So what is his plan to enforce this? As altair says, how does he force the states to do this short of taking over the education system?
Significantly increase teacher pay by working with states to set a starting salary for teachers at no less than $60,000 tied to cost of living, years of service, and other qualifications; and allowing states to go beyond that floor based on geographic cost of living.
Ensure professional development for all teachers, including continuing education and mentorship programs.
Protect and expand collective bargaining rights and teacher tenure.
Triple the above-the-line tax deduction for educator expenses and index it to inflation to reimburse teachers for the nearly $500 on average they spend on out of pocket classroom expenses each year.
Create a grant program to provide teachers with funds explicitly meant for classroom materials.
Empower teachers to provide a teacher-supported curriculum that gives students the best possible education.
There are no doubt plenty of ābadā teachers out there.
But as it exists today, teaching is a thankless job. For every bad teacher who took the job because it was all they could get, there are countless true believers who teach not for the paycheck (because the paycheck sucks), but because thatās their passion.
I come from a family of teachers - my mother was a elementary school special ed teacher, my father and grandfather were college professors, and my uncle now teaches at the high school I graduated from. All of them could have made exponentially more money in the private sector, but chose instead to teach.
There are more good teachers dealing with a bad system than there are bad teachers - and the way to get better teachers is to attract those who have a passion for it with a living wage.
Bachelorās degrees in the liberal arts (Iām talking about things like English and Political Science, not ābasket-weavingā or obscure or arcane degrees) donāt exactly throw the doors of job opportunities open.
Thereās nothing wrong with getting a degree in English, or PoliSci - but the people choosing those majors arenāt looking at college as a vocational school.
No you simply use federal funding as a tool to pressure state government into increasing wages. something the federal government has done hundreds of times.
Withhold federal funding for āxā till they comply with the policy.
you know the same way Congress got states to increase the legal drinking age to 21.
No thatās not going to work, they arenāt getting enough federal funds to increase pay to such a level and there would be revolts across the states by taxpayers if they tried raising state and local taxes enough to do it.
And people are getting tired of that ā ā ā ā ā The feds will not pony up enough to cover the raises they want to enforce. The constituents will not take kindly to that sort of blackmail when the majority of the funding comes from property taxes. Such a hike in property taxes will not happen easily nor be supported.
