Quote:Teachers are given the power to educate children from the ages of 3 to 18, to help kids grow socially, and to shape students’ perceptions of the world. Despite this level of responsibility, teachers aren’t treated with the same prestige as doctors, lawyers, or professional athletes. At the same time, teachers are being asked to do more. They play critical roles in the ongoing implementation of Common Core standards and the effort to better serve a growing population of English language learners, for example. 

And in many states, they’re doing all of this with a stagnant, if not shrinking, education budget. “The hypocrisy is that you are trusting me with all of these things during my day job, but you are not trusting me to have the voice to shape my day job,” Mary Cathryn Ricker, the executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, said at event last week aimed at figuring out how to elevate the teaching profession...  One of most glaring challenges to attracting people to the teaching profession is the low pay that teachers receive. Teacher salaries are 40 percent lower (at $36,141) than other professions that require college degrees, according to the 2011 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development paper, “Building a High Quality Teaching Profession.”