student-teachers should be paid

[liberalcapitalist]

http://www.jasonseagraves.com

Aspiring teachers attend college for up to five years, and then work for another five months (as student-teachers) without being paid, before entering a job market with few openings and a low starting salary. Is this how we demonstrate our commitment to education? I offer an alternative.

First, I support "teacher corps" programs in which aspiring teachers could receive full scholarships if they agreed to work in poor areas where they are needed most for a period of perhaps five years.

Secondly, I advocate increased federal funding to ensure higher teacher pay, build new schools, and hire more teachers. More buildings and more teachers means smaller class size, which is an essential element to providing superior education for all.

Finally, I propose the creation of a federal program to pay student-teachers a living wage. What other job requires you to work without pay for nearly six months? These student-teachers spend all day at school, and several hours each night writing lesson plans. They are expected to work nights and weekends in order to support themselves, but in doing so they risk exhaustion. This is simply unreasonable!

We need to tear down these barriers that discourage our best and brightest from entering the teaching profession, and do what we can in order to produce a crop of high quality new teachers.