Education is defined as the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university, and is considered an enlightening experience. Education is an   occupation that dictates insight to help better shape the future of America.  In regards to this, I pose the question, “Would increasing an educator’s salary throughout the state of South Carolina lead to benefits in South Carolina’s education system, eventually leading to an increase in student’s academic performance?” Unfortunately, the teacher profession is overlooked due to their low salary. However, if the potential supply of teachers rises due to the higher pay on offer, entry into teaching as a profession will become more competitive. This in turn will mean that the average ability of those entering the job will rise. Once recruited, higher relative pay and/or more performance-related pay may provide teachers with stronger incentives to improve their pupils’ educational outcomes. 

Becoming a first grade teacher has always been a profession I have desired to pursue since I was in elementary school. This has allowed me to be more insightful of the many benefits teacher’s attribute.   In high school I took the course, “Teacher Cadet”, during class my teacher viewed a news broadcast of a young African American teacher in North Carolia, Miss Shavane . Shavane truly inspired and influenced my thinking on this argumentative topic. Shavane expressed, whom had won many teaching awards, her love for teaching and her students. However, Shavane admitted that most teachers feel very unappreciated by society and that a teacher’s value through society’s eyes is not where is should be. Shavane expressed factors that will change society’s viewpoint, her main point being that a teacher’s salary should be increased (Watching this broadcast cued me into the reality that a teacher’s value does not meet the full worth it should entail. Too many highly certified educators in the state of South Carolina have been denied competitive, professional pay for too long. Teacher’s low paying salary comes at a high cost for schools and kids, essentially resulting in a decline to society. South Carolina teachers determine the future for generations to come, therefore, increasing a teacher’s salary leads to numerous benefits.

The main focus is to adjust the salary of South Carolina public school teachers, grades K-12. Most of my sources come are recent statistics from CERRA, Center for Educator Recrutiment, Retention, and Advancement. These statistics include data that proves there is a decline in the teaching profession in the state of South Carolina. Although some statistics are not based in the state of South Carolina, it allows the reader to infer that this is a major concern globally. Increasing the salary in the state of South Carolina could potentially lead to national benefits in education systems. 

The average salaries of public school teachers in the state of South Carolina is $48, 430, that puts South Carolina at the 37th percentile for teacher pay. Cerra’s (Center for Educator Recruitment) supply and demand report for Fall 2015 goes into detail on the statistics of vacant teaching positions and teachers leaving their position in public schools in the state of South Carolina. “Districts reported 448.97 vacant teaching positions at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year. This figure indicates a 33% increase in vacancies compared to last year and a 66% increase compared to the 2013-14 school year” (Cerra, 4). 20% of the vacant teaching positions came from early childhood education/ elementary certification in 2016. Large geographic areas of South Carolina are known for having large teacher turnover rates (rate at which employees leave a workforce), elevated levels of poverty, low student performance, and sometimes all of the above. Retention rate is defined as the percentage of a school’s first-time, first-year undergraduate students who continue at that school the next year. The average retention rate for the state of South Carolina in the school year 2015-16 was about 20% and is only decreasing, resulting in less and less first-year teachers returning to their work force (Cerra, 6). The main factors of teacher’s leaving are due to lack of support, minimum pay, and difficulties in the classroom.  In 2016, a total of 5,352 certified teachers did not return to their teaching positons in the next school year, but the numbers have been on constant rise since 2012 (Cerra, 6). According to the results from this year’s survey, the gap between teacher supply and teacher demand continues to widen. With these concerns only getting worse, I believe it is very crutial that we increase the pay of teachers in the state of South Carolina. Residents of South Carolina would view this article and take concern. The expand of certified teacher’s leaving the work force in South Carolina leads to major concerns on the education South Carolina students will be receiving. Students and teachers determine the future for generations to come, therefore, education is of high value. With South Carolina education at stake, we need to take action in expanding the growth of South Carolina education. 

 Imagine going through four years of undergraduate school at the University of South Carolina gaining your Education degree. Being in school for four years with in-state tuition is a total of $11,854 yearly, with other expenses included (living, books, and supplies, other expenses) that yearly total quickly increases to $26,633. After four years, the total cost of you attending a in-state school, gaining your four-year degree in education comes to a total of $106,532. Yes, I typed that correctly. One hundred thousand dollars. Now, that’s act as if you are attending the University of South Carolina from out-of-state, that total, with living, books/supplies, and other expenses included comes down to $184,244 after gaining a four-year degree in Education. After school you get a job in teaching in the state of South Carolina. Keep in mind, you have student loans you need to pay off, as they are increasing through interest rates. The average annual salary for South Caroline teachers is $48,375, the national average being $56,103. With a teacher’s salary, it could easily take at minimum four years and maximum ten years to pay off their student loans. Depending on how much their student loans are. Most teachers pay their own graduate school and ongoing professional training, and over 92 percent buy supplies for their students (Calegari). Over the past years, we have seen teacher’s working endless days and nights to be able to major achievement in their students. Sixty percent of teacher work second jobs, taking up any free time they could potentially have, just to be able to pay their bills and to be the best teacher they can aspire to be. In result, we are starting to see quality teachers walk away from their profession to pursue a profession that pays enough to support their families. An increase in a teacher’s salary will allow teacher’s to focus more time on their student’s, since teacher’s will no longer need to work overtime or take an extra two or three jobs, potentially resulting in an increase of student’s academic performance. 

