Reader comments
Quality teachers top issue for Utahns
14 comments | Read story
I also have an advanced degree, and it does have some minimal impact on better teaching, but advanced degrees are really where you know a whole lot more about one or two things. Having a broad educational background with experience is better than more college degrees in my opinion.
You are totally off base, besides being racist. Utah teachers don't look at a child based on race or country of origin. It also happens to be illegal to deny children an education because of international agreements that protect US children from discrimination when abroad.
Have you also considered that Utah along with most Western states historically was Mexican land? We created a 'situation' so we could invade Mexico intending to take this land by force.
Your rants against the PTA and UEA are unfounded. The UEA does not invade the classroom. The PTA when present are volunteering in the class.
The real problem for retention is disrespect which teachers get from the legislature, parents, administrators and most often the students.
No matter how you try to get around it and go on the cheap, teacher pay will determine the quality of teachers. The low pay has caused districts to "scrape the barrel" just to find qualified teachers. In fact the governor had to get professional work visas in order to bring in teaches from Mexico to fill the shortage last year.
In business if you want the best employees you have to pay the highest wage. A generation ago students, especially women went into education because they could teach and raise a family at the same time. Now employers that pay much more than education provide support for women with families.
Also, until the 80s education and nursing were the only real professions open to women. Now all professions are wide open including law enforcement and the military, and education is just not competing with professional pay.
The problems with teacher quality and retention are more than money (although it would be nice to make more!). The levels of civility, the demands of parents, expectations fueled by No Child Left Behind and expectations and critcisms from business and law makers are all fueling job disatisfaction.You can not continue to demand more from a system that is on overload. Dialogue, rather than imposed solutions and threats would go a long way toward identifying the issues and solving the problem.
Now, all that is left are the extrinisic, namely... money. Either pay us more or we just will keep on walking elsewhere.
Where?
Just how am I to afford all this great technology? I'm typing this on a borrowed computer!
I'd like to see the _Senator_ pass bills based on how much money he can make from bake sales and voluntary donations.
Curtis and his band of neo-clowns want to destroy what is left of our public schools to fuel their desire to build a private sector educational service. I think we are in trouble and our best teachers are retiring and moving out of State. God help us all!!!
Add your comment
Comments are monitored. Any comments found to be abusive, offensive, off-topic, misrepresentative, more than 200 words or containing URLs will not be posted.
E-mail address: For internal use only. We may want to contact you to publish your comment (not your e-mail address) in the newspaper or for a separate story idea.
- Smooth talk wrinkles mall walk 2:32 p.m.
- School treasures discovered in attic 2:26 p.m.
- BYU leads UNM 17-7 at half 1:50 p.m.
- Snowstorm hits Utah; 1 dead 1:11 p.m.
- GameDay in Fort Worth 1:10 p.m.
- NASA sets Monday shuttle launch 11:53 a.m.
- WVC robberies investigated 11:41 a.m.
- Funeral today for Utah soldier 11:16 a.m.
- Vaccination clinic set in St. George 11:15 a.m.
- $47B in suspect Medicare claims 11:11 a.m.
- Apostle's wife felt comfort in attack
- Short-handed Jazz fly past Sixers
- Can BYU root for (ick) Utah Utes?
- D-Will home for daughter
- Bench proves fruitful for Y.
- Man killed during 3rd I-15 crash
- Utes excited for 'dream' game
- Born of water and the spirit
- Williams leaves, won't play tonight
- Woods Cross refinery to shut down
- SLC council OKs gay rights policies
352 - Editorial: Mormons and gay rights
199 - Senators want food tax restored
164 - Will state consider gay rights law?
146 - Letters: Strange breed in Utah
129 - Utes remain silent about BCS
120 - Can BYU root for (ick) Utah Utes?
118 - S.L. vote pending on gay protections
113 - Pratt pleads not guilty to sex charges
104 - Celtics crush Jazz
104
If you are looking for a bird on the cheap, the following specials from...
How do you handle kids and contests? Our oldest daughter, 7, is of the...
No One Cares. Just like the UFL No One Cares.
Half of our debt is from Bush's tax cuts for the rich that we couldn't...
Looks twice as slower then in normal. According to BYU fans (including...
So you say that the Founding Fathers were good, God-fearing people...who...
does anyone else find this fishy
Tell me it ain't so, struggling against 0-8 Lobos? Please BYU win, I...
Lots of selfish play by the Utes (Brown and Henderson were the worst two)...
If it *was* a revelation, the Lord took his own sweet time correcting this...
I small vision of the future of Obamacare!
Maybe dog owners should be required to carry special insurance that covers...

We don't need any foundation or experts to tell us what we already know.
Pay the teachers a better than average salary and you will improve the quality of teachers.
It really is simple.
Unfortunately our legislature doesn't like simple solution to education in Utah.