Quote Originally Posted by Cavguy View Post
To attract high quality teachers, you must make the pay worthwhile. Most teachers make 30-40k a year, just above a manager at Wendy's. You can't expect world class instructors at that rate. Why would a smart college student choose a degree path where he could barely afford to raise a family on the pay?

I come from a family with a number of teachers, over the years each has left teaching for higher paying professions (all ed related), not because they hate the classroom, but because the money just wasn't worth the cost.

It's also easy to blame teachers, but numerous studies show that the home environment is the biggest predictor of academic success - all the studies showing that houses with lots of books have higher achievement, same for houses with college educated parents, etc. The moral is that families that value education will have kids who perform better. Frank fact is that many parents don't help their kid succeed at school, and blame the teacher/system.
Gotta agree with this, and also add that many of the support staff at colleges and universities (who often have a great deal to do with a student's success or lack thereof) get paid on average less than that $30-$40k. Many campuses pay carpenters more than they do department administration staff, who often end up serving as de facto academic advisors and even counselors for the students in their programs.

That pet rock aside, I have to agree 100% with the family factor. We get kids here who come out of some bad local schools, but they come from family farms and ranches and know how to work and plan. They can often overcome those early academic shortcomings because of their background and willingness to do the work needed to succeed. By the same token we see kids who don't have that sort of background coming from "top" schools and tanking out because they don't have the character to succeed without much hand-holding.

We certainly need smarter money in our education system, but we also need parents who are willing to skip that gym workout or work social function and put some time into their kids (and I don't mean scheduling yet another soccer game or some other 'forced fun' activity). Again, it's not one of those "either/or" questions. You need elements of both to succeed.