“International Study Links Higher Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality”, published by neaToday, two economic professors at the University of London and University of Malga collect data to determine if there is positive correlation between a teacher’s salary and their student’s achievement. The data concludes that better teacher pay leads to teacher quality and that leads to improved student performance. For example, a teacher’s (Elementary through High school) annual salary (converted in US dollars) in Israel and Turkey ranges from around $15,000-$18,000, leading to the student’s percentiles ranging from 20-30. Whereas, in the Netherlands and Switzerland teachers annual pay ranges from $50,000-$60,000 with their student’s percentiles ranging from 80-90 (Figure 1, Walker).  Both percentiles are standardized results, they come from the same organization. Although, these are not statistics linking South Carolina teacher increase to a better student performance the statistics from Israel, Turkey, the Netherlands, and Switzerland goes to show that an increase in teacher’s salary will lead to higher student performance. Essentially, this leads to benefits in an education system. 

“Effect of Teachers Pay on Student Performance”, published by RAND education, addresses the concerns about the performance of students and the quality of the teachers in our nation’s schools. The paper cites data from a research done in 1995-1998 in the state of Illinois to analyze the correlation in teacher’s pay and their student’s performance. The hypothesis, higher pay should attract higher-quality teachers, leading to higher student performance, is examined by all three groups of teacher’s- elementary, middle, and high school.  However, the data concluded primarily focuses on 3rd and 8th grade test scores for both reading and mathematics on the state assessment system. The data includes student characteristics; race, English proficiency, percentage of students classified as low income, and average class size. It also includes teacher-related characteristics; race/ethnicity, salary, degree, and teaching experience. Half of the 3rd and 8th grade teachers during the experiment only got paid half of what the other half 3rd and 8th grade students got paid. When comparing the test scores of the 3rd and 8th grade students based off of what their teachers got paid, there was an average of a 27% increase in the test scores from the kids being taught by the students that got paid more. Based on the results, there is a clear relationship between teacher salaries and student performance. At the 3rd and 8th grade level, the hypothesis worked as expected- the higher the pay, the higher the student’s achievement.. Thus, regardless of district type, the data concluded that higher salaries appeared to be associated with better average student outcomes. Again, supporting the hypothesis that higher pay should attract higher-quality teachers, leading to higher student performance.

The correlation between low-income schools and low-performing students can be traced back to teacher recruitment. The less qualified a teacher is, the less income a teacher will receive. In an effort to improve teacher recruitment, educational leaders have suggested to higher teacher’s pay from grades K-1 (Loeb, Grisso, and Strunk,2006). Heather J. Hough concludes her research on how a compensation increase can affect teacher recruitment in an urban school district in San Francisco by the publication of “The Effect of a District Level Salary Increase on Teacher Recruitment”. The San Francisco Unified School District passed the Quality Teacher and Education Act in 2008. This increased teacher salary (k-12) anywhere from $500-$6,300 and a $1,000 bonus for reaching a hard to-fill subject. The data reviews the effects the Quality Teacher and Education Act, teacher salary increase, has on teacher recruitment. Hough’s hypothesis, whether salary matters to teachers and whether changes in salary can be effective in recruiting more or better teachers, shows to be a positive correlation between a higher salary leading to a more improved workforce. Hough’s research concludes that increased pay, resulted by the Quality Teacher and Education Act lead to a more precise pool of potential teacher candidates, which eventually leads to higher student success. 

