On Teaching

I recently applied to Teach For America, a 2-year scheme designed to offer college graduates a chance to give back through teaching before entering the workforce. That got me thinking about education, and more specifically, education reform.

There are many issues that plague the American education system, one which ranks relatively low worldwide. Short school years, an agrarian schedule, indifferent parents, and poor teaching all feed into a system which is inflexible and does not reward excellence. It seems that American parents cannot be all that much different than the average parent worldwide, so the delta cannot exist here. The problem, I think, is more acute.

Teachers. As a student not long out of public school, I know how lackadaisical or even incompetent public school teachers can be. Although there are a few teachers I can name who had the passion and professionalism to make an impact on my life, the majority of teachers fell into either two categories: incompetent or indifferent. This is, most likely, due to how the incentive system is structured for teachers. After three years of employment teachers can receive tenure, basically employment for life. The Economist recently reported that only 1.8% of all teachers are denied tenure. 1.8%!

This means that 98% of teachers will eventually be guaranteed employment for life. How would this spur competition, or attract top-level talent when good and bad teachers alike are treated equally. In the land of meritocracy, I cannot see a system that more clearly distorts the market. Teacher's unions argue that their profession is different than others…but how? Every profession is employed at the whim of their employer, and if they perform poorly then they are fired. The same should be true of teachers.

Another common belief is that teacher's salaries are too far depressed to attract the most talented. I agree, however, this is directly linked to the tenure-based system that is currently in place. By freeing the labor market from the shackles of the union's lopsided rules, the best and brightest teachers could be adequately awarded for their dedication and the worst could be paid less or let go. Once there is a system in place which reflects a teacher's performance, then and only then, would it make sense to boost the gross amount of money going to teacher's salaries. Otherwise, we would only be paying more for the same performance.

Education, as many have experienced, is the great equalizer. If only teachers unions understood how important that is.

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Follow up: Although this post focused mainly on how ridiculous the system of public education has become, that does not take anything away from the teachers and administrators who do their best every day to improve the profession and the lives of the students around them.