National Priorities
The USA is the greatest country in the world, and in his upcoming book, Rick DuFour will show why we are in the midst of the greatest generation of educators in American history. However, at the PLC summit this past March, I listened to keynotes that shocked me with hard cold facts.
Our educational system is always being compared to Finland’s, so how about these stats:
- US teachers earn 68% of the annual salary of college graduates.
- Finland teachers earn 109%.
- Finland teachers pay 4% of their college education costs.
- US teachers pay 65% and graduate with an average debt of nearly $30,000.
Our most valuable resource is our children, and their greatest advantage is their education. Today, our educators are teaching the students for the 2020+ job market, when 65% of all jobs in the economy will require a postsecondary education. Maybe it’s time we clarify what we want to be as a culture, and then prioritize how we are going to get there.
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