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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion

COLUMN: Teaching crisis stems from lack of incentives

Teaching is one of the most highly respected professions around the world. Judging from the United States, however, you would hardly know it.

Perhaps this is the reason for the recent drop in teachers licenses issued as the IDS reported last Friday.

Payroll cuts and difficult state-set standards are in the job description, and it is no longer appealing to young people entering the job 
market.

The country with the most respect for its teachers is China.

In Switzerland, teachers are paid higher than the national salary average, making it one of the only countries to do so.

The U.S. falls in the middle to the low end of both of these lists.

Teaching as a profession is already filled with difficult cultural responsibilities as part of the game.

Rowdy kids and out-of-touch, state-sanctioned curricula would be a challenge even with decent pay.

Add the budget cuts, the constant shifting in education plans and the heavy reliance on standardized tests instead of individual learning, and it is no wonder the pressures are turning people off.

The IDS reported on a budget plan that Gov. Mike Pence signed last May that shifts the distribution of funds away from urban and rural schools and into suburban schools.

Enrollment in suburban schools is growing and is shrinking in urban and rural schools, which caused the shift.

The unspoken reason for this is perhaps that urban and rural schools have been historically and systematically left to fend for themselves while suburban schools — with higher test scores and parent-student involvement — are favored.

No wonder enrollment in suburban schools is growing.

It’s no secret the education game is filled with obstacles, but for a profession that, as the old saying goes, molds young minds, shouldn’t these teachers be given a little slack to do their jobs?

The threat of pay cuts does not build a work environment that fosters excitement and passion about the work.

Instead, it creates an unfair stress on teachers, who will have to focus on the curriculum, instead of the 
children.

All the pressures put on teachers through pay cuts and standardized testing effect morale, and kids notice that.

So do college admits interested in education, and they are turned off by the stress.

This generation was raised during one of the worst recessions this country has seen, and the idea of paying for school to go into a job that will pay next to nothing and give you a stress-related ulcer isn’t appealing to us anymore.

The promise of summers off forever isn’t enough.

Instead, teachers need a wage worthy of the work they perform.

Perhaps once reforms to the education system make sense for teachers to put their lives into it again, enrollment in teaching colleges will pick up again.

But, based on our history, they shouldn’t hold their breath.

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