Education and teachers are important, but I am tired of the political football and the crowd runs around demonizing opposition who espouse a different view on spending or salaries.
In my local school district where my wife works as a para, the average citizen salary is less than $35,000 with no summers off. However that tax base supports teachers to the tune of an average salary from the last bargaining agreement proposal from the district of 72,446 for a contract time of a little over 200 days of work. The union was walking out over this proposal. This is how public entities go broke. I will leave it at that and not put too many personal opinions in this, every area is different with different salaries and needs.
As far as throwing more money at the education system to increase the test scores. This rarely is the case. Too many variables exist for this theory to work. The number one thing in improving test scores is the home life, not teacher salaries. Stability, parents who are available, care, and have time to give to their children goes farther than any government funded program. You can look at Utah's expenditures per child in 2016 of a little over 6,500 with New Yorks of over 21,000 and the proficiency is higher than New York's. New York is expensive though, so even compare it to Mississippi that has lower costs of living more in line with Utah. Mississippi spends 2,000 more per student and are ranked #51 for proficiency out of all states while Utah is #14.
Just some thoughts to ponder.
