Why Teachers' Wages Need to Be Raised Persuasive Essay Sample

How much work do you think a teacher puts into their career? Most people think that a teacher just teaches their class and grade assignments. However, it is a lot more than that. They have to create engaging lessons, support their students, grade hundreds of assignments, make sure the students are learning, buy supplies themselves, make tests and quizzes that can properly reflect students' learning, and so much more. Doing all of this, teachers should be getting proper compensation for their work, right? Wrong. The average pay for a teacher in Frisco is $44,000 to $76,000 a year. With the danger of so many factors for teachers, such as inflation and mental health, how is it fair for us to expect teachers to excel when they aren't even being funded properly? In addition to this, many teachers now have to provide a lot more helpful than ever before because of all the responsibilities they have. The federal government needs to increase teachers’ wages to $100,000 because teachers work so much, it can positively affect students, and teachers can have one steady source of income.

Before we start talking about why teachers' wages need to be raised, it is important to know more about the history of these places.  In the 1800s, teaching wasn’t even considered a viable career path as it paid so little that teachers had to use a form of payment called boarding, where teachers could stay at their student’s houses for a week. That barely improved in the 1900s when the salary schedule was introduced because of the absurd sexism in the system. Men were getting paid twice as much for being a teacher than women were. In 1921, the single salary schedule was introduced where teachers with similar qualifications were given similar wages. Despite the improvement, it is still not enough for teachers to live the lives they deserve.

As mentioned earlier, teachers put in a lot of work when it comes to being in the classroom. For example, teachers have to make a course curriculum for all their classes. The course curriculum is the series of courses that a student has to take in an academic program. On top of having to make a course curriculum for their students, they also have to make sure that it includes the TEKS, or Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. TEKS are state standards that all students, k-12, have to learn if they are in a certain state. This ensures that everyone in the state learns the same thing. While this might ensure that everyone can learn properly, this only puts more pressure on teachers because now they have to make a curriculum that has to fit these standards. This also can lead to problems because if the class falls behind, the whole course curriculum will fail. If this happens, then teachers will have to adjust their curriculum once again. I have had to experience this first hand in many of my classes. One of the most prominent examples I could remember was my AP computer science class. In my AP computer science class, we had a set plan that we were told in the beginning we would follow. However, because of covid, online schooling became a thing. Because of online schools, we fell behind in everything. We couldn't access half of the lessons because of technological problems and these shortcomings made labs due sooner and tests come quicker, which put a lot of pressure on students. Despite rushing the tests and labs, we still couldn't finish everything we needed by the time we had to take the AP exam. Because we got so behind in this curriculum, we had to start cramming information as well, which made it a terrible experience overall. However, it is not just making lesson plans and following them for teachers. Most teachers also need to create a better classroom environment, whether that be decorating the classroom or helping students be comfortable in the classroom. For example, something as small as lighting can affect how well students learn. In a study done with two classrooms, one with natural lighting and one with artificial lighting, it was shown that the kids with natural lighting did 25% better than the kids with artificial lighting(Leslie, 2021). This just goes to show that creating a proper classroom environment is very important for a student's learning. The workload of teachers has proven that teachers need to work even harder than what their jobs demand.

In addition to the amount of heavy work teachers do, paying teachers more also can positively affect students. While there is some funding given to teachers to use in their classrooms, most teachers still spend their own money on supplies for their classrooms. Teachers spend an average of $750 on school supplies(Hruza, 2021). On top of being paid so little, do they have to spend money on supplies as well? That sounds ridiculous, but it's true. In addition to buying necessities like gas, groceries, taxes, and bills, now these underpaid teachers need to buy more supplies. If schools are going to make teachers buy their supplies, they should at least either provide funding or pay them more. Supplies are very essential for a teacher's success in learning. 65% of teachers said that they didn't have the proper resources and this directly affected the 55% of students who did not engage with either education at all(Hruza, 2021). On top of all of this, 95% of teachers say that their supply budget will not be enough to meet their students' needs(Hruza, 2021). I have been affected by this since 7th grade. I had an amazing English teacher who has helped me improve my writing so much named Mrs.Rios. She was one of my favorite teachers ever as she gave such important lessons and made learning so much fun. I was never a big fan of English until she was my teacher. However, as fun as the lessons were, she said that she simply did not have the money she needed to make it better. She had so many ideas on making the classroom even better but just could not do it. For example, she would talk about how we could make the class more interactive by doing small but fun art projects. She even tried to make little parties that would have the themes of the books we were reading. She even told us that she preferred project-based learning rather than what the schools were making us do. There are so many creative teachers out there who could make education so much better but are just so underfunded that they can't implement their ideas.

Finally, teachers can get 1 steady source of income. Did you know, that according to federal data, 1 in 5 public school teachers have to work two jobs? That is a lot of teachers who, in addition to having to work so much, now have to work a second job just to provide for themselves and their families. Working two jobs for most people is already stressful; now imagine working two jobs one of which is being a teacher. As mentioned previously, being a teacher is already a crazy job; having to work another should not be an option. Teachers should be able to make a comfortable wage by teaching the next generation. This exhausting job combined with another job can dangerously affect teachers and students. If teachers can't get the rest they need, how are they expected to teach their students properly? For example, a 5th-grade teacher named Jess Marboe claims her workdays start at 4 am and end at 10 pm(Walker, 2019). This leaves next to no time for her to sleep; just imagine how tired she must be having to work two jobs. Teachers don't work two jobs because they want to; they are forced to so they can meet their required needs as people. This shouldn't be tolerated at all, because no one with a job as hard as a teacher should have to work that long.

The federal government needs to increase teachers' pay to 100k because of the workload; they carry, the helpful effect of payment for students, and they can have 1 job they can rely on. Teachers are a really important part of our society as they teach the next generation. If we keep this kind of madness up, the trend known as “The Great Resignation” will continue to get worse. After online schooling, many teachers have been quitting their jobs, seeing as that was too much for them. In addition to this, teachers are being suppressed by school boards. For example, a school board in Oregon tried to ban teachers from putting up Black Lives Matter posters and gay rights posters(Selsky, 2021). This is a clear infringement of the first amendment and should not be tolerated at all. Yet there are so many events like this happening in other schools. We need to stop treating teachers like trash and start giving them more rights and much more pay.