The recent teacher pay hike by the State of Missouri, while a welcome step, is not good enough. Missouri now ranks #50 as far as teacher pay is concerned.
The problem with the recent grant program is that while it raised the base pay to $38,000 a year, which was unheard of 20 years ago, it did nothing to raise pay of teachers who already make $38,000 or more.
This means that in many cases, a teacher who has, say, 9 years experience and a master’s degree will now make the same as a first year teacher. Not only that, the state is only funding this program for a year.
Schools are the lifeblood of our communities. It’s bad enough that the state engaged in systematic attacks on our public school system over the last 100 years, forcing the closure of one room schoolhouses and small schools. This measure simply plays off new teachers against more experienced teachers. And that is a headache that schools can’t afford.
We realize that certain people like to complain about taxes. But taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society. Missouri is fast becoming the laughingstock of the rest of the nation as far as its treatment of teachers is concerned. The state needs to set the minimum salary to where it is 25th in the country, and pay schools 100% of the money needed to implement it. If that means we pay more taxes, that means we pay more taxes.
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