The price of education

by ​Gabriella Gatchalian

A rally from Charleston, West Virginia in which a teacher’s poster demonstrates the reasons into why teachers deserve higher pay. Credits: Scott Heins/Bloomberg via Getty Images

     Teachers are bestowed the power to teach students skills that are necessary in becoming contributing citizens of their community, however, with great power comes less acknowledgement. It is a well known fact that educators gets paid the least, even for their significant contributions to the nation. The reasons behind  teachers receiving less pay is a complicated case, as it involves questioning the system behind the scenes of education.
     All across the nation, various rallies in regards to teachers’ pay have come to light. On August 15, 2018, one of the more recent teachers’ pay rallies occurred in Western Washington.  Teachers from different school districts in the Western Washington area argued that because of the growing population of students attending their districts and the rising costs of living, they are deserving of an updated pay. The noticeable growth of student population results to a great increase of responsibility towards teachers; however, due to the complicated structure that surrounds the American education system, the growing expectations does not justify a raise in teachers’ salaries. The American education system is set in a way that the entire education board is a hierarchy: those who are at the top have their voices heard louder in regards to the curriculum and overall management of the entire system, while those who are at the bottom are simply forced to follow the rules placed.
     Indeed, throughout the deterioration of time, education has been institutionalized [and in several occasions manipulated] causing the various branches of the educational board to grow. Because of this, the distribution of the budget has become a complicated issue. The guarantee of quality education is from teachers, the very purpose of school is through the education that is provided by teachers. Which is why it is so sickening to watch this wretched system prioritize the salary of those who barely converse the students directly, of those who rarely experiences the stress that is involved with countless grading, of those who rarely contributes to the process of education. Teachers deserve more credit, more payment for their arduous job, they are essential in the process of creating better citizens of society and deserve more from what they are currently receiving.
     Analyzing the complicated reasons behind the [corrupted] branches of the educational board leads to the a complicated question, what does this nation prioritize? The distribution of salary is often based on a hierarchy instead of the amount of contributions that a citizen commits to the nation, there are times when such system is reasonable, but with the case of education, such system deserves to be eliminated. Education is essential, every single individual in the United States of America has the ability to receive primary and secondary education. As the population of students taking advantage of such ability is growing, the  teachers behind each [public] school in America deserves to receive better pay.

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