My Students Might Get a Raise Before I Do

Sometimes when I’m having a conversation with non-teachers about my job, I wonder if they are secretly counting down the seconds before I will mention how much money I don’t make. I know that teachers talk a lot about their pay, or the lack there of, and I understand that must be obnoxious for non-teachers, but I still can’t help it. I went to college so I could be a self-supporting adult. That was it. That was the reason. I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I went to college, but I knew that I wanted to be able to take care of myself, pay my own bills, and go on a vacation or two when I wasn’t working. That was my goal. And now I find myself, almost five years graduated from college making less money that some of my friends who didn’t go to college…and who work less hours than me. And I’m starting to get really pissed off about it.

Most days, I can convince myself that it’s not so bad. Fortunately, my students make my job worth it. I know that sounds shocking and one of the first things that people say to me when I tell them that I teach 11th grade is usually something like, “I can’t imagine how you put up with those teenagers all day long. I couldn’t do it.” Yeah, teenagers are hormonal, moody, immature, and entitled, but when you think about most of the really crappy and cruel things that happen in this world, it’s usually adults that are the culprits, not teenagers. (I don’t see how you put up with those adults all day long, how about that?) So most days, I accept the fact that I’m making about $4.50 an hour. And just for your FYI, we don’t get compensated for the time that we spend grading papers, emailing or calling parents, chaperoning the prom, or attending mandatory professional development (that we now have to pay for out of pocket). It’s not like we’re lawyers or something. Oh and also WE DON’T GET PAID FOR OUR SUMMERS! And yes, I know that when I signed up to be a teacher, I signed up for those things as well, but I was also supposed to be making about $6,000 dollars more a year than I am right now.

And yes, times are tough. We are all doing what we have to just to get by. I understand that not getting a raise means a lot of teachers have kept their jobs. I’m glad that the state of North Carolina didn’t fire 10,000 teachers because in the long run, that would have been devastating to our schools. And I wasn’t even that upset when I found out last week that I’m losing my dental insurance. But today, I read an article that made me so mad. Like-light-a-fire-deep-in-the-recesses-of-my-heart-because-of-the-injustice-and-sad-sad-truth-that-it-reveals-about-our-society mad. You can read the fairly brief article here, but I’ll also sum it up and try not to use offensive language.

North Carolina legislatures, led by Fletcher Hartsell of Cabarrus County have started a discussion about paying successful students who reach certain academic goals. They hope that monetary incentives will encourage lower performing students to work harder and uninvolved parents to finally start giving a damn about their kids’ performance in school. Hartsell is hoping to start a 2 year study (which will probably cost an asinine amount of money) to explore the positives and negatives of this type of incentive-based program.

So today quickly became one of those days when all I could think about is how the state of North Carolina would spend more money on me if I were to rob a liquor store and go to a minimum security prison for a few years. They would provide me with more comprehensive medical insurance, a better dental plan (since mine will be non-existent next year), room and board, and three meals a day. North Carolina spends more money on their felons than they do their new teachers, despite the fact that I paid into the North Carolina University system and got a college-degree so I could serve my beautiful state in a truly awesome high school that is quickly becoming a victim to the broken system that is currently being held together with a giant technology-in-every-classroom bandaid…breath, breath, breath. (I really think the stress from this rant will cost me a couple days of my life…I am so frustrated today).

I can handle the fact that attendance policies have become a thing of the past. I can deal with the fact that I’m asked to be a grade fairy that has to create grades out of thin air because giving students zeroes hurts our graduation rates which can hurt our eligibility for funding and in the future could result in the termination of half of the school’s teachers. I’ve accepted that all of my power has been taken from me and in replacement I have been given every ounce of accountability for my students’ performance (even that kid with 41 absences in my class…yep, if he does poorly it must be my fault for being such a crappy teacher). I love my job even though David Guggenheim’s documentary Waiting for Superman, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Gates made many Americans blame me and every other teacher who is working his/her ass off on a daily basis for ALL of the problems that face our national school systems. I can deal with that.

But if the state of the North Carolina starts paying students for doing the things that they are supposed to do in the first place, I’m done. They can pay the students, but they can’t pay me? Just two years ago, a percentage of my salary that I was contracted to receive was taken from me in the middle of April to keep the state budget from going under. As we all know, the economy hasn’t exactly bounced back since then, so I don’t understand how this plan seems feasible. And what kind of twisted logic are our legislators operating under? School isn’t a job. It’s one of the many benefits that the young people of our country have inherited as Americans. Paying students for doing well in school isn’t a new idea; it’s existed for many years. It’s called scholarships and I have no problem with that. I’m sure (unless Hartsell is absolutely insane…which is possible) these legislators don’t intend to give students cold cash or a paycheck for their performance. I would imagine that this money would be in the form of some type of scholarship fund that would go towards their higher education. But the last time I checked, our state government wasn’t increasing the amount of loans, grants, and work studies available to college students. Where does Hartsell plan to get the money to pay these students for their performance? Based on my experience over the past 4 years in North Carolina Public Schools, I have a feeling like I know where that money will come from.

And how will paying students for making good grades affect them in the long run? What will happen to them when they get to college? Will they ask professors how much money a mid-term is worth compared to a final so they can prioritize? Will they expect a paycheck when they turn in a paper? This idea of paying students for good academic performance will simply increase the heightened sense of entitlement that this generation is by now well known for. Acts of altruism are already so few and far between; paying students for learning will simply drive another nail in the coffin of doing something because of intrinsic or selfless motivation. And students who would perform well to begin with probably aren’t going to be swayed to perform better because of this program. They are already working hard for scholarships because they have learned the value of education from their parents. Paying unmotivated students for good grades will only motivate them for so long because they don’t have a strong foundation. This monetary incentive will simply boost their belief in instant gratification while successful students know that the pay-off of a good education comes later (unless they become teachers). This program is simply another bandaid on a broken system; it convinces students to learn for the time being so our graduation rates and schools look better on a piece of paper. This program does nothing to nurture a genuine value of an education. Hasn’t our entertainment-obsessed society done enough to devalue education without Fletcher Hartsell’s help?

The best incentive for any student is an inspiring and dedicated teacher. But teachers lose their ability to be inspiring pretty quickly in such a demoralizing environment. North Carolina is ranked at 46th when it comes to teacher pay. When teachers are forced to find part time jobs because their teaching position doesn’t pay them a living wage, they have less time to dedicate to their classroom. When the average class size is 30, teachers have less time to dedicate to each individual student. When teachers have to spend their planning periods covering the jobs of support staff that have been let go because of budget cuts, they lose valuable time they would have spent improving their methods. After taking all of this into consideration, it doesn’t seem fair to me that my students might get a raise before I do.

This article and many other “brilliant” ideas that come down the pipes scare me so much. It scares me that I live in a society that has such twisted ideas about what we value. Today is one of those days where the brokenness of our country's educational system overwhelms me. I do what I can in my classroom to keep my standards high, to inspire my students, to get them to think about the world in a different way, to encourage them to take risks, to help them not be afraid to be wrong, and to celebrate the hell out of the times when they are right. But when I read things like this, it makes me question myself. Why? Why am I working so hard when the system itself is so broken? Why when we don’t even foster an environment that values education for the sake of being smarter, freer, and more curious. Something has to give. Teachers need more support, respect, and autonomy over what they teach, schools need more funding and fewer strings attached to it through federal, state, and county mandates. (It’s a shame that last one is completely impossible). And our students need more accountability, more critical thinking skills, and (many of them need) more involved parents.

Most importantly though, students need to be taught the value and importance of an education and that won’t be done with a paycheck.