a problem with teacher pay arguments

[a_priori]

Amid all the recent talk about state budgets, a very common claim is that teachers should be paid as much as possible. It’s hard to argue against this claim - what could possibly be wrong with paying teachers well? And yet the two main arguments advanced in favor of the claim are not entirely consistent

Comments

[fractal9091]

Well, the first argument kind of fails for me. Lots of people work hard and do valuable things; it would be great if we could just pay everyone more, but that's not how it works - the money has to come out of one person's pocket to go into another person's. The second argument could be extremely relevant, but really requires empirical evidence to show that when the supply of teachers increases, we're able to pick out the good ones.

However, many people seem to find pragmatic arguments offensive when used regarding an issue that they respond to on an emotional level. The first argument may be more likely to resonate with them.

I suppose those arguing for teacher pay are just hoping that the emotional people and the pragmatic people don't talk to each other! That could be a safe bet.

[a_priori]

I suppose the claim of the first argument is that teachers deserve higher pay than they presently receive, relative to other professions. So, perhaps teachers deserve to be paid as well as lawyers, or doctors, or dentists. Evening things out might require higher taxes on everyone (although probably not much higher).

I'm not sure that we have to treat the first argument as purely emotional. One might hold it on a principled basis. But then that principled basis may have difficulty reconciling with the pragmatic argument.