Burke, Lindsey. Are Public School Teachers Overpaid? The Heritage Foundation, 2011.
Lindsay Burke’s question of whether public school teachers are overpaid is a valid one. The author states that, on average, public school teachers are earning less than credentialed non-teachers. As opposed to university education years, the wage difference becomes insignificant when non-teachers and teachers are compared using cognitive ability objective measures. Burke presents clearly that public school teachers earn more than private school teachers. She provides an example to show that teachers are overpaid compared to other jobs. The author holds that when a worker shifts from non-teaching jobs to teaching jobs, they receive a wage increment of 9 percent. On the other hand, when teachers change to the non-teaching job, then they roughly experience a 3 percent wage reduction. This is evident that teachers are more overpaid than other workers; that is why their wages are reduced when they move to non-teaching jobs. Burke mentions that teachers also enjoy several benefits that other workers do not seem to have; teachers’ total compensation is 52 percent greater than fair market levels.
The writer is called Lindsey Burke, who is a senior policy analyst in domestic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation. Based on the presentation, Burke’s audiences are the professional who may be interested in changing their professions for better payments and benefits. The main content of the argument is that teachers are best paid compared to other non-teaching workers. The first evidence concerning this argument is that when teachers change to non-teaching jobs, they get subjected to wage decrement, while non-teaching workers get a wage increment for becoming teachers. Similarly, the author also argues that public school teachers’ compensation is greater than 52 percent greater than fair market levels compared to other professions. The source by Burke answers the question ‘are public teachers overpaid?’ in two main ways. It answers the question by illustrating that teaching is the best-paid profession. It also provides other benefits that non-teaching workers do not enjoy, such as overgenerous pensions, extensive retirement healthcare, and job security.
Work Cited
Burke, Lindsey. Are Public School Teachers Overpaid? The Heritage Foundation, 2011.