Rusty Saber: Teachers deserving of higher salaries

Since the Rusty Saber appears to have a mind of its own, the topic this week is a serious one. I had another topic in mind, but I was "convinced" to write on this one proof positive that the Rusty Saber has a mind of its own.

Teacher's salaries have received a lot of local news media attention of late. Salaries are low enough that many teachers say they may be forced to leave the profession. Most teachers were first attracted to the profession for altruistic reasons; they wanted to make a difference in the lives of young people.

Few if any teachers are attracted to the profession assuming they will become rich. No. Teachers are attracted for reasons other than economic ones. However, the time comes for many when altruism gives way to family financial needs.

Unfortunately, the latter eventually take precedence over serving humanity. The local salary problem is critical, but it isn't limited to Springfield. During our month living in Maui, teachers' demands for higher salaries throughout the islands made headlines every day. In fact, shortly after we returned to the mainland, teachers throughout the islands went on strike.

While most don't resort to going on strike, the salary issue is a festering sore spot for teachers in a lot of places, including Springfield.

Early in my teaching career I was a high school teacher. Although this was a long time ago, the situation today is remarkably similar. Some teachers today say their low salaries qualify their children for the federally subsidized school lunch program. They aren't overstating the situation.

This is an appalling revelation regarding a profession that requires a minimum of a bachelor's degree for entry and eventually a master's degree. When I was a secondary teacher, if anything, teacher salaries then, computed in today's dollars, were even lower.

There was no federal school lunch program then; had there been one, many of us with children would have qualified for it. Teachers complained then, and do so today, that small salary increases that don't keep up with the cost of living translate into pay cuts. With more rapid leaps in the cost of living, this claim is probably more accurate now than in my day.

Like today, many of my fellow teachers with families had to take on second jobs to make ends meet. The Springfield News-Leader reported recently on various teachers who had second, some even third jobs. Long ago I moonlighted at a men's clothing store evenings, Saturdays and summers when I wasn't attending graduate school.

I know firsthand what it's like to teach and work a second job. When teachers say they may have to leave the profession, they aren't making idle threats. The exodus of good teachers seems to be as prevalent today as it was then.

I turned down a job offer outside of teaching one that would have been an immediate boost for my family because I was determined to become a college professor. Had I not been able to make the move to college teaching, I would have eventually followed many of my friends who left for purely economic inducements.

How can it be that after all these years, public school teachers are still caught in the same salary bind? As a people, we have managed to come up with the money to fund just about everything we believe to be important, everything but giving a living wage to the people we entrust to educate our children, our most precious assets.

It boggles the mind to hear school critics say that teaching is a cushy job, one with a three-month summer vacation. Constant pressure on teachers in the classroom is something not to be comprehended by anyone who has never done it.

Those cushy summer vacations are likely spent taking summer school courses, preparing new material for the upcoming semester or working a second job in order to feed the family. Cushy job, indeed!

School superintendents and school boards don't want teachers' salaries to be so meager that some of the best and brightest are driven from the profession. They can only distribute the tax money made available by the public for education, including salaries.

The Rusty Saber, with a mind of its own, insists I remind readers that quality education happens because of quality teachers!

(Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University and a Springfield public relations consultant.)