Rampant Capitalism - Part II: How it has affected education in the US

For those of you who missed it, I urge you to read my earlier post:

Rampant Capitalism: A Detriment to Society in the US

Before moving forward, you might notice that I changed the title of the previous post. Although I do strongly believe that rampant capitalism could lead to the death of the US as we know it, I decided that the revised title was more appropriate.

Education is the single most important investment we can make in our own future. Yet, we pay teachers the same as what we pay garbage collectors. According to Simply Hired, the average salary of a garbage collector is $43,000 per year. Simply Hired also indicates that the average teacher salary is $43,000 per year. CBSalary.com shows similar results for both teachers and garbage collectors. In the meantime, professional ball players (football, basketball, baseball, etc), actors, and other professionals with much less important jobs than teachers are making millions of dollars. Where are our priorities when we treat a ball player or actor like a god and, in contrast, a teacher like an undesirable? Seriously, many people go weak in the knees, cry with joy, and would give their right arm to just shake hands with a ball player or actor. Yet, many people don't even bother getting involved with their children's teachers. It's no wonder they are seen as "less important" or "undesirable" and, thus, do not earn the wages they deserve. Lawyers are a dime a dozen. It's harder to find a good lawyer than it is a good doctor. Yet, lawyers, in general, are paid twice as much as teachers. In fairness, Simply Hired indicates $64,000 as an average salary for a lawyer, but that's still over $20,000 more than what the average teacher earns!

The bottom line: I strongly feel that the current starting pay for a teacher should be about $45,000. In contrast, the average pay should be about $55,000 and the cap at the high end about $65,000. Please keep in mind that I am referring to primary and secondary school teachers and not college or university professors.

Teachers put in much more than 40 hours per week; even Pre-K teachers! Sure, they might only be at the school for 8 hours per day, but they will spend an additional average of 3 hours per day grading papers, preparing lessons, making games and such for younger children, and organizing their stuff. So, that's 11 hours per day or 55 hours per week (not including time they spend doing work related stuff on the weekend)! Yet, they do not generally get paid for overtime. Nor due they get reimbursed for much of the money they spend on supplies. They might get an "allowance" of $100 to $200 per year for supplies in which they will be reimbursed. Yet, they'll easily spend 4 to 5 times that between paying for printer paper, printer ink, supplies to make decorations, borders, boards, etc. All of this comes out of their pocket! While it's not unreasonable to expect someone to invest a little bit in their job, their pay should be at a level such that they could do that and still live comfortably.

OK, I have given you a couple of examples of how rampant capitalism has affected education in the US. However, I'd like to really hit the nail on the head. Rather than CEO's of giant corporations hording money by the billions, they should reinvest in their community. Rather than having a net income of $5 billion per year or more, they should reinvest 95% (that's right, I said ninety five percent!) of that net income back in their community. After all, a net income of $250 million is still enough to live quite comfortably. For example, S. (Sam) Robson Walton's net worth as of March 2011 is $21 billion. Let's say that his net annual income is 0.5% of that; $105 million. He would still take home $10.5 million if he reinvested 90% of that income back into the community. If the hundreds of other billionaires joined him, this would help communities become more prosperous. It would give schools districts the much needed funds to keep their schools on the cutting edge of technological advancement. Thus, giving children the opportunity to have hands on experience with the latest technology. A high school education got you a lot further 50 to 60 years ago than it has since then. Also, back then, those who went to college could essentially write their own ticket. Thus, the overall success of generation 11 (those born between 1920 and 1940). Now, even a Bachelor of Science degree doesn't guarantee you a job. What happened? Our priorities shifted. Over the past 50 years, we went from a society who saw the importance of education to a society where idolizing ball players and actors are more important. Thus, they're making millions while the vast majority of adults between the ages of 25 and 45 are struggling to survive. We need to stop investing so much in a "pastime" and start investing more in our future!

This has to start as a grass roots effort. Parents need to step up to the plate and treat teachers as investments instead of "investing" so much in pastimes. Can't afford to give money? No problem. Offer services. Offer to construct new playgrounds so kids can do more physical activities. Offer to do repairs on air conditioning units. Many schools have teachers and kids working under deplorable conditions like 80+ degree classroom temperatures due to non-working air conditioning. Offer to form a parent group to help make schools safer. Talk to teachers and do things to let them know that you care! Parents could also take action to encourage companies to reinvest more in their communities by supporting education.

In the long run, this would trickle up through local, state, and federal governments. Then, hopefully, the federal government would force CEO's currently earning a net income of $500 million or more to reinvest at least 70% of it back into their community or pay a penalty by being taxed up to 95%! Does this sound like socialism? Well, maybe it is a flavor of socialism. However, companies can't just take from society. They need to give too! And not just "pocket change"! I strongly feel that this is the only way that the US will continue to have a strong, successful middle class in the long run. Otherwise, we'll end up like countries in South America and Africa with 10,000 people raking in the dough and millions of others scraping to survive.

In closing, I'd like to elaborate upon some of the comments that I made in my previous post regarding universities. I didn't mean to imply that the top 10 universties were the only good universities. My main point was that most people do not get to attend the "best universities". Thus, all of them, including the smaller community colleges, need to strive to provide the best higher education can offer so that we can continue to compete on a global level. There are lots of good universities. University of Virginia, University of North Carolina Asheville, Virginia Tech, and Johns Hopkins just to name a few. In fact, the inventor of the analog synthesizer, Robert Moog, taught at UNCA during his later years. Even Christopher Newport University has had some excellent professors over the years. Companies reinvesting in their communities would also help those seeking higher education by ensuring that their local colleges and universities have the best equipment and professors to teach young adults what they need to know to succeed in a given field.