The Differences Between Teacher Compensation in and Out of the United States
Parker Papworth English 252 Phil Murdock
Introduction
As a part of Gross National Product, education receives a small portion for the importance it plays in everyday life. This paper looks at education spending percentages in the United States, compared to several other nations with regard to different areas of education; such as, how this spending affects teacher salaries, the number of schools, how many students are in each school, the competition in and between these schools, and graduation and college admittance rates. Also, we will be looking at theories on why the United States is falling behind other nations in the subjects of math and science, such as distractions in classes, from smart phones and social media to sports.
Percentage of GDP
It is a known fact that in the United States public teachers are paid very little;
though it does vary from state to state. In 2012 the United States’ GDP was a little over US$15.5 trillion. The next closest was China with a little over US$8 trillion. Japan’s GDP is around US$6 trillion, U.K.’s was almost US$2.5 trillion, Canada’s was a little under US$2 trillion, and Mexico’s was US$1.1 trillion. Of these GDPs, most of the nations spend around 3-6% of them on education. (The World Bank Group) Education spending in each nation is as follows: China -US$1.7 billion, Japan -US$ 226 million, Mexico -US$58 billion, United Kingdom -US$380 billion, United States -US$591 billion.
The rapid expansion of globalization has caused governments to increase spending in their separate nations, though not entirely. Government spending in most countries has stayed, roughly, the same (from 3-6% of GDP), so governments have been cutting funding for primary education, to allocate it towards secondary and higher learning. (Thushyanthan Baskaran)
Teacher Salaries
The average pay for a teacher in the United States is from $39,850 in South Dakota to $72,700 in New York. The starting salaries are from $26,740 in Montana to
$48,000 in New Jersey. (Quinstreet Inc.) The national average for cost of living is 100, according to the Census Bureau. Comparatively, the state average ranges from 164 in Hawaii to 88.1 in Oklahoma. This means that Hawaii is the most expensive state to live in and Oklahoma is the cheapest. (Cost of Living by State) State by state, the U.S. spends from $6,200 to $19,000 per student. (e.Republic, Inc.)
The average teacher in a public school earned about $56,000 for the school year that ended in 2011, according to the Census Bureau. When adjusted for inflation that salary is only 3 percent higher than it was for the year that ended in the spring of 1991.
(Feldman)Compared to the other nations in this paper, United States teachers make less money, but work more hours. Combined, US teachers make a little less than 1 percent of the GDP; Japans teachers make almost 1.5 percent of their GDP; Britain’s teachers make about 1.25 percent of their GDP; and, Mexico’s teachers make about 1.35 percent of their GDP.These numbers are a summation of all teacher salaries in their perspective nations;
which shows us that US teachers in fact make less money than other nations’ teachers.
During the 2009 school year there were approximately 4 million secondary education teachers in the United States, which means that around 4 million people are making less than 1 percent of the nations GPD.
Teachers in the United States spend approximately 1,100 hours a year teaching, more than any other country in the world. Mexico is a close second, but teacher salaries are higher there than they are in the US. (Rampell) Mexico is the closest to the US, at
around 1,050 hours, for lower secondary, while their upper secondary lies at around 850 hours a year. (Rampell) That being said, the average amount spent on students, ranges from over $18,000 in Luxembourg, to $1,800 in Turkey. (Organization fo Economic Co- Operation and Development) What is interesting is that in Japan, there is a higher graduation rate than in the US, and they spend almost 10% of what we spend here in the US, as we will see later.
Number of Schools
During the 2009-2010 school year there were over 98,000 public schools, (Number of U.S. Public Schools | Infoplease.com) and 33,000 private schools in the United States. (Council for American Private Education) China has 280,184 (China Education Center), Japan has 11,134 junior high schools, 5,450 senior high schools, which are both part of the secondary education system (Education in Japan), Canada has 850 (Ontario Ministry of Education), Mexico has 29,007, though Mexico’s education system is somewhat divided, when a student enters high school, they pick a specialization (Net Industries), and the UK has 3,446, of which 1,300 are academies which have more liberty in curriculum (Garner).
