Should we pay a lot of teachers less, or fewer teachers more?

Please do not reduce the remuneration of educators and quality education to a zero sum game. The very question demonstrates a fallacious logic that reduces a complex problematique to an absurdly simplistic level. This is the sort of thing one expects from demagogues not thoughtful reformers. Not cool, Edutopians. Not cool!

Agree with Mr. McMullen's comment. I don't think this is the right question to ask. Bottom line is, quality teachers are always needed. To get those kind of teachers in the workforce, heavy investments in their training must be made and their hard work and time should be equally recognized and compensated. No offense, we love our students but we also have to make a living too!

the options as stated may warrant an answer. No two classes are alike. The difference between 20 and 25 students in a classroom in some situations is no more than a physical crowding and more personal time on assessments. What makes classes unique is the makeup of academic levels and behaviors. Gaps in levels of academic achievement are wider and wider each year. Because of this and RTI, planning and data analysis is nearly a full time job in itself. Additionally, although not openly discussed in most forums, the behavior of even one student can interfere with the instruction of even the most highly qualified teachers. I don't know any teachers who don't have more than one chronic behavior issue to deal with and huge disparities in student academic levels. Under real world circumstances smaller classes give better opportunities to remediate struggling students and manage behaviors.

I agree with Mr. McMullen--presenting the choice as it was on the website is ridiculous. Education should not be pitting teachers, schools and districts against each other for the pathetic amount we decide to spend. A better choice would be "Should we pay many teachers and finance schools to the level that all children can succeed or should we continue to fund a few very well off CEOs with tax codes that allow corporations to pay proportionally less in income tax than individuals pay?"

This is (so)not the question! Teachers need to be compensated for their time and effort like any other professional.
To have more teachers and pay them less does not reduce the work load. One must still prepare for the day.
The work setting also needs to be taken into consideration. A class of forty is not as productive as a class of twenty or twenty-five.

There is already disparity in teacher salaries as well as in the work year. We need to find a fair compensation for classroom teachers. Two classes with equal numbers may not be equal at all with inclusion.

Really?? Neither is an option. I believe that the key is to train our teachers, no matter how many or how few, in best practices based on current research and the best learning communities. Administrators and superintendents must insist on their teachers entering the 21st century being the best they can be. FOcus on what is best for the students, not the financial.

Regardless of delivery mode all teachers need to be highly trained in pedagogy as well as integrated instructional technology. It's not an either/or. It's both. Students will need some online work as well as teacher directed, smaller learning communities and group projects for application. This can be accomplished even with larger class sizes, especially if you have technology working for you. Good elementary teaches have used small group and individualized instruction for years...

The obvious answer is that we should pay much more to many more teachers. This question sets up the false dilemma: which teachers and students should lose the most? It pits elementary against secondary (where classes have always been somewhat larger). It also "enables" the wrong fix, merit pay argument.

All of these false choices come from the "free market" philosophy that has systematically been destroying the American society and world economy for the last thirty years. Bean counting and one-time test results are not the ways to improve education. When a society truly values education, it values its teachers. Parents also value and support such a system.

The antagonism toward public education has been created by a conscious campaign from corporate media and corporate lackeys (or politicians, call them what you will) to undermine faith in the government in order to promote "privitization" of most government programs while accomplishing personal aggrandizement for the few and loss of personal wealth for the rest.
The battle against a "public" health plan parallels the unending push for private or charter schools, private prisons, private soldiers (mercenaries) while gleefully underfunding each sector.

Get back to regulating and taxing corporations and their handlers, end the wars they promulgate, empower the government with strong public participation and you have a much better chance of real systemic change. I would trust the post office, the DMV, or public schools over the private sector any day of any year!

Add 10 students to a room of 20. You've increased the work by 33 percent. Doesn't seem like a lot increase
your work week from 40 to 52 hours.