Thursday, January 6, 2011

Educated mess

The chart on the left - from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics - demonstrates the value of education quite clearly. But what about the value of educators?

Looking at the chart below - from the 2009 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study - teachers in the US rank 26th (out of 33 countries) in their pay as a ratio to GDP.
Combining the information from these two charts, it could safely be assumed that many of the best educated people in this country are not teaching. Which begs the question, how stupid can we be?

Fortunately, things are starting to change - in Kentucky, at least - where a bill is being promoted to pay advanced science and math teachers a little more. Read a little more about it here.

Of course, there's more to education than just science and math. But it's a start:

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