Besides our parents, teachers interact with students more than any other adult in our childhood and adolescence years, and they have made such an influence on them over the years. However, they do not receive the salaries they deserve. While teachers in the District of Columbia receive starting salaries of around $51,000, North Carolina teachers receive the least amount, with starting salaries of only $30,000. For the hard work that they do, such as giving America’s children the best education they can, their pay is not high enough.

Studies have shown that fewer college graduates are going into teaching as a career, and more middle-aged and retirement-aged teachers are leaving the profession due to pay cuts. Highly-ambitious students who once considered teaching as a profession are now considering other careers because of the low pay. Teachers already years into their careers are either working one or even two part-time jobs in order to make end's meet or going back to school to obtain a more profiting degree. Due to the increasing budget cuts across the country, more teachers are being laid off and thus, cramping more students into classrooms. With a larger student-to-teacher ratio, teachers are no longer able to focus as much on individual students. With higher salaries, schools will be able to retain its best teachers, allow recent graduates to realize that they can make a rewarding career as a teacher and also allow people to rank the teaching profession as high as the medical or business profession because teachers not only teach, they change the lives of students.

According to a Russian journal, only about 13 percent of teachers are younger than 30, 20 percent are between 30 to 40, about 51 percent are between 40 to 50 while 14 percent are over 55. Due to this large decrease in the number of new incoming teachers, schools will hire anyone who is willing to take the job rather than people who are truly passionate about teaching. With teachers that are not well-qualified nor have a true passion for teaching, this can lead to lower tests scores and a decrease in student desire to learn. The lower number of younger teachers also means that college students, as well as established teachers, are looking towards other careers where they can make a better living. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), a brand new teacher’s starting salary averages at around $30,377. In the meantime, computer programmers start at an average of $43,635, public accounting professionals at $44,668 and registered nurses at $45,570 a year. The NACE study also showed that the wage gap between an experienced teacher and an experienced professional in another career increases over time.

It is said that teachers apparently “have it easy” because they work 9 to 5, always get weekends and summers off, they get the opportunity to work with kids and because it is assumed that anyone can teach. However, in reality, this is not the case. Teachers have to make time, whether it be before or after school, to make lesson plans, grade papers, help students who are falling behind, take care of lunch as well as bus duty and many other tasks that come with the job, in which they spend more time on than their interaction with their students in the classroom. The lack of income renders them unable to pay back their student loans or be able to afford a house in the area they teach. Due to this, teachers and even others believe that teachers deserve higher pay.

Teaching is a skilled profession just as dentistry and engineering is. To become a teacher, one must attend college for four years and receive certification that must be renewed every few years. To most teachers, they see their career as an educator as a gift and a calling to them and according to the National Education Association, 57 percent of teachers hold a master’s degree, meaning they are willing to obtain more education in order to excel in their art of teaching. Teaching, like most other skilled professions, requires a lot of creativity, knowledge of curriculum building, problem-solving, critical thinking and a love for children and their determination to help them succeed. Most teachers, in the end, do not teach for the paycheck; they teach because they truly have a passion for teaching.

Because of low salaries, almost 30 percent of teachers end up leaving the classroom within the first five years of teaching, and about 2/3 of teachers leave before retirement age for the sole reason of low pay. School boards need to see that even the best teachers are leaving due to pay and that the quality of education is not the same across the country. Suburban teachers are generally paid less than urban teachers, and they also receive more parent and administrator support, better teaching materials and fewer student problems. Rural teachers are paid far less than urban and suburban teachers, but their working conditions were far the best out of the three groups. Urban schools are known to be attractive to teachers for the higher pay but however, they were the least satisfied with their jobs. Many of these urban schools have a low graduation rate, high crime rate and high teen pregnancy rate, causing teachers to be more stressed out than suburban and rural schools.

Some may say that the high pay will compensate for the low school achievements, but the reason for the low test scores is not linked to pay but of the type of students teachers have to teach. Teachers generally want to teach at schools where student achievement is high, therefore transferring to other schools leaving the urban schools to less-motivated, less qualified teachers. With the number of highly-qualified teachers lowering but remaining steady at high-achieving schools, if the school boards want to see high achievement across all areas, then teachers should be paid more across all areas as well, including suburban and rural areas, allowing more highly-qualified and motivated teachers to retain their jobs so that better teachers can be spread out more evenly.

Technological change, expanded career opportunities for women, growth in international trade and the increase of demand and pay for other high-skilled jobs are some of the reasons, according to the journal "The Future Of Our Children," for the decline in teacher salaries over the years. However, teachers are known for changing the lives of students. The majority of teachers go above and beyond their general teaching duties in order to ensure that their students are learning as well as making it enjoyable. Some teachers are known to not only be a teacher to their students but to be a friend to them, in which they actually care about what is going on outside of the classroom in their students’ lives. They give life lessons that truly inspire students to peruse what they truly want to do in life. Many famous and successful people have credited their teachers for their successes in their careers because they inspired them to go after their dreams and to work hard for it. If it were not for the hard work of teachers, where would America be?

If teachers needs nearly as much education as a businessman or an engineer, then why are they paid over half of what they make?

If we paid these hardworking teachers what they truly deserve, then not only will the teachers benefit but so would the country as a whole. Better teacher pay will mean more highly-qualified teachers, more opportunities for student success whether the district is urban, suburban and rural, and the profession as a whole will be looked at with more respect. More students will graduate high school and college ready to peruse the workforce with more creativity higher thinking skills due to the increased number of teachers who are truly passionate about what they do desire to see students succeed. With higher pay, teachers will no longer have to work separate jobs outside of their full-time teaching career, leaving them more time to focus on their students and their families. This will lead to more people wanting to peruse teaching as a career and will enjoy it even more than they do now, because not only do they do what they enjoy, but they will be paid much more for it.