“Spending has grown at ten times the rate of enrollment. Thus, we are now spending almost three times more per child, in inflation-adjusted dollars, to educate our children than in 1970. Most of the money has gone to either increase the pay of educators or for an increase in the number of adults working in our public education system."

Don Nielsen, Program Chair of the American Center for Transforming Education, notes in Every School that in today’s education system, “learning takes a back seat to time. The clock drives what occurs and, as a consequence, students soon learn that their learning and understanding is secondary to the teacher’s need to cover the material.”

“I am a fool to do this job.” So states one teacher in the PDK Poll as reported by EducationWeek. The comment reflects the fact that teacher compensation is the number one complaint of the teachers polled. In fact, of the 556 teachers polled, 55% of teachers said they would strike for higher compensation.”

As Max C. Eden aptly states (National Review, July 30, 2019) when it comes to education, “money matters, but not if it’s simply tossed into a dysfunctional district.” The issue he highlights is not necessarily that teachers are underpaid, but that we hire too many non-teachers.