Teacher Salaries

A school district nearby just recently came off of a 7-day strike that was ugly to say the least, with every teacher's name and salary being published in the local Sunday paper. The main sticking point was a disagreement over pay raise schedules. There was a letter to the editor in the main Philly paper earlier this week that suggested that teachers should be on a three-tier pay scale, with elementary teachers making the least. Isn't this backwards? Shouldn't teachers who build the foundations for our childrens' education be paid the most? And besides, we're talking bout (often) young women and men themselves dealing with screaming, rowdy children whose attention span is about as long as a breath.
The best way to pay teachers is based on performance. If a teacher isn't very effective, they shouldn't be paid as much as teachers who are helping children who are behind catch up, giving children who find school boring an excitement for learning, and altogether moving their students along their educational path, if not ahead.
Being a teacher isn't easy, it's one profession I know I wouldn't be good in. It requires patience, understanding, and a degree in both education and psychology at times! There were several teachers who made a very profound positive influence in my life, and there were quite a few who slowed me down. But to say that elementary school teachers should be paid the least because they teach the youngest is ridiculous. If you're basing that on danger (high school kids are more dangerous than elementary school kids), then don't blame the teachers, fix the security! Our teachers are doing the best they can with what money they get. In some school districts, teachers are living in poverty but are being asked to produce high-end results. That's not as true here as it is in Philly, but even the starting wage for a teacher in this school's district is not that high considering the high cost of living in that school district. You can't expect a teacher to buy a house (which costs at MINIMUM 250k) on 45k a year, plus feed her own family and take care of an extended family 5 days a week at work. It doesn't work that way.