Education–the backbone of our citizenry– might be the most important service we and our country could offer. So why are the stewards of education underpaid and under-appreciated?! One school is taking that issue head on through a simple but innovative route to changing the education system– creating a school that offers value and incentive to good teachers the way the rest of our economy always has :: monetarily. It’s called  The Equity Project Charter School (TEP) and if you haven’t read the New York Times article about it yet, perhaps you’ve heard the buzz around (or seen the drool from educational friends and associates over) the $125,000 salaries they’ll offer. Acording to the front page in today’s Times, the school will:
“open in September 2009 in Manhattan’s Washington Heights community, and it will aim to enroll middle school students at risk of academic failure. Students with the lowest test scores will be given admissions priority. In order to recruit the country’s top teachers to work with these at-risk students, the school’s founding principal will cut administrative costs and put a higher percentage of the school’s public funding into teacher salaries. He’s also seriously
raising teacher qualifications, offering teachers a potential $25,000 bonus, and expanding the school day and work year for teachers. The principal will make $90,000. There will be no vice principal.”
We’ve all seen talented teachers in high risk schools or otherwise do their time and move on to more lucrative careers, burn out or become frustrated by the lack of support or motivated and quality colleagues. Not to say we’re believers in the “free market”, but definitely think that’s power in monetary incentive (paired with education methods and policy). Think about it.. you always value what you pay for.
So why not give teachers a chance to get rich from teaching? Education creates value for our society and country (goodness knows we need that now), so why not give them a peice of the pie they’re helping to bake. Now that’s all American.
As a Charter school, they don’t get a school building from the gov’t, so they’re looking for donations for their facility. You can donate here or let us know if you want to help.