Teaching shortage in NO
Take a look at this CNN article on trouble that New Orleans public schools are having in attracting teachers.
The idea of a compensating wage differential as at least as old as The Wealth of Nations, which Adam Smith (the father of modern economics) wrote in 1776.
Workers who work in jobs with more desirable conditions will accept lower wages than people who work in jobs with less desirable conditions. The gap between the wages of workers at different locations is though of a as a “compensating wage differential”. The additional wages are required to compensate the worker for working in less desirable conditions.
Why? The dynamics are simple. Suppose there are a number of identical workers, and two otherwise identical jobs. One job (think school) has a desirable characteristic, while another does not. If the wage started out the same in both schools, obviously people would be flocking to work at the school with the desirable characteristic rather than the school with the less desirable conditions. Principals would have many candidates to choose from at good condition schools, while principals at bad condition schools would have a difficult time attracting workers. In fact, there would be a shortage at bad condition schools and a surplus at good condition schools.
Now, some folks hoping to get a job at the good condition schools might offer to work at a slightly lower wage, or accept a lower wage, to avoid the bad condition school. So would others. We’d expect wages to fall at good schools. By the same token, some people would accept a job at the bad condition school if they were offered a higher wage. So would others. We’d expect wages to rise at bad schools.
Eventually, the size of the wage gap would change until there was no incentive to try to move from one type of school to the other. The “last†teacher would be indifferent between working at the good school or the bad school. The extra wages at the bad condition school would be just enough to compensate for the disutility associated with working under these bad conditions.
Now, back to the article…it points to a number of conditions in the public schools – all of which could be a source of a compensating wage differential: expensive housing prices, large class sizes, and violence in the area (and perhaps the school). The article points out public school district faces a shortage of workers, and further points out that “charter schools” don’t seem to be having a problem.
Some school officials even attempt appeal to potential teachers’ feelings of good will – hoping to get them to work in the public schools. Do you think their appeal to people’s good nature (“to their sense of adventure and desire to make a difference”) will be effective? I don’t think that will work. If you do, may I appeal to your sense of adventure to mow my grass? There must be a better way…
What does this information in the article tell you about the wage structure in the teaching market in New Orleans? How can the public schools solve the teaching “shortage? In fact, what is the only way they can solve the problem?
–CT
January 26th, 2007 at 11:22 am
The CNN article and your summation are a quick lesson in textbook free market economics in a nutshell.
Crap jobs can be filled in two ways – either add benefits until the nasty aspects are offset making the job attractive, or by accepting a lower level of employee than would otherwise be acceptable.
Schools with half of the staff as first year teachers? Roving Guards who are assaulted & beaten by the students?
Have the inmates taken over this asylum?
Of course the current application of “Public Education” is a perversion of the original free market intent.
Somehow over time the ideal that a student WHO WANTED TO ATTEND basic schooling and therefore the State would provide an educational opportunity was socialized into the modern system where students are “ordered” to attend. We should not be in the least bit amazed at the results of compulsory education.
NO should return to its free market origins, and if the schools cannot be staffed, close them.
If the city cannot support itself, then wind it down – close it, shutter it, brun it to the ground, but do not pour our tax dollars into a loosing proposition.
Natural Selection & Free Market activity can correct the NO teacher situation, not tax dollars, mandates or pleading to the goodwill of newbie teachers.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:38 am
Stuff like this makes me kind of angry. I mean, people take jobs that they do not like everyday. From the garbage truck driver, to the mail man who is chased by stray dogs; people do things they don’t want to do. I think when people chose to spend time doing something they “love,” they should not complain when the conditions are not to their liking. If everything went the way we wanted, we would all be crazy and content all at the same time. Teachers are intelligent enough, obviously, to realize the conditions that they may be face with in pursuing a job in thier choice of profession. I may agree that teachers should get paid more, but not because of the way students act in school. I believe as a person who teaches the leaders of tomorrow, they should be entitled to a raise and a little higher bonuses just like the next guy. I just think that it should be given on merit and not on pity. They can’t feel like they deserve it just because they put up with bad children and they are teaching in “rough” neighborhoods. I think more attention should also be drawn to the fact that parents today need to be aware of the fact that they are raising their kids wrong. Everyone knows that behavior starts at home, and there should be more family counseling given and more reports given to parents, and more parent teacher meetings. When we start connecting more with the parents and getting them to care, then we will see results! People won’t complain so much about how they put up with kids and how they deserve more money because of it.