Letter to the Editor, Carteret News Times

Teacher pay does not equal formal education

NEWS-TIMES

Morehead City, N.C.

May 16, 2011

TO THE EDITOR:

I put this right up front: I am not opposed to teachers and education administrators getting paid all they can through responsible negotiation with the taxpayers’ representatives. All I ask is for our representatives to fulfill their obligation to faithfully represent the majority of the taxpayers’ desires. Maybe even take that a step further, and through careful analysis project the general taxpayers’ ability to pay the education tab without impoverishing themselves in the process.

What brought this to mind are recent articles and letters to the editor published in the Carteret County News Times, some insisting that the county commissioners pay for whatever the school board and administration wants because our children’s education depends on it?

This argument seems to confuse and emotionalize the issue because in practical terms “teacher pay” and “formal education” are two distinct issues. To get to this distinction, we must ask what formal education is all about.

Formal education, in any useful sense, is the more or less organized presentation — to a “receptive mind” — of useful information that is factually true, morally sound and relevant to the current age and future needs of the one being educated.

The “receptive mind” is formed in two ways. In the case of young people still at home, it is both parents’ responsibility to instill in the child’s character useful self-discipline, along with an eagerness and desire for education. Lacking two parents, the single parent must also accomplish this parenting responsibility.

We can see in the inner cities that street kids — those without involved parents — are lost to formal education, in large part forever. For example, like many cities that get vast amounts of federal and state taxpayer dollars to “improve” education, Detroit, with a population of 951,000, must contend with 47% of its population, or 447,000 citizens, who are functionally illiterate. There are about the same percentage of illiterates in all of America’s large cities and places like Washington, D.C. Being functionally illiterate means not being able to fill out a job application or read the instructions on a pill bottle — and things like that.

The key point one can glean from such information is that across America formal, government education is not working for many of our citizens. However, there are alternatives to government schools that achieve better results. We find this to be true because the source of the information offered in formal education can come to the “receptive mind” in a number of ways: home school, private schools, Christian schools, some charter schools, some government schools, Sunday school, and even organized self-study by young people with initiative. As I recall, Abe Lincoln did some of the latter by candlelight and became president.

A teacher, then, is any person who satisfies a “receptive mind’s” need for factually true, morally sound and relevant information that will become useful in their future endeavors. A teacher who is truly called and inspired will also insist on teaching their students how to think, not just what to think.

The teacher that insists on politically correct thought from their students or approves of trendy immorality is not really a teacher but a state sponsored propagandist or an irresponsible parent. If the teacher has a classroom of students without “receptive minds,” the function they are performing is not “education.” It is called “daycare,” which seems to be enough for a high percentage of students and their parents.

How does all of that lead up to the issue of teacher pay? Well, the successful home school teacher doesn’t get paid, yet their students perform very well on standardized tests and in life. Private school teachers, such as in Christian schools, are paid but a pittance — with few if any benefits — compared to the current levels of government school teachers; however, it is an easy thing to make a case that their students excel in national testing and in life. Sunday school teachers don’t get paid and the students who learn for the love of it don’t get paid — yet become some of the most accomplished individuals we know.

So when we talk about teacher pay, we are not talking about education. In fact, if we could listen in on a government school’s faculty lounge we might hear them say, “Why don’t they let us teach the way we know is best? Why do they change the requirements every year? Why must we do all of these reports? Why am I responding to requirements dreamed up by a person who has never been in a classroom for more than a year or two, and then it was phys-ed? Why can’t I use textbooks that tell the whole story? Will they really fire me if I teach that, even if it is the truth? Why do I have to put so much of my own money into the classroom? Is the ACLU really more important than the students?”

Please don’t get me wrong. I believe teachers should argue for and get all they can from the taxpayers in the way of higher pay. After all, the upper management of the school system is among the financial elite of Carteret County — and there is nothing wrong with that either. If I were in their shoes, I would want all I could get from taxpayers too.

But the truth is — it is not the county commissioners or the Board of Education’s money that is being spent. Whose money is it? It is the hard earned money of the average Carteret County taxpayer that pays the tab. This confusion is seen when the local citizens’ teacher support groups exhort the county commissioners to give in to teacher demands and request that the county commissioners pay for them. (The fact that half of the folks don’t even pay taxes and live by the sweat of someone else’ brow is too big a subject to start in this letter!)

If the system worked as designed, the people on the state and county payrolls would regularly ask for more pay, more positions or more largesse of whatever nature and in times like these, the county commissioners would just say “no.” Ask yourself this question: in a year or two, do you think the state and county coffers will be more overflowing with taxpayer money than they are today?

No, all this discussion about teacher pay and positions is not about education. It is about the other important factor responsible people must deal with, i.e., — money.

But first, give us back schools that do not require policemen in the halls. Let the classroom teacher — well — teach. Then, give the teachers textbooks that extol the Creator who gave to us our unalienable rights and let them teach the stories of the men and women who, by giving Him credit for forming our nation, inspired generations of school kids to greatness.

That done, soon, the money will not be a problem.

CHUCK BEASLEY