The War On Teachers: Conservative Think Tanks Say Public School Teachers Are “Overpaid”

(Photo by REENA ROSE SIBAYAN / THE JERSEY JOURNAL)

Teachers may be the most important cog in the vast landscape of the American workforce, guiding entire generations of children through the educational process that ensures economic success and viability. But are they really overpaid because they lack the “cognitive ability” of private sector workers?

Two influential conservative think tanks — both closely aligned with the nationwide push by conservative state lawmakers to curb the benefits and labor rights of public  employees — have published a new report detailing how public school teachers “lag” behind similarly trained private-sector employees and, taking benefits like pensions and health care into account, are grossly overpaid for their level of intelligence.

The controversial findings from the Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute are an acknowledged attempt to counter popular arguments that teachers are underpaid for the level of work they shoulder and for the economic and societal influence of their positions. The study shunned “traditional” methods to decipher wage value and the overall worth of employees, which the groups say are “not adequate to capture teacher skill.”

The conservative think tanks claim that public teachers earn an average of 52 percent more than what their “fair market level” should be, including the benefits that many states are seeking to eliminate or dramatically restrict.

A new report published by two conservative think tanks argues the cognitive ability of teachers is on average lower than private sector workers with similar education backgrounds.

Co-released by the Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute, the authors of the study sought to demonstrate teachers are not underpaid, contrary to popular refrain, and when factoring in health and retirement benefits, earn 52 percent more than “fair market levels.”

But the authors of the AEI-Heritage Foundation report eschew the whole idea of education experience forecasting a worker’s earning potential.

“Public-school teachers earn less in wages on average than non-teachers with the same level of education,” the authors write, “but teacher skills generally lag behind those of other workers with similar ‘paper’ qualifications.”

Jason Richwine, co-author of the 26-page report who holds a doctorate in public policy, spoke to The American Independent about the paper.

“The cognitive ability [portion] is just one part in trying to explain why traditional measures, like education, are not adequate to capture teacher skill,” he said.

The authors point to research spanning 50 years indicating degrees in education are easier to obtain with high marks. They include a recent study by economist Corey Koedel in which he examined grade-point averages of graduates at three large research institutions, and found education majors finished with an average GPA of 3.65, while math, science and economics majors graduated with a 2.88.

Some education experts and economists question the findings as a “generalization” of teachers pitted against private-sector counterparts that is “wrong.” And previous reports show that it is difficult to equate teachers working with students in basic math and science and their private-sector “equivalents” with more training that work at top research institutions.

But a 2004 report from the National Council on Teacher Quality indicates (PDF) soft attributes, like motivating and energy, are the most telling characteristics of how prepared a teacher is for the profession, while SAT scores “account for only a small portion of why some teachers are more effective than others.”Still, Mead says whether teachers are underpaid or overpaid is a “silly conversation in the sense that there’s a huge variation in teacher pay geographically.”

Also coming under fire is the agenda of the two groups that co-released the study, the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.  Both are noted for their work inspiring state lawmakers to curb public employee collective bargaining and question the pay and benefits of public workers like teachers.

Teacher advocates and labor organizers say the report is simply a political manifesto.

The country’s largest teacher unions objected to the report findings. The American Federation of Teachers statement read, in part, “[this study is] the reason many Americans pay no heed to what goes on in Washington, D.C. The AEI report concludes that America’s public school teachers are overpaid—something that defies common sense—and uses misleading statistics and questionable research to make its case.“Rather than rehashing AEI’s previous anti-public worker reports, let’s spend time heeding the lessons of top-performing nations, which invest heavily in recruiting, developing, supporting and compensating teachers.”

Even the head of a moderate group devoted to “education reform” and known as an opponent of organized labor blasted the Heritage and AEI study.

Charles Barone, director of federal policy at Democrats for Education Reform — typically a labor nemesis — said lower pay wouldn’t encourage improvement among teachers:We think teachers are paid too little for what they are tasked to do but that far too little is expected of them compared with the task at hand. Paying them less won’t help kids. Expecting more of them and paying them accordingly will, as we are seeing in Washington, one of the few [places] that showed gains on the [National Assessment of Educational Progress] scores released today.

While dealing with the issue of teacher pay may be inherently controversial, the study goes to great lengths to emphasize the core conclusion that public-school teachers are overpaid and spoiled with unfair benefits. Such overreach will lead to flaws and as noted before, generalizations.

Writing for Time.com, Kayla Webley points out that the think tanks not only fail to account for the greater employment opportunities afforded to highly-skilled graduates that take private-sector jobs than those that go into teaching, but they also abandon the basic principle of capitalism and the corporate culture consistently preached by conservatives. To attract and keep the best, you must pay them well.

The biggest problem with this finding is that while it may be true, you have to consider where non-teachers are coming from when they enter the profession. Since it’s hard to attract highly skilled workers to teaching, many enter the profession from other low-paying fields or from jobs that did not require a college degree. If a highly skilled science major is choosing between pursuing a career in teaching or going into bioengineering, unless the person is incredibly idealistic, dollars and cents will likely win out.

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The irony, of course, is that this report comes from two conservative think tanks. Conservative education folks often preach the need to infuse public education with the essence of the private sector. And you know how people in the corporate world attract highly qualified employees? They actively recruit smart people into the field, use head hunters to find only the very best applicants and pay the most-qualified employees large salaries to keep them happy and dedicated to their jobs.

And the very idea that public school teachers are “overpaid” flies in the face of most well-known statistics. A study released by the Economic Policy Institute in 2008 found that the wage gap between teachers and private-sector workers with comparable education levels had increased by over 10 percent since 1996, with public school teachers earning an average of 15.1 LESS than private counterparts.

Graph from Economic Policy Institute

The sharp rise in the teacher pay gap coincides with decreases in student achievement and the rest of the numbers touted by education “reformers” as proof that teachers are coddled and, yes, “overpaid.”

In 2006, public school teachers earned 15.1% lower weekly earnings than other employees with comparable education credentials and experience earned. In 1996, this wage disadvantage was only 4.3% (see Chart). Although the wage disadvantage for both male and female teachers has grown substantially over the last 10 years, in 2006 the gap was far larger among males (25.5%) than females (10.5%).

What happened? The earnings gains that benefited college-educated (and other) workers during the late 1990s appear to have bypassed teachers. Moreover, in recent years, real wages have stagnated for the average college graduate, and teachers appeared to have fared even worse.

This erosion of teacher pay relative to those of other opportunities affects the trends in teacher quality that are so critical to improving education outcomes. If the goal is to improve the quality of the typical teacher, then raising teacher compensation is a critical component in any strategy to recruit and retain a higher-quality teacher workforce.

The presumption that there is scientific proof that teachers are “overpaid” and that the benefits afforded them as public employees are unfair to private workers is linked to the surge in legislative assaults on public schools and the rights of teachers.

As Daily Kos details, numerous states have passed or are considering unprecedented legislation that would subsidize charter schools through vouchers, limit collective bargaining rights for teachers, and impose stiff salary cuts through such programs as “merit pay.”

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