Should The Federal Government Spend More Money On Education

money for both school and states, because school can cut down the number of teachers to hire and

Finally and foremost, school districts need to get rid of tenure. It is absolutely insane to allow a teacher to have absolute job security no matter how badly they perform. If a teacher can teach they will always have a job. Tenure does not protect high performing teachers as it was intended to do instead it protects low performing teachers. This is vital in getting rid of horrible teachers like Mrs. Eicher who is immune to job loss as a result of how long they have worked at the school.

Does Oklahoma want to make the people with the biggest impact on the state’s children’s futures, and thus the future of its communities, struggle to get by day to day? Gina Cattaneo, a teacher at Tulsa Central High School, was recently interviewed by Janna Clark of Fox23 about the struggles of teachers to make ends meet. Cattaneo is a divorced mother of 2 who earns approximately $2,155 a month but after all her household bills are paid, she is left with roughly $268 a month for food, gas, clothing and doctor bills. (Clark). Cattaneo loves her job and does not want to find another job but she feels, “The state needs to come up with a plan…so we can have a lifestyle that we’re not constantly stressed and struggling.” (Clark). Other teachers have had to take on other part time jobs in order to make ends meet. For example, Summer Lyons, a four- year Pre-K teacher in Tulsa, earns $34,100 a year but works an additional 15 hours each weekend at a Chinese restaurant to make ends meet. (Robson). Lyons has considered moving to New York because the average teacher salary there is $75,279 and she feels the extra $31,000 each year would offset the cost of living differences. (Robson). Summer Lyons is a great example of a good teacher feeling underappreciated and looking at options out of state. Teachers significantly enhance the future of our state yet most Oklahomans do not realize the struggles teachers make each day in trying provide students their best education while worrying about how to pay their basic

The United States Government has fifteen Cabinet level agencies which include topics such as agriculture to foreign affairs however there is one specific agency that spends billions of dollars a year which may or may not be needed. The United States Department of Education is an agency that could be minimized. The United States Department of Education should be minimized and the state and local departments should be in charge of their own education policies.

Oklahoma as of today is ranked 49th nationally in per-pupil expenditures and ranked 48th in teacher pay (Klein 2). Putting Oklahoma as one of the worst states to be educated in the United States. “Oklahoma is consistently ranked near the bottom for education funding and teacher pay” (“Investing In Education Is Key For Growth And Job Creation” 3). When there are state cuts that need to be made, the departments of education are one of the first that usually tend to suffer. Since the 2008 economic crisis, Oklahoma has continued to cut the budget for education; even though the economy has since then gotten better (Perry). Budget cuts in education affect all parts of the education process for the students. “Some school districts have ordered teacher layoffs and shorter sessions” (“Oklahoma Makes the Poor Poorer” par 4).Schools are now struggling to keep their heads above water. Each year from the budget cutting, schools have had to lay off teachers, cut entire programs, and have limited resources used to educate the students. Even the teachers’ retirement system is suffering, being one of the top poorly funded pension programs nationally (Ash par 3). Seeing as that the schools have to cut down classes and programs, administration has had no other choice than to increase class size, overwhelming teachers tremendously. “Oklahoma has 1,500 fewer classroom teachers and 40,000 more students since 2008-2009” (“Investing In Education Is Key For Growth

The word education is absent from the U.S. Constitution. Based on this fact, how is Federal involvement in public education justified?

The federal government has attempted to slice into the Department of Education’s budget since it was established in 1979. The department was originally founded in 1867, but soon became demoted since the government was afraid it would have too much power. “In the 1860s, a budget of $15,000 and four employees handled education fact-finding. By 1965, the Office of Education had more than 2,100 employees and a budget of $1.5 billion. As of mid-2010, the Department has nearly 4,300 employees and a budget of about $60 billion” (An overview of the U.S. Department of Education, 2010). To provide some comparable insight, in 2013 the Department of Defense’s budget of $663.8 billion (U.S. Department of Defense, 2009).

The United States has many conflicts, one of them is funding on public education. Despite the fact that funding on public education will not help students succeed academically with the money provided to the schools, every school deserves to get as much money because students will receive more proper education and will be more successful students in the future.

There are many problems in the American public education system today. Some of those include the quality of teachers, who have no real passion for the job, and are only allowed to remain in the position because of tenure privileges. Another issue is the state budgets that are allowed for public schools, with some states investing billions of dollars, and others prioritizing it lower on the list. In hot debate today is standardized testing, and the negative effect that it has on high school education, with the limits it places on teachers and what they have time to teach in the classrooms.

Many people wonder if teachers should or should not get paid more than they do. A lot of people believe that teachers should get paid more, but there are some that do not. Parents that want their kids to have a good education want teachers to get paid more. For example, P.V Derkachev said, “… teacher pay influences the quality of education.” (Derkachev 574). Teachers that get payed more would be more likely to perform better at their job and not mind the extra time that they have to do stuff outside of work to get everything done. Matt Barnum said, “Higher salaries --- even small bonuses ---- can and do keep some teachers in the classroom, and likely improve outcomes for their students.” (Barnum). The student is going to get taught better if teachers get paid more because the teacher will want to teach at the best of her ability which will help the student.

There are many roles that I believe the federal government should play in compensating for educational disadvantages that result from living in poverty. It is the federal government that sets mosts standards for the way a student should be educated from elementary school all the way through high school. I believe that the federal government should pick up the tab if they are going to set requirements such as free breakfast and free lunch programs. These programs are forced on poor, usually urban schools that can’t afford it. Also, a question about participating in extracurricular activities such as sports. Many of the poor children can’t participate in these activities because they can’t afford the cost of playing the sport; so possibly the

Teachers have and will always have a big impact in everyone’s life and if not everyone, well, at least they did for me. They teach you everything you need to know about a subject and valuable life lessons, so why are they not paid sufficiently enough to make a decent living? Teachers salaries have always been low and I believe it is the time that changes. Being a lawyer, doctor, or engineer is great, but none of that would be possible without the insight of a teacher, I will inform you in this paper on why I believe there is a need for action. I will go over the background of teacher’s salaries, my ideas on what would be best for teachers not just in Texas, but nationwide, and pros and cons on the issues and ideas at hand.

The low pay for our educators is causing many negative effects. New York Times shows that the low income is causing sixty-two percent of teachers to have a second job outside of their teaching jobs. Just to have enough money to support their families and make ends meet. Most everyone decides to college to prevent having these struggles with money, and to avoid having to work multiple jobs, when they get older; however, not when it comes to living off of only a teacher’s income, the struggles to have enough money are interminable. This low pay is also causing most teachers to retire, and find new jobs. New York Times states, “every year 20 percent of teachers in urban districts quit. Nationwide, 46 percent of teachers quit before their fifth year. The turnover costs the

Lurking over our great country is a troubling issue that is plaguing the professional educational workforce. When compared worldwide, American teachers work the most hours, yet are paid in the lowest brackets when related to the top 32 nations (Teachers Pay). In addition, when you compare a teacher’s salary to other four year degree salaries, teachers are among the 5 lowest paid degrees (O’Shaughnessy). Not only are the salaries among the lowest in the American workforce, a typical teachers at home workload exceeds all other professional jobs by 20% (Current). Furthermore, teachers were only given a 2.3% salary raise in 2009. Yet the rate of inflation rose to 3.1% causing a loss in purchasing power and creating a hardship on the

This essay will explain why placing advertisements in schools is a great resource for public schools that need additional funding.