“Higher Salaries Won’t Improve Teacher Performance”, Marcus Winters argue that a teacher’s salary and a student’s performance show no correlation. Winters debates that improving teacher quality and motivating teachers to improve their efforts in the classroom by increasing teacher salary will not address either of those issues. Winters states that, “Unfortunately, research consistently finds that teacher’s pay is unrelated to a teacher's effectiveness.”  He found that “consistently find teacher pay being unrelated to a teacher’s effectiveness”. However, research conducted in my previous sources state otherwise, the sources included provide statistical evidence that there is a positive correlation between teacher’s salary and student performance. For example, the research published in “Effect of Teachers Pay on Student Performance” identifies that there is a clear relationship between teacher’s salaries and student performance when comparing 3rd and 8th grade students test scores for both reading and mathematics on the state assessment system. The source, “The Effect of a District Level Salary Increase on Teacher Recruitment” shows that after San Francisco teachers received a bonus, their student’s school performance quickly increased, this shows that a student’s performance only seems to increase with the increase of their salary. Winters also claims, “Simply increasing the amount of money that a teacher is paid will not motivate her to improve her effectiveness in the classroom.” However, “Higher Education; How Professors See Their Future”, published by The New York Times, Ernest Boyer interviewed college professors. 60% describe their own salaries as “fair” or “poor”. Those that reported their salary as “fair” or “poor” also admitted to their dissatisfaction in their income to be associated with the belief that their academic standards have declined (Boyer). Therefore, there is a good chance that there is a correlation between the amount a teacher is paid and the motivation that is put forth by the teacher to help better a teacher’s and student’s effectiveness. 

Ninive Calegari, a former classroom teacher who founded The Teacher Salary Project, an organization aimed at improving the salaries of America’s teachers, published an article in 2014 titled, “Why Teachers’ Salaries should be double- now.” In this article, Calegari writes about why she thinks it is imperative for teachers’ salaires to be raised. Calegari quotes her friend, Erik Benner, who is a history teacher at a school in Texas, “Honestly, I am invested and I love what I do, but I am run down and exhausted. The amount of pay just does not equal to the amount of time and effort I put forth teaching.” Another example of teacher’s expressing their unfair pay are teachers in Fairfax County, Virginia. Teachers protested their low pay by wearing jeans to work, when their school dress code says otherwise. They claimed, “they don’t want to be poor to do this important work and they do far more than an honest day’s job.” 

“As the founder of the Teacher Salary Project, a nonpartisan organization devoted to elevating teachers’ pay, I’ve heard countless stories of professionals who have awards and recognition for their work, yet who feel forced for financial reasons to rethink their career. I interviewed a National Board Certified teacher who also won Teacher of the Year named Karina Colon. She recently left North Carolina for a job in Maryland to earn $12,000 more to support her family.” 

This quote, from Ninive Calegari, shows the concern in losing teachers who are fully certified and benefit their students well, due to the reasoning that teacher salary is too low. Not only does a teacher’s low salary affect a teacher, most importantly it affects their students. A teacher whose pay is low, alters the amount of time and effort a teacher puts forth toward their students. Resulting in student’s that are not trying and succeeding to their full potential. Even worse, talented college students who are fully passionate about teaching reframe from pursing an Education career to the concern of not being financially stable after graduating. According to a McKinsey study called “Closing the Talent Gap,’ teachers’ salaries have declined for the past forty years. In the past decade alone, salaries have decreased further in thirty states. Had salaries grown proportionally to our classroom spending, the average salary would now be $120,000. Instead, a teacher’s starting salary is, on average, $39,000. Consider this- after 25 years of teaching, 25 years of professional experience, the average salary of a teacher is $67,000. What kind of message do you think this sends to society on the way one should view education? Unfortunately, it could only allow one to belittle the value of education. Now, let’s imagine a world where a teaching salary is doubled- yes, doubled. This could only lead to more prestige’s and certified teachers. It would also lead to a more valued perspective on education. Due to the fact that about a million current teachers retiring in the next six years The Teacher Salary Project launched “the Governors’ Challenge” in order to see the changes that could occur by doubling a teacher’s salary. This simply asked state governors to take action and make a long-term investment in their students’ futures. Luckily as a result, Helena, Montana passed an early retirement plan and enver passed a $25 million bond. Iowa governor is proposing to raise a teacher’s minimum pay from $28,000 to $35,000. Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina is prosing to get the average salary of teachers at $40,000. Governor Earl Tomblin of West Virginia, who states “teachers are the backbone of everything that makes our gardens grow”, awarded all teachers with a two percent rise with no strings attached. Tomblin wrote in a later press release that some West Virginia schools are already starting to see an increase in student’s performance after the teacher salary increase.

Increasing teacher’s salary in the state of South Carolina could potentially lead to a more competitive profession, leading to an increase of teacher quality. Once recruited, higher relative pay and or more performance-related pay may provide teachers with stronger incentives to improve their pupils’ educational outcomes. 

Where Governor Bill Haslam failed, my solution will not. I am only asking that the State of South Carolina increase their teacher’s salary by 2%, as Governor Tomblin asked, not 4% as Haslam asked. However, once the state notes the benefits of the 2% increase, the State of South Carolina could potentially increase the salary. This will allow for less controversy among the people that do not believe that an increase in teacher’s salary will lead to benefits. he future of America’s society is dependent of today’s teachers.  Therefore, we must invest in our children. Spark real change today and make a long term investment in your students’ lives. Increase teacher’s in the state of South Carolina’s salary. 
