachers, and how the efficiency
Of the teaching force for our public
schools may be maintained and improv-
ed. and withal, how an adequate teach
ing force, under existing conditions,
may be furnished that will come up to
the standard that is being set for them.
is receiving attention at the hands Of
school boards and taxpayers. We ask
careful reading Of this article by
Prof Anderson:
This is a two sided problem. There
is the side which the teacher is consid-
ering, and then there Is that other side
that the school board and the taxpayer
is looking at. School district boards
must have a well defined reason for
paying the price Of a teacher, for
above the contribution from state and
county sources, the taxpayers must
levy a local tax to make up the budget,
Tax levies in many districts have SEEM
ingly reached about the limit that tax
payers feel they can pay. About the
only change in taxes in recent years
has been in the form Of increases
which have been coming so regularly
and in such amounts that the totals
sometimes stagger the property holder.
And yet we must have teachrs; and
how are we to get them? If all employ
ments had all the workers they needed
and there were plenty Of teachers de-
string positions in our schools, we
could probably get teachers at our own
prices. There is one way to get plenty
Of teachers, namely: grant certificates
as we used to do graduates of the eigh-
tn grade But we shall never bring on,
selves to that condition, for, even with
the additional schooling and training
we now require of the teachers we
shall employ. we are still not satisfied
and want better teachers. The better
the goods we demand, the greater the
price we shall have to pay, unless we
shall be able to find some shelf-worn
or OUT f-date goods on bargain coun-
ter
There is a disposition to demand
reduction of teachers salaries along
with the reductions in war-inflated
wages and salaries, but we must not
forget that the teachers taught through
the war period with but little If any
noticeable increase in salaries while In
every other industry wages doubled,
trebled. and quadrupled. Only during
the last two years have the teachers
been awarded increases, and then the
increase amounted to not more 'than
100 per cent, and in most cases not
more than 25 to so per cent. 1t will he
readily seen that the reduction Of tea
chers' salaries except in remote In
stances, would lose us all we have
gained in the slight and delayed in
creases. The advanced salaries have
attracted some prospective teachers to
begin their preparation for this kind
of service, but the industries, and other
service demands still pay as we'll or
better than many teachers positions
do and there is a constant call from
- hA N 70 n
to quit the school room and engage
with them, and they offer advancement
and assure not only living but fiat
tering assurances of more than bare
living, even some thousands to lay by
for the rainy day. 1t is apparent that
we cannot expect to lower the wages
of the schools, but we shall run the risk
of a decline in the work the schools
are doing in keeping this nation In the
front rank of the nations of the woriu
Ignorance and vice, are cronies, The
more we have of the former. the mol>
we shall have of the latter. Not only
this. but every other state in the Union
and all the leading nations Of the world
are raising their standards of educa-
tion, and IL retrenchment is necessary
we must find some other field in which
to do the retrenching act And, II we
as a people look about US a little, we
shall probably find such fields.
cigarettes cost the people Of the
United States in 1920 $500, 100000. Gig
ars, 1000, 900; tobacco in other forms
$500 GOO 900; chewing gum S500Oo,oOo;
total of s2,160, 100000 while all the
whole country spent for public elemen-
tary and high schools was only s402,-
99S SIC in 1918. the last year we have
the figures for. Reducing these fig
ures to simple ratios for every dollar
we spent for elementary and high
schools in 1918, we spent more than
IS for tobacco in some form. Could we
not cut on the tobacco bill better than
we can cut on the schooling bill? BY
reducing the tobacco bill one-ffth we
should save enough money to pay the
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