By Braden Currey
Staff Writer
Great teachers make great schools. It’s that simple. Let’s hope California’s next governor, Jerry Brown, can figure that out.
Whether it is seen in the innovative inner-city charter schools featured in the documentary, “Waiting for Superman,” or successful suburban schools like Mira Costa, the recipe for educational success is the same: it all starts with the teachers.
How do we ensure that California’s schools have more great teachers? One important step in the right direction would be adjusting the budget in order to place a greater emphasis on education.
Currently, K-12 education makes up about 31% of the state’s budget, yet it affects a much larger part of the population. Meanwhile, Corrections and Rehabilitation makes up about 8% of the budget despite its minimal effect on the majority of the population.
We need to raise teachers’ salaries and hire more of them. California’s per pupil spending is among the lowest in the country. That needs to change. The recent $1.6 million grant to MBUSD from the state was a step in the right direction, but education funding needs to be increased across the board if we want our students to perform well.
California has the third highest pupil-to-teacher ratio nationwide, with 21.1 students per teacher, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics. Studies have shown that this is extremely detrimental to the education of California’s children. Project STAR, or Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio, highlighted a clear correlation between smaller class sizes and improved student learning.
Hiring more teachers would be a simple, certifiable way of improving California’s educational system as a result of reducing classroom size. Studies performed by the California Department of Education have also shown that smaller class sizes have more parent volunteers and are more on task than classes with more students.
Rather than targeting the “bad teachers” of our educational system that lag behind, we should create incentives for teachers to teach their students enthusiastically. The focus on “bad teachers” is a sideshow – the real mandate should be unleashing great teachers into California schools.
Encouraging teachers to work hard and rewarding them for their performance would promote a more competitive and productive educational system in California. More teachers and higher wages would be simple ways to improve California’s educational system as well, simply by directing less important budgetary measures toward education.
In the long term, the education of California’s youth matters much more to the state, as a whole, than the areas of the budget which education must compete with. While it might seem rational to cut the state’s education spending during these tough economic times, it will come back to hurt us in years if the core of our workforce lacks preparation.
Leave a Reply