China has the largest education system in the world, with over 9 million students taking the high school entrance exams in June (China Education Center). There is some argument that there are many more students in China due to the population, however, China also has some of the highest scores in math and science in the world, while they spend less per student than other nations. (Woessman)
There is an interesting phenomenon about the education of some nations; Ludger Woessman conducted a test about the differences between educations processes in 39
different nations. His conclusions were, not that nations with higher spending produced better scores, but those nations who allowed for more independence among local levels of education, as long as there was some sort of external standard or assessment.
(Woessman) One could expect this, that as teachers are able to take some liberty in teaching, they are more able to teach to specific students needs. The No Child Left Behind Act in the United States was a program that was created by the George Bush administration, and it was ultimately deemed as a failure. While it had its merits, NCLB was not a successful as hoped. In June of 2013 the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee agreed that there were still faults with the NCLB program. (National Education Association)
Competition of Schools
As far as level of difficulty, 85 percent of foreign exchange students say that the classes they are taking in the United States are easier than the classes offered in their homelands. The reason could be that US schools have too many distractions, such as the many differing clubs that are available, or the sports teams. (Cardoza) In Japan, the competition to get into a good high school is huge. People start studying for high school entrance exams as early as 18 month old. Getting into a good school is everything. While we may think that 18 months old is very young, most of the curriculum used is on shapes, colors, and basic numbers and letters, something that most parents would do in their homes, or what we in the United States teach in kindergarten. The same goes with Mexico, only they start at a much older age…4 years old.
In the United States, high school is mandatory, and provided by the state
governments. Therefore, students do not need to prepare as hard to enter a specific school.
That is unless they are entering a private school, which costs more, and does not necessarily mean that the student will learn better than a public school student.
Part of this problem, students not learning as much, is due to the prevalence of modern technology. While it is an important too, technology is a double-edged sword.
Students cannot do homework, or pay attention in class for more that a few minutes because of social media, text messages, or other technological distractions. (Sullivan) Graduation Rates
In China, Mexico and Japan, the first nine years of education is compulsory, once students reach the 10th grade they can elect to drop out. This has an amazing affect on the students; in Japan the graduation rates were 99.6 percent, United Kingdom has a 91 percent graduation rate, Mexico has a graduation rate of 47 percent (Organization fo Economic Co-Operation and Development), but the United States spends almost double of what the next closest nation spends on education, yet we have the lowest graduation rates, except for Mexico, at 78 percent. (China Gorman Group) While Mexico’s gradation rate is lower than our own, it is improving; as well as the literacy rate of the older generations.
High school graduation is incredibly important, as we have discussed, it is the door to greater opportunities and a more intelligent citizenry. The United States does not have a high enough graduation rate for the amount of money it spends on education.
Without graduation, students will not be able to enter college, and further their own education, and then enter the workforce as a competitive individual. Due to the recession in the US, jobs have become scarcer and in order to survive, students will need to be prepared, or they will ultimately fail. Also, in order for the United States to maintain its
dominance in the world, the next generation will need to be able to create the next line of inventions and technologies.
Conclusion
In a nation where education is such a vital institution in society, the United States does not allocate sufficient funds towards education. It is almost impossible to get a job that pays enough to support a family with anything lower than a bachelor’s degree, emphasizing the importance of education; however, secondary education is something that is neglected at times. Without secondary education, students are not able to get into college, or they are not prepared with the proper skills needed when they enter.
According to a study done in The Chronicle of Higher Education, those with a bachelor’s degree will make 65 percent more than those with only a high school education; a
master’s degree is almost double. A person with only a high school diploma can expect to make around $30,000 a year, meaning that a bachelor’s degree equals almost $50,000, and a master’s is almost $60,000. (Doubleday) Now, this is just the average salary, but what is astounding, is that a high school teacher, who typically has a master’s degree, will only make about the same amount as a person who only has a high school diploma.
Furthermore, we see that those nations, who spend more on education, do not necessarily have better schools.
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